• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.58 no.9
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• pp.336-340
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• 2015

Purpose: The mean adult height of Koreans has increased since nationwide anthropological measurements began in 1967. The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in heights of Korean late adolescents and young adults within and between the Second and Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES II and V). Methods: Koreans aged ${\leq}22$ years with available measurements of height were enrolled from the KNHANES surveys (KNHANES II: n=3,372 [1,732 males and 1,640 females]; KNHANES V: n=6,190 [3,198 males and 2,992 females]). Differences in the height of KNHANES respondents within and between surveys were evaluated according to age and sex. Results: In KNHANES II, there was no significant difference in height between males aged 17-19 years and those aged 20-22 years ($174.3{\pm}0.5cm$ vs. $174.3{\pm}0.6cm$, P=0.995). Females aged 20-22 years were taller than those aged 17-19 years ($159.8{\pm}0.4cm$ vs. $161.0{\pm}0.4cm$, P=0.017). Females aged 17-19 years were significantly taller in KNHANES V than in KNHANES II ($161.2{\pm}0.3cm$ vs. $159.8{\pm}0.4cm$, P=0.004). Respondents aged 20-22 years were taller in KNHANES V than in KNHANES II, although not significantly so; the difference was $0.3{\pm}0.8cm$ in males (P=0.721) and $0.5{\pm}0.6cm$ in females (P=0.386). Conclusion: Koreans appear to continue growing even in their late adolescence and early twenties. Consequently, it may be necessary to expand the reference age ranges of the Korean growth chart. Additionally, a longitudinal growth survey is needed to determine growth patterns and secular trend in height among Koreans.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.264-281
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• 2015

Suicidal ideation has received much attention from both practitioners and researchers as Korean society becomes aging and individualistic. However, previous researches on the suicide ideation have focused on young generations instead of adults who seem to be more suffered from economic pressure and all kinds of exterior environments causing depression. Besides, there were research voids in the suicidal ideation area where depression was never taken into consideration. In this sense, we attempted to launch empirical studies on analyzing explanatory factors relevant to suicidal ideation in all the age groups by using KNHANES dataset from 2008~2012 years. Especially, we further analyzed KNHANES dataset to know how much depression affects suicidal ideation. Empirical results showed that depression is in a significant relationship with the suicidal ideation in all the demographic dimensions such as age, education, living area, etc.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

Suicide is becoming a public health issue in many countries, and even more so in Korea. Korea has the highest suicide rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. To address these issues, we investigated the recent trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among the adult population. We used data from four sources: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, '2007-2012, '2013, '2015), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '2008-2009, '2013), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '2012-2015), and Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '2010-2013). Weighted frequencies and trend tests were used. The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 5.10% (KNHANES, '2015), 8.95% (KCHS, '2013), 2.34% (KOWEPS, '2015), or 5.39% (KHP, '2013). Regarding the suicide attempts, the rate of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.61% (KNHANES, '2015), 0.41% (KCHS, '2013), or 0.04% (KOWEPS, '2015). Average percent change of suicidal ideation during survey year was -2.80% (KNHANES, '2007-2012), 5.78% (KNHANES, '2013-2015), 0.62% (KCHS, '2008-2013), -5.63% (KOWEPS, '2012-2015), and -10.94% (KHP, '2010-2013). Average percent change of suicide attempts during survey year was -3.84% (KNHANES, '2007-2012), 4.55% (KNHANES, '2013-2015), -2.54% (KCHS, '2008-2013), and -18.96% (KOWEPS, '2012-2015). Those who had lower income level were more likely to have self-reported suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Our results suggest that further efforts are needed for more effective intervention to identify and manage low income strata with suicide problem.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.87-90
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• 2018

Suicide has been a public health issue in many countries, and Korea has ranked highest suicide rate among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over a decade. To address these issues, we updated the recent trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among Korean adults followed by previous data observation. We used data from five sources: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANES, '07-12, '13, '15-16), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '08-09, '13), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '12-16), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '10-13), and cause of death data from Statistics Korea ('07-16). We used weighted frequencies and trend tests. The rate of suicidal ideation as recent year was 5.10% (KNHANES, '15), 8.95% (KCHS, '13), 2.08% (KOWEPS, '16), and 5.39% (KHP, '13). That of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.59% (KNHANES, '16), 0.41% (KCHS, '13), and 0.08% (KOWEPS, '16). Annual percentage change of suicidal ideation was -2.80% (KNHANES, '07-12), 5.78% (KNHANES, '13-15), 0.62% (KCHS, '08-13), -8.50% (KOWEPS, '12-16), and -10.94% (KHP, '10-13). Annual percentage change of suicide attempts was -3.84% (KNHANES, '07-12), 2.26% (KNHANES, '13-16), -2.53% (KCHS, '08-13), and -20.22% (KOWEPS, '12-16). Annual percentage change of death by intentional self-harm was -0.49% (Statistics Korea, '07-16). Individuals who had lower income level were more likely to experience suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. According to these results, the rate of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts showed the decreasing tendency. However, the suicide rate of Korea has remained higher than that of OECD countries. Thus, continuous data observation and effective policies on suicide are needed.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.245-253
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• 2022

