The purpose of this study was to test whether moderate alcohol consumption has any positive effect on lowering blood pressure among Koreans. Study subjects were Korean adults 20 years or older (n=5,234) who participated in the 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were used to construct univariate and multivariate models relating alcohol consumption to blood pressure for the analysis. After adjustment for possible covariates, drinkers (regardless of drinking level) had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure, compared with never-drinker for male subjects. Diastolic and systolic blood pressures were also significantly elevated with the drinking frequency and amount of alcohol intake among male subjects. For the female subjects, only diastolic blood pressure was significantly associated with the alcohol consumption at multivariate model, however, low level alcohol consumption did not show any sign of lowing effects on blood pressure. The result implies that moderate alcohol consumption did not have any positive effect on lowering blood pressure among Koreans for either sex.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking* ; Blood Pressure ; Drinking ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Male ; Nutrition Surveys*

PURPOSE: This study attempted to compare the metabolic syndrome components, liver function and heathy living habits according to abdominal obesity in male and female workers. METHODS: The subjects of this study are 1,078 adult workers who visited N hospital in Incheon for health examination. The data were analyzed using t-test or chi2-test with the SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. RESULTS: Prevalence of metabolic syndrome are 22.2% in male workers, and 5.2% in female workers. There were significant differences in 4 metabolic syndrome components (high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterolemia), abnormal liver function, and living habits (alcohol drinking) according to abdominal obesity in male workers. There were significant differences in 1 metabolic syndrome component (low HDL cholesterolemia), and abnormal liver function in female workers. CONCLUSION: It is important to manage all metabolic syndrome components and alcohol drinking in the case of male workers with abdominal obesity, and low HDL cholesterolemia in the case of female workers. Also, occupational nurses should include the relevance between abdominal obesity and liver function index when training health for workers in workplace.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Female* ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Incheon ; Liver* ; Male* ; Obesity, Abdominal* ; Prevalence

The relationship of life style and physical health status was examined in a population of 1656 public servants and teachers(1069 men, 587 women) who had a periodic health examination in 1994. The study items of life style were health-related habits including sleeping time, breakfast snacking, regular exercise, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking and weight status. Physical health status was evaluated by means of tests including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hemoglobin, fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, serum GOT and serum GPT. The association between life style and age-adjusted physical health status was examined by ridit analysis. Physical health status was better in women and the younger. The life style significantly associated with age-adjusted physical health status were sleeping time, snacking, regular exercise, weight status and alcohol drinking in men, and breakfast, snacking and weight status in women. The higher score of health practices index, the better age-adjusted physical health status in both sexes. These findings suggest the need for further studies including follow-up study, intervention study on the relationship of life style and health status.
Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Breakfast ; Cholesterol ; Fasting ; Female ; Humans ; Life Style* ; Male ; Smoking ; Snacks

PURPOSE: This study attempted to compare the metabolic syndrome components, liver function and heathy living habits according to abdominal obesity in male and female workers. METHODS: The subjects of this study are 1,078 adult workers who visited N hospital in Incheon for health examination. The data were analyzed using t-test or chi2-test with the SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. RESULTS: Prevalence of metabolic syndrome are 22.2% in male workers, and 5.2% in female workers. There were significant differences in 4 metabolic syndrome components (high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterolemia), abnormal liver function, and living habits (alcohol drinking) according to abdominal obesity in male workers. There were significant differences in 1 metabolic syndrome component (low HDL cholesterolemia), and abnormal liver function in female workers. CONCLUSION: It is important to manage all metabolic syndrome components and alcohol drinking in the case of male workers with abdominal obesity, and low HDL cholesterolemia in the case of female workers. Also, occupational nurses should include the relevance between abdominal obesity and liver function index when training health for workers in workplace.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertriglyceridemia ; Incheon ; Liver ; Male ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Prevalence

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of general, health, and alcohol-related characteristics on blood pressure and stress according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). METHODS: This was a descriptive study. From participants in the 2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 319 participants who responded to the survey when they were attending college or university were selected. Data were analyzed using the SPSS Win 23.0 program for composite sample data reflecting the composite design elements of stratification, colonization, and weighting. RESULTS: Mean age of onset of alcohol drinking was 17.91±0.16 years, the average AUDIT score was 7.56±0.41, and 25 (9.1%) participants fell into the high-risk drinking group. In the high-risk AUDIT group, systolic blood pressure was influenced by age, gender, institution, health status, body mass index, and suicidal ideation, and the explanatory power of the model (R2) was 75.0%. For diastolic blood pressure, institution and health status were the influential factors, and R2 was 66.2%. Predictors of stress were health status, depression, and the age of onset of drinking, and R2 was 57.2%. CONCLUSION: It was confirmed that the explanatory power of the variables in models of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and stress is greater in those with higher scores on AUDIT.
Age of Onset ; Alcohol Drinking ; Alcohols ; Blood Pressure* ; Body Mass Index ; Colon ; Depression ; Drinking ; Humans ; Korea ; Nutrition Surveys ; Suicidal Ideation

