In early 2018, the National Action Plan for Preventing Suicide was announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and related ministries. The Action Plan presents a realistic goal of reducing suicide mortality to two-thirds of the present level, which would make it 1.4 times higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (in contrast to current circumstances, in which it is 2.4 times higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average). Several public and private organizations are engaged in various suicide prevention activities. However, it is crucial for a seamless network to be formed, including government organizations, medical institutions, private organizations, and religious organizations. In medical settings, it is imperative that clinicians assess patients' risk of depression or suicide and arrange for a referral service. We need to connect modern social trends with classical mental health treatment modalities by using technologies such as smartphones and the internet. Strategies for research and development and for actual implementation must be established. Suicide prevention requires the active cooperation of not only mental health professionals, but also all physicians and health professionals. Experts in philosophy, sociology, economics, religion, and anthropology must also collaborate to find ways of affirming the importance of human life.
Anthropology ; Depression ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Internet ; Loneliness ; Mental Health ; Mortality ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Philosophy ; Referral and Consultation ; Smartphone ; Sociology ; Suicide

In the ever-changing medical environment, the social participation of medical doctors is becoming more necessary. Currently, there is not enough participation or action by doctors within our society due to reasons such as a lack of educational curriculum in this area. This study aimed to investigate medical students' opinions and attitudes about social participation and action. A total of 438 medical students were surveyed about their attitudes toward doctors' relations with the public, social participation, social action, and medical education for social participation or action. Regarding doctors' relations with the public, participants responded that the government (73.5%) and the media (82.0%) were causing social distrust of doctors, and more than 70% of the respondents answered that doctors were passive when it comes to social participation. When asked about social participation and social action, 76.7% of the students surveyed had experienced social participation, and 28.3% had experienced taking social action. A total of 73.4% of the students answered that medical education needs to be changed, and it is necessary to introduce subjects such as sociology and law to improve social participation and action. The results are significant in that they show medical students' thoughts on social participation and social action as doctors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We believe that a change of medical curriculum to promote active and collaborative social participation by doctors is necessary.
Curriculum ; Education, Medical ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Social Participation ; Sociology ; Students, Medical ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to clarify attributes, antecedents, and consequences of female sexual subjectivity. METHODS: Walker and Avant's concept analysis process was used to analyze 27 studies from the current literature that relates to female sexual subjectivity. A systematic literature review of women's study in sociology, psychology, theology, law, health science, and nursing was reviewed. RESULTS: The defining attributes of female sexual subjectivity were sexual self-awareness, sexual decision making, sexual desire, and good sexual communication with partner. The antecedents of female sexual subjectivity were social environment, sexual education, sexual experience, and interpersonal relationship. The consequences of female sexual subjectivity were safe sex, prevention of sexual victimization, and sexual satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Female sexual subjectivity is defined as sexual self-awareness, sexual decision making, sexual desire to seek sexual pleasure and safety, and effective communication with partner in terms of sexual behavior, sexual experience and sexual health. Based on these results, a scale measuring female sexual subjectivity is needed.
Crime Victims ; Decision Making ; Education ; Female* ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Methods* ; Nursing ; Orgasm ; Pleasure ; Psychology ; Reproductive Health ; Safe Sex ; Sexual Behavior ; Social Environment ; Sociology ; Theology ; Walkers*

No abstract available.
Face ; Pattern Recognition, Visual ; Human ; Sociology, Medical ; Facial Expression ; Facial Muscles ; Animals ; Biological Evolution ; Species Specificity

