A doctor's certificate is a statement from a doctor that attests to the results of a medical examination of a patient. It is based on the professional judgment of a doctor who has examined the state of a patient's healthBiased doctor's certificates, which can vary widely in their nature, would lead to the loss of the public's trust in the medical profession. Although the Korean Medical Association has set guidelines for issuing doctor's certificates, separate guidelines are necessary that address various issues, including, among others, the definition of doctor's certificates, the ethical duties of doctors, the purpose and issuance of doctor's certificates, the doctor-patient relationship, and the responsibilities of doctors and patients. Furthermore, hospitals should be required to conduct a review of the doctor's certificates that have critical importance, such as those that impact court hearings or suspension of sentences, by a committee of doctors, to ensure the accuracy and professional integrity of such doctor's certificates.
Humans ; Judgment ; Social Problems*

PURPOSE: This study was to identify what experience meant for the wives that attempted IVF-ET(In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer) program due to the spouse's infertility and provide fundamental materials to improve nursing interventions. METHOD: Giorgi's phenomenological method was employed, the subjects were five wives who had ever attempted IVF-ET program due to the infertility of their spouses. In-depth interview and observation method were utilized to gather information from April to December 2003. RESULT: The significant results from analyzing the interviews can be grouped into 34 themes, 8 categories. The essential themes for the experiences of the wives were 'shocked by the unbelievable reality', 'can't give up the connection to the blood', 'Lack of social education on pregnancy, and childbirth', 'self-pity', 'feelings of both families', 'Being afraid of the unexpected result', 'physical and mental agony', 'Positively coping with the reality. CONCLUSION: The results show that infertility is not a mere personal matter, and infertile people, their families and society should team up with in tackling it. The physical, psychological and social problems triggered by infertility could be ironed out by making both personal and collaborative approaches to that.
Humans ; Infertility ; Iron ; Pregnancy ; Social Problems ; Spouses

BACKGROUND: The rapid increase in population of old people has been emphasized as a serious social problem even in medical world. Geriatric disease has special characters that can be mentioned as a non-contagious chronic degenerative disease. 'Regular Doctor System' can be considered as one of the efficient ways to care for it continuously. The purpose of this study was to promote the introduction of family doctor system gradually and care of geriatric disease through examination of old people's thinking about 'Regular Doctor System'. METHODS: The result of this study was based on the questionnaire survey on 292 old people(aged 65 and more, response rate 73%) at 2 welfare centers in Seoul, located at Yeongdeungpo-gu and Guro-gu, and 1 college for old people, for 2 weeks from May, 2003. The contents of surveywere consisted of many questions for understanding of old people's thinking about 'Regular Doctor System'. The response method was self-reported. RESULTS: Comparing with other age group surveys, this old people's survey has special character that it has higher affirmative answer rate for the question of 'Do you have a regular doctor?'. The old people's favorite natures of regular doctor were considerateness( 26.9%) and kindness(26.2%). And the most desirable service from their regular doctor was comprehensive health examination( 45.2%). The factors reflecting on selecting of doctor were separately questioned into two aspects, as factors related to doctor's behavior and the others. Among the factors related to doctor's behavior, the effect of medical treatment(22.7%) was top ranked and 'being aware of my disease'(17.3%), 'easy explanation'(15.5%) were followed. The other factors were medical specialty(24,1%), easy access(19.3%) and short waiting time(10.5%). The reasons for changing of doctor were 'to receive specialist's medical treatment'( 37.2%), 'no improvement of patient's condition'(13.1%) and 'distrust of diagnosis'(9.0%). CONCLUSION: The old people wanted considerate and kind attitude from their doctors. The factors, related to doctor's behavior that the old people wanted, were 'good effect of medical treatment', 'being aware of my disease well' and 'easy explanation'. The other factors they wanted were medical specialty, easy accessibility and short waiting time.
Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Social Problems ; Thinking

Obesity is a multi-factorial disease that results from a combination of genetic, biological, psychological, behavioral, and social factors. In addition, obesity causes physical, emotional, psychological, and social problems, and therefore a variety of factors and issues in the treatment of obesity must be considered. Behavioral Modification and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are effective in the treatment of obesity with multidimensional problems.
Cognitive Therapy ; Humans ; Obesity ; Social Problems ; Social Work

PURPOSE: Some of epileptic children are known to have behavioral problems. But some experts deny frequent association of behavioral problems in epileptic children, compared to non epileptic children. The purpose of this study is to know the relations between the clinical characteristics and behavioral problems in epileptic children. METHODS: Ninety-nine patients were grouped according to underlying disease causing epilepy, seizure type, occurrence of seizure within recent 1 year and duration of treatment. CBCL(Child Behavior Chencklist), which were modified by Oh et al., was used as a tool for psychosocial assessment. RESULTS: 1) Symptomatic group had higher risk than cryptogenic group on school in social competence scale. In behavioral problem scale. Symptomatic group showed none of social problems or thought problems. 2) Partial seizure group has higher risk than generalized seizure group on social problems in behavioral problem scale. 3) Patients with recent seizure experience had higher risk on social, school in social competence scale, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, total behavioral problems in behavioral scale. 4) There was no correlation between duration of treatment and psychosocial parameters. CONCLUSION: In epileptic children, behavioral problem was not significantly outstanding compared with non epileptic children. It appears that some of their behavior problems have been originated mainly from problems in social adaptation, which might have not been caused by disease itself, but by social prejudice and social misunderstanding.
Child* ; Epilepsy* ; Humans ; Mental Competency ; Prejudice ; Seizures ; Social Problems

