No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Brief intervention with problem drinkers have been shown to be effective, but physicians often do not ask about alcohol use because of time constraints and lack of knowledge. If a sin gle question can be used to screening for problem drinker effectively, primary care physicians could detect problem drinker earlier and reduce future complication and morbidity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of single question. METHODS: One family medicine's resident interviewed 163 patients who visited Dongdaemun Hospital's Health care management center of Ewha Woman's university from January 27th 1999 to February 26th 1999, and the patients answered the written forms of questionnares. This written forms contained the followings: (1) age, sex, education, income level, occupation, smoking, drunken driving, (2) "On any single occasion during the past 3 months have you had more than a bottle of Soju or three bottles of beer or five glasses of whisky?" (3) CAGE, NAST test. Quantity of alcohol was determined by the calendar based review in the past 4 weeks. At risk drinker defined as drinking more than 56 g on one occasion, or more than 196 g of pure alcohol during a week for men ; more than 42 g on one occasion, or more than 98 g of pure alcohol during a week for women. Also alcohol use disorder was defined by the DSM IV criteria and problem drinker was defined as either at risk drinker or a alcohol use disorder. RESULTS: The single question had a positive predictive value of 82.2%, and negative predictive value of 95.5% with a sensitivity of 93.8% and a specificity of 86.9% for problem drinkers. CONCLUSION: A single question about alcohol use would be a effective tool for detecting problem drinker.
Beer ; Delivery of Health Care ; Drinking ; Education ; Eyeglasses ; Female ; Glass ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Occupations ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Smoke ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is an important as well as common disease in primary practice, so family physicians should concern about it. It is well known that if hypertension were well controlled, it could lower cardiovascular complications. However, there are few studies on the impact of hypertension affecting the quality of life. Therefore, we carried out this study to compare the quality of life in the hypertensive patients by whether it is well controlled or not. METHODS: The authors surveyed the quality of life using the questionnaire named as CMC Health Survey Version 1.0 for the hypertensive patients. The subjects had no complications and no other diseases, and aged 40 or more, and visited doctors at the Department of Family Medicine, Kyung Hee University Hospital or the Department of Internal Medicine, Sungmin Hospital from May 1 to Aug 31, 1998. We categorized the subjects into the two groups of the well controlled group(SBP<140 mmHg and DBP<90 mmHg) and the uncotrolled group(SBP> or = 140 mmHg or DBP> or = 90 mmHg) and compared the quality of life and lifestyle. RESULTS: The total number of subjects was 119, that of well controlled group was 69, and that of the uncontrolled group was 50. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 133.1+/-7.5 mmHg and 85.3+/-5.2 mmHg in the well controlled group, 159.2+/-7.4 mmHg and 100.2+/-5.5 mmHg in the uncontrolled group. The comparison of the distribution of age, sex, education, occupation, and monthly income between the two groups showed no difference. The comparision of the lifestyle between two groups by Alameda 7 questionnaire showed no difference ,too. As for the comparison of quality of life between two groups, the well controlled group had significantly higher scores in the domain of physical function, social function, general health, vitality(above P<0.01), emotional function, role limitation, and health perception(above P<0.05) than uncontrolled group. However, the scores of the domain of change in health, satisfaction, bodily pain were not significantly different between two groups. After covariated by obesity, the comparion of quality of life between two groups showed similar results. CONCLUSION: We confirmed that the well controlled group had better quality of life than the uncontrolled group. So family physicians should consider the quality of life when they consult the patients with hypertension.
Blood Pressure ; Education ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Internal Medicine ; Life Style ; Obesity ; Occupations ; Physicians, Family ; Quality of Life* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Weight loss in obese patients has been shown to decrease plasma lipid level and high blood pressure, to improved glycemic control in diabetic patients and to decrease cardiovascular risk in obese patients. But, study for association of weight loss and Health related Quality of Life is not well known yet worldwide. This study was to determine whether weight loss would associate with improvements on Health Related Quality of Life. METHODS: Participants was recruited in 48 obese patient visiting obesity clinic of Family Medicine of Sungkyunkwan University Hospital. 27 patients who answered mailed questionnaire was analyzed. Health Related quality of life was measured by Catholic Medical Center Health Survey(CMCHS) V 1.0. Questionnaire included not only Health Related Quality of Life but also alcohol habit, excercise, smoking, marital status, economic status, education. RESULTS: In multiple regression analysis, weight loss is statistically significant differences on satisfaction, vitality, physical function, social function, role limitation general health dimensions of CMCHS. CONCLUSION: The Results of this study demonstrate that weight loss on obese patients may be associated with an improvement in Health Related Quality of Life.