Objectives: This study was conducted to find out if the dietary iron intake of Koreans estimated by 2 different methods (iron content sources) using the food intake data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) are comparable. One method was based on the KNHANES's Food & Nutrient Database (FND) derived mainly from the Korean Food Composition Table and the other used the iron content (IC) of food samples processed in the Korean Total Diet Study (KTDS). Methods: Dietary intake data from the 2013-2016 KNHANES was used to select representative foods (RFs) in KTDS for iron analysis. Selection of the RFs and cooking methods for each RF (RF × cooking method pair) was performed according to the 'Guidebook for Korean Total Diet Studies' and resulted in a total of 132 RFs and 224 'RF × cooking method' pairs. RFs were collected in 9 metropolitan cities nationwide once or twice (for those with seasonality) in 2018 and made into 6 composites each, based on the origin and season prior to cooking. Then, the RF composites prepared to a 'table ready' state for KTDS were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Dietary iron intake of the Korean population was estimated using only RFs' intake data based on the 2 sources of iron content, namely FND-KNHANES and IC-KTDS. Results: RFs in KTDS covered 92.0% of total food intake of Koreans in the 2016-2018 KNHANES. Mean iron intake of Koreans was 7.77 mg/person/day by IC-KTDS vs 9.73 mg/person/day by FND-KNHANES. The major food groups contributing to iron intake were meats (21.7%), vegetables (20.5%), and grains & cereals (13.4%) as per IC-KTDS. On the other hand, the latter source (FND-KNHANES) resulted in a very different profile: grains & cereals (31.1%), vegetables (16.8%), and meats (15.3%). While the top iron source was beef, accounting for 8.6% in the former, it was polished rice (19.2%) in the latter. There was a 10-fold difference in the iron content of polished rice between 2 sources that iron intakes excluding the contribution by polished rice resulted in very similar values: 7.58 mg/person/day by IC-KTDS and 7.86 mg/person/day by FND-KNHANES. Conclusions: This study revealed that the dietary iron intake estimated by 2 different methods were quite comparable, excluding one RF, namely polished rice. KTDS was thus proven to be a useful tool in estimating a 'closer-to-real' dietary intake of nutrients for Koreans and further research on various nutrients is warranted.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.23-34
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• 2012

Objectives: This study aims to compare the contents of physical activity questions of Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES), and to propose suggestions for improvement. Methods: Questions measuring physical activity prevalence of adults in the KNHANES from KNHANES I(1998) to the first year of KNHANES V(2010) were compared. Results: The questions used in each survey showed some problems in consistency and appropriateness. Major issues identified are as follows. First, the questions in each survey were not consistent, and would be inappropriate to make time series comparisons. Second, the purpose of physical activity was not clear. Third, the examples of physical activities suggested in the questions were not appropriate. Fourth, the intensity of physical activity were not adequately described. Fifth, by excluding walking from the moderate-intensity physical activity category, the prevalence of moderate-intensity physical activity could be underestimated. Sixth, it is difficult to measure the total amount of physical activity performed in one day because answers from the other domains cannot be clearly differentiated. Conclusions: The physical activity questions in the KNHANES questionnaire should be improved so that they are consistent with the purpose of survey, the respondents can easily understand the contents of the questions, and the questions can measure all physical activity performed in the different domains.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.298-306
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• 2017

