A Comparative Study on the Factors Affecting the Successful Aging between Users and Non-users of Kyung-ro-dang for Community Care Policy Activation / 보건행정학회지

BACKGROUND@#The purpose of this study was to identify the status of Successful Aging among the elderly aged 65 and over in rural areas and to compare factors related with Successful Aging between “kyung-ro-dang” users and non-users.@*METHODS@#A total of 181 elderly aged 65 or older were selected from four districts (Heung-upri, Mejiri, Sajerri, and Daeanri) of Wonju city. A survey method using face to face interviews was applied to collect information. Successful aging was measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale using the successful aging scale developed for the Korean elderly, which indicates the higher the score, the higher the level of successful aging. Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were computed; the level of significance was set at 5%. Hierarchical polynomial regression was applied to find out the factors associated with successful aging.@*RESULTS@#Of the total, 112 elders used kyung-ro-dang and 69 elders who did not use kyung-ro-dang. The level of successful aging of the elderly was higher among kyung-ro-dang users than non-users. The factors related to successful aging among kyung-ro-dang users were walking and social participation. Users who walk more than 4 times per week and social participation activities have a higher level of satisfaction. In the case of non-users, a higher level of monthly income, having a spouse, social support, and social participation associated with a higher level of successful aging.@*CONCLUSION@#Monthly income, social participation, and social factors were found to be related to successful aging along with physical and mental health conditions among the elderly in rural areas. Therefore, it can be concluded that income, social as well as mental and physical factors, are more critical for successful aging in the rural community care in Korea.

Determinants of North Korean Refugees' Trust in South Korea Health Service / 보건행정학회지

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of North Korean refugees' trust in South Korea health service. METHODS: This study surveyed 168 North Korean refugees aged 19 and over living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Gangwon. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, analysis of variance, and hierarchical regression analysis to analyze the effect on the trust of refugees. RESULTS: The difference analysis showed statistically significant difference according to duration of residence and employment status. The determinants of North Korean refugees' trust in South Korea health services were duration of residence, basic communication skills, health communication skills, and experience of health service. CONCLUSION: In order to increase the trust of North Korean defectors in South Korea medical services, it is necessary to resolve communication problems and improve the satisfaction of health services. For this, the interpreter service should be activated. And specific education should be given to the North Korean refugees about the health care system and the utilization methods of health service in Korea.

Job Stress and Organizational Effectiveness of Dental Technicians / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between job stress and the variables associated with the organizational effectiveness of dental technicians. METHODS: The job stresses were divided into the following six components; somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and hostility. The organi-zational effectiveness variables in this study included job satisfaction, occupational commitment, organizational commitment and intent to leave. The sample used in this study consisted of 248 dental technicians working in hospitals and dental laboratories. The data were collected with self-administered questionnaires between March 16 and April 29 in 2002, and the results analyzed with ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Firstly, job stress of dental technicians was found to be significantly different in relation to the number of workers at the workplace and the working hours. The level of job stress was the highest when the number of workers were more than 10, or when the daily working hours were over 12. Secondly, of the six variables of job stress, five variables of somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and hostility were found to have significant negative correlations with job satisfaction. Thirdly, all six job stress variables were found to have significant negative correlations with the occupational and organizational commitments of the dental technicians. Finally, depression was the only job stress variable found to have a significant effect on the dental technicians' intent to leave. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that personal and organizational efforts are very important to improve the organizational effectiveness in reducing work related stress. Organizational support, especially for managing the depression of dental technicians is recommended.