Education ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Marital Status ; Obesity ; Plasma ; Postal Service ; Quality of Life* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Weight Loss* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Waist circumferences are widely used to diagnosis and assessment of obesity but various standards of the measuring waist circumference originate the confusion on diagnosis and assessment of obesity. According to this, this study is willing to light up standards of measuring waist circumference what is intimate with body mass index(BMI) and have a precision of intra observer and inter observers in repeated measurements of the waist. METHODS: Measuring of waist circumference by the 4 different standards(anterior superior iliac crest(ASIC), umbilicus, above 3 cm to ASIC, the thinnest area in the waist by the range of seeing) were performed on 102 people visiting Health Promotion Center of one medical collage hospital by two observers in each 2 times, total 16 times. Each data were analyzed by the relativity between the BMI and the each means of measuring waist circumference and by ANOVA test in intra observer and inter observer bias. RESULTS: The relation between BMI and data in measuring standard of ASIC of the waist circumference is the highest. (r=0.900) and the following umbilicus(r=0.896), above 3 cm to the anterior superior iliac crest(r=0.888), the thinnest area in the waist by the range of seeing(r=0.877), It is the lowest in intra observer bias that the thinnest area in the waist by the range of seeing, and ASIC in inter observer. CONCLUSION: It is desirable that ASIC is the standard of measuring waist circumference in the diagnosis of obesity and in measuring that by different two person, because of the highest relativity in BMI and the lowest inter observers bias. But the thinnest area in the waist by the range of seeing is desirable in measuring by same person because of intra observer bias.
Anthropometry ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Body Constitution ; Body Mass Index ; Diagnosis ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Obesity ; Observer Variation ; Umbilicus ; Waist Circumference*

BACKGROUND: For gastric cancer, primary prevention by risk factor modification might have some important roles. However, previous studies having investigated the factors associated with stomach cancer reported various results. In addition, there were only a few studies based on Korean population. METHODS: A case control study was carried out on 106 cases matched for age and sex with 106 controls in a tertiary care hospital. In patients who were aged 75 years or less and had been newly diagnosed as adenocarcinoma of stomach between July 1996 and January 1997 were included into the case group. Information on baseline characteristics, health habits, dietary habits of study subjects was obtained through an interview using structured questionnaire. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors associated with stomach cancer. RESULTS: Salt preference was associated with significantly increased risk of stomach cancer (odds ratio[OR]=9.81, 95% confidence interval[CI]=2.28 42.2). Eating broiled food more than three times a week significantly increased the risk of stomach cancer (OR=3.33, 95% CI=1.16 9.55) compared to eating it less than once a week. Blood type, family history of stomach cancer, smoking, and alcohol consumption were not associated with stomach cancer. CONCLUSION: Salt preference and frequent eating of broiled food are the risk factors significantly associated with stomach cancer in this study subjects.
Adenocarcinoma ; Alcohol Drinking ; Case-Control Studies* ; Diet ; Eating ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Primary Prevention ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach* ; Tertiary Healthcare ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: In an effort to use cigarette warning labels as a means for reducing smoking rates, this study examined current cigarette warning messages and newly designed pictorial warning labels. METHODS: From June 15, 2005, to June 22, 2005 we conducted an e-mail survey of 1,200 civilians to examine the effect of cigarette warning labels. For statistical analysis, we used chi-square test with SPSS 11.0 software. RESULTS: Among all the respondents, 78.7% indicated that current cigarette warning labels did not have any effect. However, most of the respondents indicated that pictorial warning labels are effective in raising public awareness (84.6%) or knowledge (81.5%) of the harmful effects of cigarettes. They also responded that pictorial warning labels would help them quit smoking (75.9%) or keep them from buying cigarettes (64.1%). Over 80% of the respondents and over 70% of the smokers responded that they would welcome the use of pictorial warning labels as an anti-smoking measure. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that current cigarette warning labels are not effective in curbing smoking rates. Also, the results suggest that current cigarette warning labels need to be improved if they are to be used as an effective anti-smoking measure.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Electronic Mail ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Tobacco Products*

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding is not common in Korea despite its known benefits. The role of family physicians is important in promoting breast-feeding since they can provide prenatal and postnatal care on lifelong basis. This paper analyzed a survey of family physicians on their knowledge, attitude, experience, and training concerning breastfeeding. METHODS: The survey was carried out by e-mail enquiry to the residents and board-certified physicians registered in the Korean Academy of Family Medicine. The enquiry was developed by Gary L. Freed composed of 18 questions about knowledge, attitudes, experience, and training. The answers to the questions were analyzed to give frequency and the associations between the variables. RESULTS: Among the total, 64% of the residents and 76% of the physicians answered yes to whether breastfeeding was the best means of feeding an infant under 6 months of age. Also, 83% of the residents and 85% of physicians answered it was right to quit breastfeeding completely when breast abscess developed. The breastfeeding promotion was done more frequently by those who had personal experience. They had higher rate of educating patients than those who did not (28% vs. 9%, P<0.0001). Despite its importance, 86.5% of the residents and 77.6% of the physicians answered that they did not have enough opportunity to learn about breastfeeding during their training years. CONCLUSION: Although family physicians are required to play a role in promoting breastfeeding, they are insufficiently trained under the current system. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a traning program to educate the residents on breastfeeding.