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to identify application motives and to explore the impact of motives on school adjustment in medical school students. METHODS: Fifty-one third-year medical students were individually interviewed by two independent interviewers to evaluate application motives and school adjustment. Fisher's exact test and two-way analysis of variance were used to examine group differences in school adjustment and academic performance according to application motives and personal characteristics. RESULTS: On the basis of Marcia's identity status model, four types of application motives were identified including "objective orientation", "achievement orientation", "heteronomy" and "objective diffusion." Students who were classified into either objective orientation or achievement orientation did not have any adjustment problem. However, half the students classified into either heteronomy or objective diffusion had academic or social problems. The students in the first two classifications achieved higher grades in basic science courses than those of the later two. Conclusions: These results suggest that application motives tend to impact school adjustment and academic performance. Motive-based admission policies and student guidance should be considered as alternative measure for improving school adjustment and academic performance in medical school students.
Classification ; Diffusion ; Humans ; Schools, Medical* ; Social Problems ; Students, Medical

OBJECTIVES: School bullying is known to be related to behavioral, emotional and social problems both in victims and perpetrators. The aims of this study are to develop a Korean-Peer Nomination Inventory(K-PNI), which can identify victims and perpetrators of school bullying in an objective and effective way, and to examine its reliability and validity. METHODS: Fourth to 6 th graders of two elementary schools in An Yang city completed K-PNI, Peer Acceptance Scale and Self-Perception Scale. Varimax Rotation Factor Analysis, Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Analysis and Pearson's Correlational Analysis were performed for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Total of 532 students(male:female=1:1;4 th:5 th:6 th grader=1:1:1.2) participate in this study. Factor analysis showed that K-PNI identified victims and perpetrators of school bullying effectively with excellent reliability(Chrobach's alpha;0.90-0.94). Victims were further divided into two categories;passive bullying including exclusion and verbal abuse, and active bullying including physical abuse and being forced. K-PNI, Peer acceptance scale and Self-perception scale were significantly correlated, reflecting its validity identifying victims and perpetrators of school bullying. CONCLUSION: K-PNI is an effective tool with excellent reliability and validity to identify victims and perpetrators of school bullying. K-PNI is expected to be a useful tool in future studies of school bullying and school violence.
Bullying* ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; Self Concept ; Social Problems ; Violence

Lead poisoning is one of the earliest identified and most known occupational disease. Its acute effects have been recognized from antiquity when this condition principally afflicted manual workers and slaves, actually scarcely considered by the medicine of that time. The Industrial Revolution caused an epidemic of metal intoxication, urging scientists and physician of that period to study and identify specific symptoms and organ alterations related to chronic lead poisoning. During the 20th century, the acknowledgment of occupational and environmental toxicity of lead fostered public awareness and legislation to protect health. More recently, the identification of sub-clinical effects have greatly modified the concept of lead poisoning and the approaches of medicine towards this condition. Nowadays, lead poisoning is rarely seen in developed countries, but it still represents a major environmental problem in certain areas. Consequently, it may appear as a paradigm of "occupational and environmental disease," and the history of this condition seems to parallel the historical development of modern "Occupational and Environmental Health" as a more complete medical discipline.
Developed Countries ; Lead Poisoning ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupational Health ; Social Problems

The authors reported results of management of warfire craniocerebral abscesses in 53 cases from 1980-1995. The rate of abscess was 16.3%. Retained materials found: bone only 58.49%; both metal and bone: 7.54%; metal only 5.66%; none: 28.30%. Characteristics of abcess: thick capsula: 37.74%; numerous focuses of pus: 15.78%; open abscesses: 50.95%. Organisms found in culture of pus of abscess (23/36 cases: 63.88%) gram positive: 52.17%, gram negative 47.83%). Methods of management: urgent removal of abcess capsula: 71.72%; puncture-aspiration: 1.88% pus drainage: 18.86%; conservative treatment: 4.54%. The overall mortality was 20.76%. The postoperative mortality rate rate was: 13.22%.
diagnosis ; therapeutics ; brain abcess ; Wounds and Injuries ; war ; Social Problems

1. A simplified vision test chart which is composed of test types of arabic figures and Landolt's rings for 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8 and 1.0 was designed by the author. 2. The test chart may be used at school for screeing the students who have decreased vision in early stage, and so school myopia can be prevented or cured by medical treatment. 3. It is also recommended to be used for testing the vision of students once every month at home to preserve good vision and prevent school myopia which is so much increased among the students that it has become a serious social problem in Korea.
Arabs ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening* ; Myopia ; Social Problems ; Vision Tests*