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Although it has been known that folate will participate in colorectal carcinogenesis, the relationship between blood folate level and colorectal cancer is less consistent. The blood folate level does not reflect the systemic folate status. By contrast, serum homocysteine has become a sensitive marker for the folate deficiency. We attempted to explain the correlation between folate and colorectal cancer according to the serum homocysteine level. METHODS: We reviewed the clinical records, including alcohol history of 184 patients taking the colonoscopy and measurement of the serum homocysteine level at Health Promotion Center from 2001 to 2002. One hundred fifty-one of 184 were included, excluding 33 patients with previous history of colonic polyp, cerebrovascular, cardiovascular attack and thromboembolism. They were divided into the normal control (n=111) and the adenomatous polyp group (n=40). We had selected the colorectal cancer group (n=50) from the collection list of the tissue and blood bank less than 3 months storage interval. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the mean serum homocysteine level among three groups. However, in the subjects with high alcohol consumption, there was a significant difference in the mean serum homocysteine between the normal control (n=7) and the adenomatous polyp group (n=9) (10.2 vs 15.1 micromol/L, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There was no correlation of serum homocysteine and colorectal tumor. However, in the subjects with high alcohol consumption, high serum homocysteine might be related to the development of adenomatous polyp.
Adenomatous Polyps/*blood/pathology ; Alcohol Drinking/blood ; Colonoscopy ; Colorectal Neoplasms/*blood/pathology ; Female ; Homocysteine/*blood ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to analyze the clinical variables associated with occurrence of delirium tremens (DT) in inpatients with alcohol dependence initially admitted with diseases unrelated to alcohol. METHODS: This study included 132 inpatients seeking treatment for medical problem with acute alcohol withdrawal. The cases were divided into two groups : with DT group (n=44), without DT group (n=88). We compared the epidemiologic data, alcohol withdrawal symptoms and serum analysis data between two groups. We used the logistic regression to predict risk factors for DT. RESULTS: The DT group had more severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms, more amount of drinking alcohol, more number of drinking per month, higher blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, amylase, C-reactive protein and lower serum total protein than the without-DT group. According to the result of a logistic regression, occurrence of DT showed correlation with the following factors : sweating, hallucination, agitation, amount of alcohol consumption, number of drinking per month. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests development of DT was correlated with severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms, high BUN, creatinine and low total serum protein. Therefore, during assessment of alcohol dependent patients, clinicians should keep these parameters in mind in order to prevent DT.
Alcohol Drinking ; Alcohol Withdrawal Delirium* ; Alcoholism* ; Amylases ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; C-Reactive Protein ; Creatinine ; Dihydroergotamine ; Drinking ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Logistic Models ; Risk Factors ; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome* ; Sweat ; Sweating

BACKGROUND: Seasonal variation of blood pressure (BP) is well documented. It means that season should be considered in diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. This study was done to evaluate seasonal influence on blood pressure of hypertensive patients who had been taking the same antihypertensive medicine for a long time. METHODS: In medical records, we reviewed the blood pressure recordings of 328 hypertensive patients who had been taking the same medicines through the consecutive summer (Jun., Jul., and Sep.) and winter(Dec., Jan., and Feb.) period. We evaluated the blood pressure difference between summer and winter, and also evalauated influence of age, sex, BMI, smoking, alcohol drinking and exercise on seasonal difference of blood pressure. RESULTS: An average of four blood pressure readings per patient, two for summer and two for winter were recorded. Ambient temperature was over 22degrees C in summer and below 4degrees C in winter. The systolic blood pressure in summer and winter were 135.5mmHg and 140.5mmHg, respectively, and the diastolic blood pressure in summer and winter were 85.0mmHg and 87.4mmHg, respectively. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased significantly in winter. Both in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, sex, smoking, alcohol drinking, exercise did not have an influence on seasonal difference. Age and BMI did not have an influence on seasonal difference of systolic blood pressure. But in diastolic blood pressure, age and BMI had an influence on seasonal difference and elderly patients had a greater seasonal difference in diastolic blood pressure than younger patients. CONCLUSIONS: In hypertensive patients who had taken the same antihypertensive medicines for a long time, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was significantly creased during the winter. Therefore season should be considered in the treatment of hypertension even though patients are stable with the same medicines.
Aged ; Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Pressure* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Medical Records ; Reading ; Seasons* ; Smoke ; Smoking

PURPOSE: This study was performed to analyze the levels of blood pressure and to identify good or poor blood pressure control (BPC) groups among hypertension patients. The study was based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI and VII) conducted from 2013 to 2016. METHODS: The sociodemographic and clinical data of 4,151 Korean hypertension patients aged 20-79 years and who were taking antihypertensive medications was extracted from the KNHANES VI and VII database. Descriptive statistics for complex samples and a decision-tree analysis were performed using the SPSS WIN 24.0 program. RESULTS: The mean age was 62.46±0.21 years. The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 128.07±0.28mmHg, and the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 76.99±0.21mmHg. 71.9% of participants showed normal blood pressure (SBP <140mmHg and DBP <90mmHg). From the decision-trees analysis, the characteristics of participants related to good BPC group were presented with 9 different pathways same as those from the poor BPC group. Good or poor BPC groups were classified according to the patients' characteristics such as age, living status, occupation, education, hypertension diagnosis period, numbers of comorbidity, perceived health status, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, alcohol drinking per month, and depressive mood. Total cholesterol level (<201mg/dL or ≥201mg/dL cutoff point) was the most significant predictor of the participants' BPC group. CONCLUSION: This decision-tree model with the 18 different pathways can form a basis for the screening of hypertension patients with good or poor BPC in either clinical or community settings.
Alcohol Drinking ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Comorbidity ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Nutrition Surveys ; Occupations

The effects of alcohol consumption on diabetic patients are still unclear and inconclusive. Generally, light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (< 3 glasses) may have beneficial effects without disturbing glucose control. However, excessive alcohol consumption may have harmful effects such as hypoglycemia, impaired glucose control, metabolic dysregulation, and increased risk of diabetic complications. This review focused on the relationship between alcohol consumption and diabetic mellitus and effect of alcohol on diabetic patients. Based on previous results, we propose a theory of proper alcohol consumption in diabetic patients.
Alcohol Drinking* ; Blood Glucose ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hypoglycemia