Relationships between Mental Health, Depression Level, and Internet Addiction among High School Students in Rural Communities / 農村醫學 地域保健

OBJECTIVES: This study is to offer basic data to understand the relationships between mental health, level of depression, and internet addiction of high school students in farming communities for developing a mental health management program for adolescents. METHODS: The survey was carried out on a convenience sample of 299 high school students in farming communities during May of 2008. Data analysis procedure included chi-square -test, t-test, Pearson correlation among Adolescent Mental Health & Problem-behavior Screening Questionnaire (AMPQ), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and Scales of Internet addiction (K-scales). RESULT: First, the level of mental health according to the AMPQ for subjects from this study showed problematic behavior was lower when compared to other researches. There were statistically significant differences according to the school type for externalization problems and overall problematic behavior. Based on gender, it was even more problematic for male students in regards to externalization problems. Secondly, the level of depression was relatively low : 5.1% for potential risk and 0.3% for high risk. Thirdly, a total of 96.9% were considered normal for Internet addition levels. 1.7% for potential risk, 1.4% for high risk; however, there was no statistically significant difference between each variable. Fourthly, there was a strong relationship between subjects AMPQ, level of depression and Internet addiction. As depression worsens, Internet addiction also becomes stronger. CONCLUSION: There is a need for awareness of the mental health of adolescents and precautionary measures, the development of a program for early treatment, adequate management, and decisions on the direction of treatment.

Development of a Measurement Tool System in Health and Medical Areas via the World Wide Web / 대한의료정보학회지

Scientific information databases produce insufficient and unsatisfactory levels of data for the specialized needs of researchers. Especially in the health and medical areas, researchers are looking for a measurement tool on the web that allows interaction between the database and the researcher for the production of new information through searching, accumulating, modifying, and deleting data. In this research paper, first a concrete explanation of the informational items in databases such as the types of measurement tool in the health and medical areas, their usage methods, their reliability and validity. Secondly, this report developed the service system of the measurement tool in the health and medical areas including functions of searching and answers of measurement information, functions in writing up information measurements from the web, and the user's friendly system according to their accessing levels. This measurement tool system can be applied for digital data collection and analysis rapidly via the web.