Abscess ; Breast ; Breast Feeding* ; Electronic Mail ; Humans ; Infant ; Korea ; Physicians, Family ; Postnatal Care

BACKGROUND: There have been bone mass studies for the treatment of osteoporosis, nonetheless, little attention has been paid to the management of osteopenia. This study was to evaluate the effects of estrogen, alendronate and their combination on bone mineral density and bone metabolism in the postmenopausal women with osteopenia. METHODS: A total of 150 healthy regional patients with osteopenia from Busan were enrolled in prospective randomized clinical trial and randomly assigned to receive conjugated equine estrogen (group I), alendronate (group II), or combination of the two (group III). Assessments included BMD of L2-4 spines and femur neck by DEXA and markers of bone turnover including serum osteocalcin, total alkaline phosphatase and urine deoxydyridinoline (Dpd). BMD and markers of bone turnover were re-evaluated at 6 and 12 months after the treatment. RESULTS: BMD of the lumbar spines increased significantly at 12 months after treatment in the three groups (P<0.05). BMD of the femur neck increased at 12 months after treatment in the three groups, but significantly in group III (P<0.05). Serum osteocalcin decreased at 12 months after treatment in the three groups, but only significantly in group III. Urine Dpd decreased at 12 months after treatment in three groups, but significantly in group, II and III (P<0.05). Serum total alkaline phosphatase decreased at 12 months after treatment in only group III (P<0.05). There was more favorable benefit for group III in BMD of the lumbar spines and serum osteocalcin and urine Dpd at 12 months after treatment compared to group, II and III (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results indicated a favorable benefit of conjugated equine estrogen, alendronate, or combination of the two in BMD and important markers of bone turnover. The combined treatment with conjugated equine estrogen and alendronate was more effective in postmenopausal women with osteopenia. Long-term studies are required to confirm these results.
Alendronate ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Bone Density* ; Bone Diseases, Metabolic* ; Busan ; Estrogens ; Female ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Metabolism* ; Osteocalcin ; Osteoporosis ; Prospective Studies ; Spine

BACKGROUND: Recently, childhood obesity has been increased and has resulted in serious health problems. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of childhood obesity and its risk factors in elementary students. METHODS: One thousand nine hundred and eleven children were selected from an elementary school in Seoul. We measured children's height, weight, waist to hip ratio, and the obesity rate (%). The risk factors associated with childhood obesity were assessed by a self-written questionnaire answered by their parents. In moderate and severe obese children, we checked their blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, ALT, AST, uric acid, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. RESULTS: The prevalence of childhood obesity was 14.0%. We found that the factors associated with childhood obesity were the number of siblings, class, parent's obesity, and the preference for fish and meat (P=0.030, 0.022, <0.001, 0.003, respectively). In moderate and severe obese children, the prevalence of obesity related diseases was 77.6% and 92.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The childhood obesity was strongly associated with parent's obesity and the preference for fish and meat. The prevalence of obesity related diseases was very high in moderate and severe obese children.
Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Child ; Cholesterol ; Fasting ; Humans ; Meat ; Obesity* ; Parents ; Pediatric Obesity* ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors* ; Seoul ; Siblings ; Triglycerides ; Uric Acid ; Waist-Hip Ratio ; Surveys and Questionnaires