OBJECTIVES: The most frequently cited health related slogan in North Korea is that socialistic medicine is preventive medicine. It implies that North Korea puts preventive medicine at the operational center of its national health care system. This study aimed at examining and comparing preventive medicine practices in North Korea with those of South Korea. METHODS: Efforts have been made to obtain a textbook for analysis its contents. Many people have iassisted in the study by joining the interview. Some of these people are as follows: a former professor of PyongYang Medical School, NK physicians living in South Korea, WHO staffs, diplomatic officials, etc. The major items of analysis consisted of industrial medicine and hygiene, nutrition, school health, epidemiology, health statistics and heath policy & management. RESULTS: Public health philosophy is finely rooted and well integrated in the operation of the North Korean national health care system, particularly in the area of industrial medicine and hygiene. Preventive medicine with a strong health surveillance system spanning a number of broad social organizations is a major tool to improve the health of the people in North Korea. The emphasis on preventive medicine has a close relationship with the 'Juche Philosophy' and the shortage of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. To cope with the shortage problem, North Korean health workers are encouraged to grow medicinal herbs. We have found that they put little effort into teaching newly emerging diseases, such as AIDS, VDT syndrome, hazards of EMF, and agricultural chemical poisonings. Of the subjects of the preventive medicine text, 78.9% coincide with those of South Korean industrial health manuals and 34.2% with South Korean epidemiology texts. However, an absolute difference was found to exist between the heath policies and management systems. CONCLUSION: In North Korea, the concept of preventive medicine functions as the basic philosophic strategy of the national health care system. It differs greatly from the South Korean system in both practice and educational content. Its contribution to society is simply incomparable to that of South Korea. More communication and further study is called for in order to improve the preventive medicine practices in the future.
Delivery of Health Care ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea* ; Epidemiology ; Hygiene ; Korea ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Medicine ; Philosophy ; Plants, Medicinal ; Poisoning ; Preventive Medicine* ; Public Health ; School Health Services ; Schools, Medical

Bayes Theorem ; Public Health ; Translational Medical Research

The study was conducted on two groups of air traffic controllers having different working hours (24 hours for 1st group and 6 hours for 2nd group) to evaluate the impact of working hours on controller health. Blood pressure, heart rate, simple reaction time, critical fusion frequency were taken before and after work. Sick building syndrome (SBS) questionnaires were used as well. Results showed that almost physiological parameters taken after work in group 1 were varied significantly versus that before work, while those were not varied in 2nd group. The incidence of SBS was higher dramatically in the group 1st versus group 2nd
Preventive Medicine ; Public Health ; manpower

The study was carried out at diverse training institutious for Ph.D in preventive medicine during the period of 1998-2002. In this 5 year period, 103 Ph.D have completed their post-graduate education following the new regulation of training. Before the candidature, 82.5% of candidates had conducted their researches about the registered theme and the remaining 17.5% had no idea about it. 51.2% of the themes were asociated with or were parts of the projects at national or institutional levels. The average cost of training and finishing Ph.D works was 88 million of VND, while 2 billion approximatily abroad
Manpower ; Preventive Medicine ; Public Health

Adverse drug reactions constitute a major public health problem. In recent years, serious safety issues arose with marketed drugs, and public outcry demanded better safety surveillance. Now regulatory focus is shifting to the active post-marketing safety surveillance. This paper provides an overview of the recent international initiatives of drug safety management especially focused on the US and Europe. The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Sentinel Initiative is a long-term program designed to build and implement a national electronic system for monitoring the safety of FDA-approved drugs and other medical products. The Sentinel System will enable FDA to monitor the safety of medical products with the assistance of a wide array of collaborating institutions throughout the nation. The European Network of Centers for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance is a collaborative scientific network coordinated by the European Medicines Agency and developed in collaboration with European experts in the fields of pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance. Its goal is to further strengthen the post-marketing monitoring of medicinal products in Europe by facilitating the conduct of multi-center, independent, post-authorization studies focusing on safety and on benefit-risk. Medicine is a global enterprise that demands worldwide standards for good drug safety practices. In the near future, we have to establish a Korean Sentinel System for active post-marketing safety surveillance to ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs used in medical practice.
Cooperative Behavior ; Dietary Sucrose ; Drug Toxicity ; Electronics ; Electrons ; Europe ; Nitriles ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Pharmacoepidemiology ; Pharmacovigilance ; Public Health ; Pyrethrins ; Safety Management

Red wine contains much active substances of super antioxydant with great value of preventing and treating diseases. In vitro and in vivo researches on inimal, epidemiological investigations conducted on human hah demonstrated a bright future on the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, cancer, viral diseases and mental declining, Alzheimer disease… Moderate use daily of red wine offers considerable advantage for health and prolongs the longevity. However, because of the containing of alcohol, it must weigh the pros and cons in using red wine.
Wine ; preventive medicine ; Primary prevention ; Public health

This cross-sectional study involved 339 students aged 12-15 at 2 boarding schools in Sapa and Yen Binh, determined height, weight, and BMI. Results: there weren’t significant differences between the weights (Sapa’s students: 34.38 kg, and Yen Binh’s students: 33.31 kg), and the average heights of students in 2 regions (p>0.05); but BMI of Sapa’s students is higher than Yen Binh’s students (17.04 vs 16.38, p<0.05)
Indicators and Reagents ; Preventive Medicine ; Public Health

This cross-sectional study involved 339 students aged 12-15 at Sapa and Yen Binh regions. It measured and compared indexes such as vital capacity (VC), forced expiratory volume 1 (FEV1), and Tiffeneau index. Results: there weren’t significant differences between VC, FEV1 and Tiffeneau indexes of students in both sexes of 2 regions (p<0.05). There is a close correlation between VC and height of student (r>0.9), and between FEV1 and height (r>0.9)
Preventive Medicine ; Public Health ; Alkalosis, Respiratory

On February and March 2003, SARS broke into Vietnam. To prevent the outbreak, it was necessary to supervise closely and regularly all acute pulmonary infectious patients, to detect patients based on diagnosis criteria. SARS outbreak is very dangerous, and it requires emergency epidemic reports, isolated areas of especial treatments for patients. Individuals exposed to SARS patients and people in the community need to be guided and encouraged for use preventive methods. Along with preventive individualization, it’s necessary to have preventive methods for community, especially for high-risk people of SARS infection
SARS Virus ; Preventive Medicine ; Public Health

Some achievements of preventive medicine were studied and analysed on 30 Centers of preventive medicine in whole country. The prevalence of some diseases were reduced considerably: measle 37 times, pertussis 102 times, the mortality of diarrhoea reduced by 17 times, neonatal tetanus 6 times, polyomyelitis 9 times. 40  24% of the staff working day were mobilized for struggle against epidemy. Waters, foods, enviromental samples were collected and controlled with a lack of equipment interms of variety and quantity. The salary and subsidy were rather low
Preventive Medicine ; Public Health ; prevention & control