This study surveyed 506 medical students on their perception of life concept using an open-ended questionnaire. A constant comparative analysis of participants' written responses was conducted. The results revealed 3 main types and several sub-types of life concept. The main types included: humanities & sociology type, scientific type, and humanities · sociology & science mixed type. The humanities & sociology type had 6 sub-types: religious values, ethical values, limited time, social characteristics, consciousness · spirit · soul, and mixed type. The scientific type had 4 sub-types as follows: respiration & metabolism, genetic & reproduction, homeostasis & emergent property, and mixed type. The most prevalent type was the perception that life concept, ethical values in humanities & sociology type. The understanding of the concept of life is essential to medical students' learning and improvement of professional competence. These results may suggest a meaningful direction for medical education regarding the concept of life.
Consciousness ; Education, Medical ; Homeostasis ; Humanities ; Humans ; Learning ; Metabolism ; Professional Competence ; Reproduction ; Respiration ; Sociological Factors ; Sociology ; Students, Medical

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of sociodemographic factors in failure to complete outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (CR). METHODS: This was a retrospective study that used information obtained from the database of the cardiac rehabilitation department of a cardiac hospital in Iran. Data from 1,050 CR patients treated at the hospital between January 2001 and January 2013 was analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Only 49% of the patients completed the CR program. After adjustment for baseline variables, it was found that the following were significantly associated with failure to complete the CR program: illiteracy (p<0.001), old age (p<0.001), being an employee or retired (p<0.05), having a low capacity for exercise (p<0.001), depression (p<0.001), low anxiety (p<0.001), and not currently being a smoker (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Paying more attention to older patients with low literacy levels and limited exercise capacity, who are employed or retired, and who are not current smokers, and taking therapeutic measures to control psychological complications such as depression, may be effective in ensuring that patients complete outpatient cardiac rehabilitation.
Anxiety ; Demography ; Depression ; Literacy ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Iran ; Logistic Models ; Outpatients* ; Patient Dropouts ; Rehabilitation* ; Retrospective Studies ; Sociology

PURPOSE: This study was done to measure the level of social support, self-esteem, and empowerment and to identify any effect of social support and self-esteem on the empowerment of nurses. METHODS: The study design was a descriptive survey using questionnaires which were given to 381 nurses in C province. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regressions. RESULTS: The mean score for nurses' empowerment was 2.83+/-0.66. Seven individual characteristics, social support(family, meaningful persons, supervisors, and co-workers) and self-esteem accounted for 23.3% of the variance in nurses' empowerment. Prediction elements influencing empowerment of nurses were salary per month, self-esteem, and social support(supervisors). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that it is necessary to increase nurses' empowerment. Social support by supervisors and self-esteem were confirmed as important factors to increase nurses' empowerment. In addition, raising the monthly average income would increase empowerment of nurses.
Humans ; Power (Psychology)* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Sociology

BACKGROUND: The early stage of Alzheimer disease might show early memory impairment with normal general cognitive function. Our study aimed to investigate elderly with normal Korean version of mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) score and recall score of 0 for 1 year. We predicted that the patients would show different characteristics and would progress more rapidly compared with normal controls. METHODS: This study was based on the data from complete enumeration survey of Mapo-gu Regional Center for Dementia in 2009. We divided all subjects into three groups: subjects with normal K-MMSE scores and recall score of 0 were group 1-1 (n=152), subjects with abnormal K-MMSE scores were group 1-2 (n=64) and subjects with normal K-MMSE scores and recall score of 1 to 3 were group 1-3 (n=941). We compared basic demographics and social characteristics among the three groups. After 1 year (2010), the subjects in group 1-1 (90 out of 152) underwent follow-up examinations for dementia diagnosis. They were also divided into three groups (2-1, 2-2, 2-3) according to K-MMSE and recall scores. RESULTS: Group 1-1 showed different baseline characteristics compared with normal controls. After 1 year, 25.5% (23 out of 90) of the group 2-1 were diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment (n=16) or dementia (n=7). CONCLUSION: Our study suggested that subjects with normal K-MMSE scores but recall score of 0 are not entirely "normal". Further detailed evaluation might be needed if memory impairment is suspicious although the K-MMSE scores are within normal range.
Aged* ; Alzheimer Disease ; Dementia* ; Demography ; Diagnosis* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Memory ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Pilot Projects* ; Reference Values ; Sociology

