This study investigated the changes in the health-related behaviors of adult women in Korea during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: Data from the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019- 2020) were analyzed. The participants were 4,848 women aged 19 to 64 years in 2019 and 2020. Data analysis using the complex sampling design was performed using SPSS 20.1. Results: Positive changes during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic in Korean adult women were found for improved subjective oral health perceptions (odds ratio [OR], 1.77; p<.001), increased moderate-intensity exercise in work and leisure activities (OR, 1.75; p<.001 and OR; 1.29, p=.004), and a decrease in secondhand smoke exposure at the workplace and in public places (OR, 0.64; p=.004 and OR, 0.60; p<.001). However, the following negative health behavior changes were found: decreased frequency of walking 5 days a week (OR, 0.81; p=.011) and an increase in unhealthy daytime sleep durations (OR, 1.40; p=006). Conclusion: Compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean adult women perceived their subjective dental health more positively during the COVID-19 pandemic, decreased their exposure to secondhand smoke at work and in public places, decreased walking, and increased sleep duration during the week. Since this study only compared data between 1 year before and after the start of the pandemic, it is necessary to investigate a longer period of time in the future. A future study should attempt to identify the factors related to changes in health behaviors caused by the pandemic.

Chronic diseases as well as a growing population of older adults are currently the leading cause of ill health and economic burden worldwide. Managing those diseases in one-on-one medical consultations poses substantial challenges due to limited time and resources in the current health care system. Various approaches have been taken to manage these conditions, most with limited success. Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are an innovative care delivery option to make the testing of alternative care modalities a prime concern. SMAs are individual medical consultations carried out in a group of patients with similar diseases by providing education, medication management, and disease monitoring. SMAs, since their initial conceptualization in 1998, have gained much popularity and adopted as one of the standard processes in many countries. Accumulated evidence-based studies show outcomes for increasing access to care, behavioral change facilitated through self-management education, maintained/better outcomes, physician productivity, and enhanced resource management. This review summarizes current evidence regarding the existing status of SMAs abroad. An extensive literature search was conducted on major electronic databases including PubMed and Google Scholar. This study suggests to explore and exploit the SMAs which have unique potential as a healthcare delivery innovation in Korea.

PURPOSE: This study was done to investigate differences in health behaviors by job stress level in male and female workers in a large-sized company. METHODS: Participants were 576 male and 228 female workers who completed questionnaires. Job stress was measured using the 'Short Form Korean Occupational Stress Scale (SF-KOSS)'. Health behaviors included smoking, alcohol consumption, regular exercise, and diet. Frequency, mean, SD, chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression using SAS version 9.1 were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Smoking, drinking and regular exercise rates were not different by job stress level in male or female workers. Only regular diet was significantly different by job stress level in male and female workers. From multivariate analysis, the alcohol consumption rates for female workers differed by marital status. Regular exercise rate was significantly related to age for male workers and type of employment for female workers. After adjusting for demographic and work-related characteristics, regular diet significantly differed by shift work for male workers and marital status and shift work for female workers. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study indicate that nursing interventions should be developed to manage job stress to improve diet habits for male and female workers in large-sized companies.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; Diet ; Employment ; Exercise ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Humans ; Industry ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Health ; Questionnaires ; Smoking ; *Stress, Psychological ; Workplace/*psychology

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to identify factors influencing physical activity among community-dwelling older adults with type 2 diabetes. The study design was based on the Theory of Triadic Influence. METHODS: A total of 242 older adults with type 2 diabetes participated in this study. Six variables related to physical activity in older adults, including self-efficacy, social normative belief, attitudes, intention, experience, and level of physical activity, were measured using reliable instruments. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation analyses, and a path analysis. RESULTS: The mean physical activity score was 104.2, range from zero to 381.21. The path analysis showed that self-efficacy had the greatest total effect on physical activity. Also, experience had direct and total effects on physical activity as well as mediated the paths of social normative beliefs to attitudes and intention to physical activity. These factors accounted for 10% of the total variance, and the fit indices of the model satisfied the criteria of fitness. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study reveal the important role of self-efficacy and past experience in physical activity in older adults with type 2 diabetes.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Attitude ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*physiopathology/psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Motor Activity/*physiology ; Personal Satisfaction ; Residence Characteristics ; Self Efficacy ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the problem of bone health and potential influencing factors of bone mineral density (BMD) for women across the life cycle of menopause. METHODS: Complex sampling design data analysis was performed on the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010 in order to identify the problems with bone health, BMD and its influencing factors in 3,499 women who answered the menopausal status. Women's life cycle was categorized by premenopausal, postmenopausal, and elderly. RESULTS: 35.1% of premenopausal women, 73.3% of postmenopausal women, and 96.0% of elderly women had problems with bone health that were related to low BMD. Influencing factors of BMD were residential area, alcohol drinking, and body mass index (BMI) for premenopausal women; age, residential area, education, marital status, income, and BMI for postmenopausal women; and age, education, and BMI for elderly women. CONCLUSION: Problems with bone health required to be considered as a major health problem in all women regardless their life cycle. Interventions to maximize BMD need to be developed by considering its influencingfactors across the women's life cycle.
Aged ; Alcohol Drinking ; Body Mass Index ; Bone Density* ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Cycle Stages* ; Marital Status ; Menopause ; Nutrition Surveys ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of shift work and hours of sleep on metabolic syndrome in Korean workers. METHODS: This study used the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data of 2014. The study included 1,579 Korean workers aged over 20. χ2 test, t-test, and hierarchical multiple logistic regression were used for statistical analysis of data. RESULTS: From the univariate analysis, hours of sleep, regular work, occupational group, sex, age, marital status, education, smoking, and self-rated health were significantly related to metabolic syndrome. After adjusting demographic, occupational, and health-related variables, workers with under 6 hours/day of sleep showed higher risk for metabolic syndrome (AOR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.01~2.44), and shift work was not significantly related to metabolic syndrome. Male laborers and workers aged 40 or older also showed higher risk for metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that workers with under 6 hours of sleep, male laborers and workers aged 40 or older are the risk groups of metabolic syndrome. Therefore, prevention and management program for metabolic syndrome should be implemented for this population.
Education ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Marital Status ; Nutrition Surveys ; Occupational Groups ; Smoke ; Smoking

