PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychopathological influence of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Korean 19-year-old males. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors compared the Korean military multiphasic personal inventory (KMPI) military profiles of 211 CHD cases (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, or combined CHD) with the KMPI profiles of 300 normal controls. The CHD group was also divided according to whether or not the subjects had undergone open cardiac surgery in order to evaluate the psychopathological effects of an operation among the subjects. RESULTS: A decreased result on the faking-good response scale and an increased result on the faking-bad response were observed in the CHD group compared to the control (p<0.01). The neurosis scale results, including anxiety, depression and somatization symptoms, were markedly increased in the CHD group compared to the control (p<0.01). The severity level of personality disorder was also increased in the CHD group (p<0.001). Differences in KMPI scale scores were not related to open cardiac surgery history. CONCLUSION: In this study, young males with CHD tended to report more abnormal results on the multiphasic personal inventory test in comparison to normal subjects, suggesting that CHD may be related to psychopathology in young males in Korea. Therefore, clinicians are recommended to evaluate the psychopathological traits of patients with CHD.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Heart Defects, Congenital/*psychology ; Humans ; Male ; *Personality Inventory ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) in Korean patients with eating disorders and healthy controls, and to investigate cultural differences of EDI-2 between a Korean group and a North American standardization sample. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Korean version of the EDI-2 was prepared after comprehensive clinical assessment of Korean patients with eating disorders (n=327) as well as female undergraduates (n=176). Results were compared between eating disorder subgroups (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating disorders not otherwise specified) and those of a North American standardization sample and healthy controls. RESULTS: The results showed that the Korean EDI-2 had adequate internal consistency (0.77-0.93) and discriminated well between patients with eating disorders and healthy controls on all subscales. Significant differences in EDI-2 subscale scores between the eating disorder groups and the healthy control group were observed; however, there was no discernible difference among the eating disorder subgroups. When compared with a North American standardization sample, the Korean control group showed significantly higher scores for drive for thinness and asceticism. When patient groups were compared, the Korean group showed significantly lower scores for perfectionism. CONCLUSION: As expected, the results accurately reflected psychometric properties of the Korean version of EDI-2 for eating disorder patients in Korea. These findings also suggest that common characteristics for the eating disorder exist as a whole rather than with significant difference between each subgroup. In addition, significant differences between the Korean and the North American groups for both patients and controls also demonstrated specific cultural differences.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; *Cross-Cultural Comparison ; Eating Disorders/*psychology ; Female ; Humans ; *Psychometrics ; Young Adult

Kinship testing in forensic casework is largely based on a likelihood ratio (LR) approach with short tandem repeat (STR) markers; however, in order to efficiently identify potential relatives in a specific population, the threshold values for kinship prediction should be determined by analyzing the kinship index distributions of the population in question. In this study, 250,000 DNA profiles were simulated using allele frequencies at 20 autosomal STR loci in Koreans, then the LRs were calculated for true close relatives and unrelated pairs. The LR distributions in related and unrelated pairs under a given relationship were compared in 2 sets of 13 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and 20 STR profiles. Using 13 CODIS STRs, true relatives in parent/child and full-sibling relationships were sufficiently discriminated from unrelated pairs with LR thresholds of 1,000 and 100, respectively. However, the CODIS STRs lacked the discriminatory power to differentiate between related and unrelated pairs in uncle/nephew and first cousin relationships due to high false-positive and false-negative rates with a LR threshold of 10. Increasing the number of STR loci to 20 increased discrimination of close relatives, but high false results remained in uncle/nephew and first cousin relationships. The kinship index data from this study will help make decisions on various kinship testing and familial searching in Koreans.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA ; Gene Frequency ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats

Successful lacrimal surgery requires the greatest familiarity with anterior and superior portion of the intranasal cavity. Some racial differences exist between Asians and Caucasians in nasal surgical anatomy. Eighty four subjects of eighty two patients who received dacryocytorhinostomy between February 1991 and October 1995 were studied retrospectively. Of the 84 subjects, the middle turbinectomy was required in 65 cases(77.4%). An anatomical success rate of 94.7% and functional success rate of 83.3% were obtained over a 7.9 month follow-up period. Frequency of turbinate surgery was relatively high because large, anteriorly located middle turbinate is more frequent in Asians than Caucasians. In many cases, knowledge of intranasal surgical anatomy and intranasal procedures are required for successful lacrimal surgery.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Dacryocystorhinostomy* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Recognition (Psychology) ; Retrospective Studies ; Turbinates

The Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) systems including DYS391, DYS389I/II, DYS439, DYS438, DYS437, DYS19, DYS392, DYS393, DYS390 and DYS385 (PowerPlex Y System, Promega) were investigated in 569 Korean males (the Central region). A total of 473 haplotypes were observed in the 569 individuals studied, of which 426 (90.06%) were unique. The overall haplotype diversity for the 12 Y-STR loci was 0.9985, and the discrimination capacity was 0.8313. The gene diversity varied from 0.2586 at DYS391 to 0.9558 at DYS385. We scrutinized for the presence of non-standard (intermediate and duplicated) alleles among Y chromosome STR haplotypes. Three mutations were identified in three short tandem repeat (STR) loci DYS439, DYS19 and DYS385. In DYS439, we found a new mutant allele that added an A at upstream of the first GATA motif of the repeat region. The allele was designated 11.1 according to the sequence structure. We also detected a duplicate allele in DYS19 and a triplicate allele at DYS385 locus.
Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Haplotypes* ; Humans ; Male ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Y Chromosome