BACKGROUND: Underweight is associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity. It is reported that the prevalence of underweight is increasing among Korean young women. However, there have been few studies on sociodemographic factors related to being underweight. This study was conducted to elucidate the sociodemographic characteristics of Korean underweight adults. METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional study of 7,776 adults aged 25 to 69 years using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2010. Study subjects were composed of underweight and normal-weight adults excluding overweight adults. Body mass index was calculated from measured height and weight. Health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and physical activity were surveyed through self-administered questionnaires, and socioeconomic status, marital status, and history of morbidity were surveyed through face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: Women had a higher frequency of underweight (10.4% vs. 7.0%, P < 0.001) than men. Among men, current smoking (odds ratio [OR], 1.62) and past history of cancer (OR, 2.55) were independently related to underweight. Among women, young age (OR, 2.06), former smoking (OR, 1.69), and being unmarried (OR, 1.56) were identified as independently related factors of underweight. In addition, among both men and women, alcohol drinking (men OR, 0.57; women OR, 0.77) and past history of chronic diseases (men OR, 0.55; women OR, 0.43) were independently related to a lower frequency of underweight. CONCLUSION: We showed that various sociodemographic factors were associated with underweight. It was ascertained that there were differences in the sociodemographic factors related to underweight between Korean men and women.
Adult* ; Alcohol Drinking ; Body Mass Index ; Chronic Disease ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Demography ; Drinking ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Marital Status ; Mortality ; Motor Activity ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Overweight ; Prevalence ; Single Person ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Class ; Sociology ; Thinness* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

An interesting aspect of the many recent researches on the history of medicine in Korea is a concentration on oral histories, a trend that is sure to supplement the lack of medical documents and historical materials covering the modern period. This trend will also contribute to the invention of new approaches in the historiography of medicine. Although the fragments of oral testimony cannot be expected to give a perfect representation of historical reality, such "slices of life" help represent history from the viewpoint of ordinary people and members of the medical profession who are less often acknowledged. The recent researches that have taken oral testimony on the history of medicine in Korea have both racked up achievements as well as encountered limitations. First, many disciplines such as history, literature, cultural anthropology, folklore, sociology, and the history of medicine have used the technique of oral histories in the research approaches, and, especially since the start of the 2000s, have produced a variety of materials. The large amounts of raw materials published in these many disciplines are sure to bring even higher research achievements. Second, for the most part, oral history researches in the medical profession have concentrated on second-tier practitioners, such as midwives, apothecaries, and acupuncturists, and the experiences of such untypical sufferers as lepers and victims of germ and atomic warfare. While the oral history of more prominent medical figures tends to underline his or her story of success, the oral histories of minority participants in the medical profession and patients can reveal the truth that has remained veiled until now. It is especially meaningful that these oral histories enable researchers to reconstruct history from below, as it were. Third, the researches that take the oral history approach are intended to complement documentary records. Surprisingly, through being given the opportunity to tell their histories, the interviewees have frequently experienced the testimony as an act of self-healing. Formally, an oral history is not a medical practice, but in many cases the interviewee is able to realize his or her own identity and to affirm his or her own life's story. It is in this light that we need to pay attention to the possibilities of such a humanistic form of therapy. Finally, because the research achievements depend on oral materials, the objectivity and rationality of description take on an important research virtue. When conducting an oral history, the researcher partakes of a close relationship with interviewees through persistent contact and can often identify with them. Accordingly, the researcher needs to take care to maintain a critical view of oral materials and adopt an objective perspective over his or her own research object.
Achievement ; Anthropology, Cultural ; Complement System Proteins ; Folklore ; Historiography ; History of Medicine ; Humans ; Inventions ; Korea ; Light ; Midwifery ; Nuclear Warfare ; Sociology ; Virtues