Factors Associated with Stress Symptoms In Korean Dental Laboratory Technicians / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the factors associated with symptoms from job stress among Korean dental laboratory technicians. METHODS: We collected the data of 786 technicians for life-style, job stressor, social support, self-esteem, personality, and various dimension of stress symptoms included roomatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and hostility by self-administerd questionnaire. Global severity index of dental technician (GSID) was calculated by total sum of sub-dimension. RESULTS: We used 80 percentile as a cut-off point, and got the 81.5 % of sensitivity, 86.1 % of specificity by receiver operating characteristic curve. The odds ratios of various factors in high group of GSID compared with low group were 1,49(95 % Cl 1.00-2.00) for smoker, 1,53 (1.06-2.21) for unhealthy group, 6,69 (4.74-9.44) for work overload, 8.34(5.82-11.97) for work demand, 9.89 (6.76-74.94) for work process, 8.27 (5.80-11,79) for work environment, 5.82 (4.04-8.39) for interpersonal relationship, 8.34 (5.82-11.97) for occupational conflict, 5.70 (4.04-8.04) for labor remuneration, 7.58 (5.37-10.71) for role conflict, but 0.39 (0.27-0.57) for social support, 0.41 (0.29-0.60) for self-esteem. By multiple logistic regression, factors were significantly associated with GSID were age, working area, role overload, work demand, work procedure, physical environment, occupational conflict, role conflict, social support, personality traits. CONCLUSIONS: Factors associated with symptoms from stress were role overload, work demand, work procedure, occupational conflict, interpersonal relationship, labor remuneration and role conflict in Korean dental laboratory technicians. It is suggested that health promotion program to reduce job stress and to enforce social support and self-esteem should be developed.

Treatment Process and Outcomes of Brain Injuried ER Patients / 예방의학회지

Injuries and infectious diseases have been the most important public health problems since the beginning of human life. Injuries result in death of about 30,000 people each year in South Korea. In terms of years of life lost, injuries are considerably more costly than either heart disease or cancer. In terms of cost - both the direct costs of care and the indirect costs to individuals, families, and societies of a diminished life - injuries are among the most expensive of all social problems. The main purposes of this study are (1) to describe the outcomes as well as treatment process of brain injured patients and (2) to identify the factors impacting on length of stay during hospitalization and hospital fees. The research method used in this study was to review the medical records of five hundreds brain injured cases using systemic random sampling. The multiple logistic regression was administered to identify the factors impacting on the outcomes. The results are as follow: (1) the consultation rate was found to be 72.9% while referral rate was 11.2%; (2) nearly 30% of the respondents were hospitalized over 30 days; (3) multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that the determinants influencing LOS were number of consultations, number of lab tests, and surgery; (4) the determinants of hospital fee were severity of brain injury, gender of patients, number of consultations, number of lab tests, and surgery.

Symptomatic Improvement in Patients with Perennial Allergic Rhinitis Following Laser Turbinate Surgery / 대한이비인후과학회지

Laser surgery of allergic rhinitis has been reported to be successful by several authors, but there has been little study on factors that may help the physician select patients who are likely to respond to surgery. The aim of this study was to assess the factors that influence the surgical outcome of laser surgery for allergic rhinitis patients. We analyzed the data from questionnaire in 211 patients who were diagnosed as perennial allergic rhinitis and underwent CO2 laser surgery in our department from October 1993 to October 1995. All nasal symptoms including nasal obstruction, watery rhinorrhea and sneezing were significantly improved. Improvement rates do not differ according to the number of surgery, follow-up period, number of positive allergens and residency type. The results of this study suggest that laser surgery might improve nasal symptoms in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis. There was no significant difference in improvement rate in terms of both number of surgery and follow-up period.

The stress Buffering Effects of Medical Information Among: The Diabetic Patients / 대한의료정보학회지

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of medical information in buffering the effect of illness symptoms on diabetic patients' stress. The data were collected by administering questionnaire interviews with 172 diabetic patients who visited or were hospitalized at Severance Hospital or Wonjoo medical center. This paper, at first, examines the dimensions of stress. Using factor analysis, I find that stress has three components: 1) internal mood; 2) external mood; 3) malaise. Second, I examine the interaction effect of medical information with illness symptoms on stress. Results from regression analysis with interaction terms indicate: 1) that as the number of illness symptoms increase, stress level increases for patients with low level of medical information; 2) that as the number of illness symptoms increase, stress level decreases slightly for patients with high level of medical information. This paper shows clearly the stress buffering effect of medical information.