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to improve the quality of items on the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination by developing and evaluating case-based items that reflect integrated nursing knowledge. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study to develop new case-based items. The methods for developing test items included expert workshops, brainstorming, and verification of content validity. After a mock examination of undergraduate nursing students using the newly developed case-based items, we evaluated the appropriateness of the items through classical test theory and item response theory. RESULTS: A total of 50 case-based items were developed for the mock examination, and content validity was evaluated. The question items integrated 34 discrete elements of integrated nursing knowledge. The mock examination was taken by 741 baccalaureate students in their fourth year of study at 13 universities. Their average score on the mock examination was 57.4, and the examination showed a reliability of 0.40. According to classical test theory, the average level of item difficulty of the items was 57.4% (80%–100% for 12 items; 60%–80% for 13 items; and less than 60% for 25 items). The mean discrimination index was 0.19, and was above 0.30 for 11 items and 0.20 to 0.29 for 15 items. According to item response theory, the item discrimination parameter (in the logistic model) was none for 10 items (0.00), very low for 20 items (0.01 to 0.34), low for 12 items (0.35 to 0.64), moderate for 6 items (0.65 to 1.34), high for 1 item (1.35 to 1.69), and very high for 1 item (above 1.70). The item difficulty was very easy for 24 items (below −2.0), easy for 8 items (−2.0 to −0.5), medium for 6 items (−0.5 to 0.5), hard for 3 items (0.5 to 2.0), and very hard for 9 items (2.0 or above). The goodness-of-fit test in terms of the 2-parameter item response model between the range of 2.0 to 0.5 revealed that 12 items had an ideal correct answer rate. CONCLUSION: We surmised that the low reliability of the mock examination was influenced by the timing of the test for the examinees and the inappropriate difficulty of the items. Our study suggested a methodology for the development of future case-based items for the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Humans ; Licensure* ; Nursing* ; Observational Study ; Students, Nursing

Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Child ; Child Abuse ; prevention & control ; psychology ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; trends ; Humans

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present study were to explore the occurrence of childhood trauma and importantly to determine the impacts of childhood trauma on psychosocial features in a Chinese sample of young adults. METHODS: A survey was carried out in a group of 555 university students by using Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Dysfunctional Attitudes Questionnaire (DAS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). The moderate-severe cut-off scores for CTQ were used to calculate the prevalence of childhood trauma, and then psychosocial features were compared between individuals with and without childhood trauma. RESULTS: A proportion of 18.6% of university students had self-reported childhood trauma exposures. Subjects with childhood trauma reported higher scores of SDS, SAS, DAS, and psychoticism and neuroticism dimensions of EPQ (t=4.311–5.551, p < 0.001); while lower scores of SSRS and extraversion dimension of EPQ (t=-4.061– -3.039, p < 0.01). Regression analyses further revealed that scores of SAS and DAS were positively (Adjusted B=0.211–0.230, p < 0.05), while scores of SSRS were negatively (Adjusted B=-0.273– -0.240, p < 0.05) associated with specific CTQ scores. CONCLUSION: Childhood trauma is still a common social and psychological problem. Individuals with childhood trauma show much more depression, anxiety, distorted cognition, personality deficits, and lower levels of social support, which may represent the social and psychological vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders after childhood trauma experiences.
Anxiety ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Cognition ; Depression ; Extraversion (Psychology) ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Young Adult*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to compare the food involvement scale (FIS) of American and Japanese consumers. In addition, the effects of familiarity, likability, and expectations on willingness to use intentions for block type sauce by nationality were evaluated. METHODS: A total of 149 and 112 American and Japanese consumers, respectively, completed the survey. Consumers were asked about familiarity, likability, expectation, willing to use intention, and usage frequency of block type sauce, food involvement scale (FIS), and demographic information. RESULTS: There were differences in the using frequency of block type sauce according to nationality, with consumers in Japan showing significantly higher frequency of using block type sauce than those in the United States (US) (p < 0.001). According to the FIS, US consumers were more focused on how to provide food than food, such as cooking process, table setting, and food shopping, compared to Japanese consumers. In addition, ‘expectation’ and ‘likability’ among US consumers and ‘expectation’ and ‘familiarity’ among Japanese consumers were positive attributes for willing to use intention (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In the case of the US consumers, ‘familiarity’ was not significant because the using frequency of the block type sauce was lower than that of Japanese consumers. In the case of the Japanese consumers, ‘likability’ was not significant because they enjoy cooking itself according to the FIS. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize positive attributes as a key factor for block type sauce, as well as to search for ways to apply marketing strategies based on attributes by nationality.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Cooking ; Ethnic Groups ; Humans ; Intention* ; Japan ; Marketing ; Recognition (Psychology) ; United States

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate how competitive orientation influences unethical decision-making (UDM) through relationship conflict and the moderating effect of hostile attribution bias. METHODS: This study was conducted using a self-report questionnaire. Data were collected from 727 employees in Chinese hospitals. For each variable, measures were adopted or adapted from existing literature. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. Common method variance was established using Harman's single-factor test. RESULTS: Competitive orientation is significantly and positively associated with relationship conflict (β = .36, p < .001) and UDM (β = .35, p < .001). Relationship conflict is significantly and positively associated with UDM (β = .51, p < .001). Relationship conflict partially mediates the relationship between competitive orientation and UDM. In addition, hostile attribution bias strengthens the positive relationship between competitive orientation and UDM through relationship conflict. CONCLUSION: This study provides some implications for hospital employees to deal with ethical dilemmas in decision-making. Hospital employees including nurses, physicians, and other health-care professionals should raise awareness of competitive orientation and adopt a cooperative approach to human relations. Effective training programs should be utilized to direct all hospital employees to depress hostile attribution bias whenever possible to everything in clinical practice.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Conflict (Psychology) ; Decision Making ; Education ; Ethics, Clinical ; Hostility ; Humans ; Methods