Kimura's disease is a chronic inflammatory soft tissue disorder with peripheral eosinophila and high serum IgE. It might be associated with nephrotic syndrome. We report a 6-year-old boy with Kimura's disease and the concurrent steroid dependant minimal change nephrotic syndrome. With levamisole treatment fot 24 months, tumor progression and relapse of the associated nephrotic syndrome were not observed.
Child ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Levamisole ; Nephrosis, Lipoid ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Recurrence

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic obesity on the components of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) in adolescents. METHODS: This study used the fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2010 to 2011. The study included 859 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Descriptive statistics and simple and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted using SAS 9.2. RESULTS: Based on the results, adolescents with sarcopenic obesity had a higher risk of central obesity (AOR: 23.41, 95% CI: 12.76–43.97), high triglyceride (OR: 4.58, 95% CI: 2.69–7.79), low HDL-cholesterol (AOR: 2.66, 95% CI: 1.74–4.05), high blood pressure (AOR: 3.44, 95% CI: 1.37–8.68), and high fasting glucose (AOR: 2.37, 95% CI: 1.13–4.96) than their normal counterparts. Adolescents with non-sarcopenic obesity had a higher risk of central obesity (AOR: 19.75, 95% CI: 9.73–44.67), high triglyceride (OR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.22–7.81), and low HDL-cholesterol (AOR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.37–5.45) than normal youths, and these were not significantly related to high blood pressure and fasting glucose. CONCLUSION: Sarcopenic obesity was more related to the components of MetS than non-sarcopenic obesity. Since adolescents with sarcopenic obesity are a more vulnerable population, a prevention and management program for MetS and cardiovascular risk should be implemented in this population.
Adolescent* ; Fasting ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Nutrition Surveys ; Obesity* ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Sarcopenia ; Triglycerides ; Vulnerable Populations

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and satisfaction with volunteer work in a population of health care center volunteers. Ultimately, the results from this study would help to find ways to keep volunteers continuing their work. METHODS: The participants of this study were 179 volunteers who were affiliated with three health care centers located in Gyeonggi-do. Descriptive statistics and multi-stage regression were conducted to analyze data. RESULTS: Self-esteem was significantly associated with the satisfaction with volunteer activity. In addition, the relationship with clients rather than volunteers' general characteristics was also significantly related to the satisfaction with volunteer work. CONCLUSION: Therefore, it is necessary to increase a volunteer's self-esteem so that the volunteer can keep continuing his or her volunteering activities. Also, in order to promote good relationships between the volunteers and the clients, it will be important to teach communication skills to volunteers.
Delivery of Health Care ; Public Health

Since 2012, outbreaks of the Middle East respiratory coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported, including the Republic of Korea. To date, most of the people infected with the virus are adults. Herein we describe the clinical characteristics of cases of MERS-CoV infection among children. As of October 29, 2015, MERS-CoV has caused 34 pediatric infections, which accounts for 2.1% of all cases. The median age was 13 years (range 9 months to 17 years) and where gender has been reported (n=33), 57.6% cases were male. About half of the patients were asymptomatic and the majority of the symptomatic patients had respiratory symptoms. In general, the clinical outcome in children was favorable. Among the four patients who died of progressive pneumonia, three had documented comorbidities. MERS-CoV infection in children has a lower incidence and mortality compared to adults.
Adult ; Child* ; Comorbidity ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Coronavirus* ; Disease Outbreaks ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Male ; Middle East* ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Republic of Korea