Objectives: Since 1998, the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) has been conducted in order to investigate the health and nutritional status of Koreans. The food intake data of individuals in the KNHANES has also been utilized as source dataset for risk assessment of chemicals via food. To improve the reliability of intake estimation and prevent missing data for less-responded foods, the structure of integrated long-standing datasets is significant. However, it is difficult to merge multi-year survey datasets due to ineffective cleaning processes for handling extensive numbers of codes for each food item along with changes in dietary habits over time. Therefore, this study aims at 1) cleaning the process of abnormal data 2) generation of integrated long-standing raw data, and 3) contributing to the production of consistent dietary exposure factors. Methods: Codebooks, the guideline book, and raw intake data from KNHANES V and VI were used for analysis. The violation of the primary key constraint and the $1^{st}-3rd$ normal form in relational database theory were tested for the codebook and the structure of the raw data, respectively. Afterwards, the cleaning process was executed for the raw data by using these integrated codes. Results: Duplication of key records and abnormality in table structures were observed. However, after adjusting according to the suggested method above, the codes were corrected and integrated codes were newly created. Finally, we were able to clean the raw data provided by respondents to the KNHANES survey. Conclusion: The results of this study will contribute to the integration of the multi-year datasets and help improve the data production system by clarifying, testing, and verifying the primary key, integrity of the code, and primitive data structure according to the database normalization theory in the national health data.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.505-518
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• 2015

The purpose of the study is to investigate the occupational difference of Vitamin D deficiency according to the level of physical activity and the level of stress. For this purpose, We performed empirical approaches and adopted KNHANES 2008~2013 dataset, to which were applied such methods as crosstabulation analysis, logistic regression and SOBEL test. As a result, we found that Vitamin D deficiency was higher in the group of people with indoor-working-job than in the group of people with out-door working job. Besides, Vitamin D deficiency tends to increase in the people with lower physical activity and higher stress experience. As a result, those employees highly related with in-door activities must be ensured that they need to be exposed to sunlight on a regular basis. Moreover, improving the physical activity levels of employees could be one of appropriate solutions to alleviate Vitamin D deficiency problems. Besides, lowering stress levels in workplace needs to be seriously considered in order not to drop the physical activity levels of workers.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2016

Objectives: By using six years of KNHANES dataset (2008~2013) about 60 ages older people, we analyzed how the depression prevalence rate in the elderly is influenced by disease and activity limit. Especially, to add a sense of more reality, we adopted stress experience as a control variable to see how the depression prevalence rate in the elderly is influenced by disease and activity limit depending on the stress experience. Methods : We adopted six years of KNHANES dataset, indicating that our results were based on long period of time capable of considering temporal patterns in the depression prevalence rate in the elderly. Total 1,160 elderly people in KNHANES were selected for our empirical analyses. Dependent variable is either 0 or 1 depending on whether the elderly people feel depression. Main explanatory variables for our study include disease and activity limit. Logistic regression analysis was applied for two group such as stress experience and non-experience. Results : According to the empirical results, stress factor is found to be significant in explaining the depression in the elderly. Depression prevalence rate increased when the elderly has stress experience: chronical disease(OR=1.650), chronical disease with activity limit(OR=3.388), non-chronical disease with stress(OR=11.841) chronical disease with stress (OR=13.561) and chronical disease with activity limit and stress(OR=28.691). Conclusions: The finding suggest that the Countermeasures of elderly's depression alleviation should include stress management.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.77-81
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• 2019

Suicide is a major public health issue that causes over 800,000 deaths each year globally. Korea ranks high in suicide rates, in which around 24.3 per 100,000 individuals are reported to have died by intentional self-harm in 2017 according to Statistics Korea. The aim of this study was to examine the current status and trend of suicide ideation and attempt using data from the following five sources: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANES, '07-13, '15-17), Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS, '08-09, '13, '17), Korean Wealth Panel Study (KOWEPS, '12-17), Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, '10-13), and Statistics Korea (1983-2017). Suicide ideation and attempts were also further examined based on equalized household income levels. Data published by Statistics Korea were used to show the updated suicide rate and number of deaths by intentional self-harm. The rate of suicide ideation at the recent year was 4.73% (KNHANES, '17), 6.96% (KCHS, '17), 1.63% (KOWEPS, '17), and 5.39% (KHP, '13). That of suicide attempts as recent year was 0.71% (KNHANES, '17), 0.32% (KCHS, '17), and 0.09% (KOWEPS, '17). Annual percentage change of suicidal ideation was -15.4% (KNHANES, '07-17), -2.5% (KCHS, '08-17), -8.6% (KOWEPS, '12-17), and -10.9% (KHP, '10-13). Annual percentage change of suicide attempts was -4.0% (KNHANES, '07-17), -4.4% (KCHS, '08-17), and -14.9% (KOWEPS, '12-17). Individuals with lower income levels were more likely to experience suicide ideation and attempts. Considering that Korea still shows a high suicide rate despite the continuously decreasing trend of suicide ideation and attempt, continuous observation and appropriate policy implementation regarding suicide related problems are necessary.