This study is designed to check whether everyday-life stair climbing, which is a low-cost and readily accessible form of exercise, is effective for reducing overweight of sedentary people in various health indicators. We selected four overweight people and measured body weight, body fat percentage, muscle quantity, pulmonary function, lower-extremity strength and volume of thigh muscle and fat. After 3-week exercise of climbing stairs in more than 5 minutes twice a day, same procedures were taken. Body weight was reduced by 3.35 kg on average (standard deviation [SD], 0.79), and body fat mass by 2.53 kg (SD, 1.36). Lower extremity strength improved about 5%, and slight loss of thigh fat (right 3.2%; left 13.4%) was observed. However, pulmonary function and muscle quantity did not grow significantly. Although only four people may not be representative as targets, but it is suggested that stair climbing has sufficient utility as an easily accessible exercise.
Adipose Tissue ; Body Weight ; Lower Extremity ; Overweight ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Sedentary Lifestyle ; Thigh

BACKGROUND: An 8-week health program is achieved for health providers in a general hospital in Seoul to verify whether health parameters are enhanced by improving life habits. We want to examine the effect of this program with measuring health parameters and exercise ability. This study is performed as a pilot study, and the goal is to introduce the outcome of health program with experimental methods. METHODS: Participants of this research consist of 42 health providers who were overweight, and they enrolled an 8-week health program in 2015. They took a class about improving eating habits and recorded daily diet. Moreover, they implemented exercise program with encouraging active participation by rewarding members who attended the program frequently. RESULTS: The result is analyzed with 31 participants who finished the program. There are 4 men whose physical indices correspond with the criteria of metabolic syndrome. Otherwise, 27 women have physical indices below the criteria. The result indicates that physical indices would not reveal meaningful changes. However, basal fitness comprised of flexibility, sit-up, and back muscle strength implies meaningful improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Even though there were some problems to revise in exercise intervention, it was accomplished systematically while nutrition intervention was not controlled strictly. In addition, factors including inspiring the enrollment of men and extending the period of program should be considered to improve the next program. The final goal of the health promoting hospital is to improve the health of health providers by sustaining this program with developing exercise and nutrition intervention in detail.
Back Muscles ; Diet ; Eating ; Exercise ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle Strength ; Obesity ; Overweight ; Pilot Projects ; Pliability ; Reward ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: An 8-week health program is achieved for health providers in a general hospital in Seoul to verify whether health parameters are enhanced by improving life habits. We want to examine the effect of this program with measuring health parameters and exercise ability. This study is performed as a pilot study, and the goal is to introduce the outcome of health program with experimental methods. METHODS: Participants of this research consist of 42 health providers who were overweight, and they enrolled an 8-week health program in 2015. They took a class about improving eating habits and recorded daily diet. Moreover, they implemented exercise program with encouraging active participation by rewarding members who attended the program frequently. RESULTS: The result is analyzed with 31 participants who finished the program. There are 4 men whose physical indices correspond with the criteria of metabolic syndrome. Otherwise, 27 women have physical indices below the criteria. The result indicates that physical indices would not reveal meaningful changes. However, basal fitness comprised of flexibility, sit-up, and back muscle strength implies meaningful improvement. CONCLUSIONS Even though there were some problems to revise in exercise intervention, it was accomplished systematically while nutrition intervention was not controlled strictly. In addition, factors including inspiring the enrollment of men and extending the period of program should be considered to improve the next program. The final goal of the health promoting hospital is to improve the health of health providers by sustaining this program with developing exercise and nutrition intervention in detail.

We investigated the association between hand grip strength (HGS) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). A total number of 9,211 participants from the sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2014– 2015) were included. HRQOL was measured by EuroQol-5 dimension (EQ-5D) and EQ-5D index score. Participants were classified as normal HRQOL group or impaired HRQOL group according to the EQ-5D responses and the EQ-5D index scores. HGS was measured using Takei dynamometer. Impaired HRQOL group represented lower mean HGS than that of normal HRQOL group. According to the quintile groups of HGS, group with the lowest HGS showed the lowest mean EQ-5D index score in both sexes. And the more HGS increases, the more EQ-5D index score increases also (p-value for trend <0.001). Men and women with lower grip strength were more likely to report ‘some’ or ‘extreme problem’ in EQ-5D domains (except anxiety/depression and pain/discomfort domain in men), and also more likely to belong to the lowest 20% level group in EQ-5D index score according to logistic analyses. Our findings suggest that HGS is associated HRQOL. Low HGS is associated with impaired status of HRQOL by EQ-5D and EQ-5D index score in Korean men and women. More research is needed to evaluate the specific plausibility between HGS and HRQOL.
Adult* ; Female ; Hand Strength* ; Hand* ; Humans ; Male ; Nutrition Surveys ; Quality of Life*

BACKGROUND: Although obesity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in elderly are well known to be associated with obesity and sitting time, it is unclear whether effect of sedentary lifestyle on HRQOL is affected by body mass index (BMI) or not. So we analyzed the relationship between sitting time and HRQOL according to BMI groups in elderly Korean. METHODS: Participants aged over 60 from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2014 and 2015) were included. Participants were classified as normal weight and overweight/obese groups. Mean sitting times were compared between groups according to the EuroQol 5 dimension (EQ-5D) And logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Men with mobility, usual activity, or pain/discomfort domain problem had longer sitting time. Women with a problem in every domain had longer sitting time. Overweight/obese women with problem showed longer sitting time. Odds ratios (ORs) of mobility, usual activity, pain or discomfort, and low EQ-5D score domain were increased regardless of BMI groups in men. But, ORs of all domains were increased only in overweight/obese group in women. CONCLUSIONS: In elderly Korean, prolonged sitting time associated with decreased HRQOL. Impaired HRQOL is associated with increased sitting time regardless of BMI in men. But only overweight/obese group showed association between prolonged sitting time and impaired HRQOL in women. These results represents that decrease in quality of life according to the increase of the sitting time differs according to the BMI in elderly Korean women.
Aged* ; Body Mass Index* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Nutrition Surveys ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Quality of Life* ; Sedentary Lifestyle

Late onset hypogonadism (LOH, also referred to as age-associated testosterone deficiency syndrome, TDS) is a clinical and biochemical syndrome associated with advancing age and characterized by symptoms and a deficiency in serum testosterone levels. It may result in a significantly reduced quality of life and adversely affect the function of multiple organ systems. Although the treatment of LOH is primarily based on hormone replacement, other treatment modalities (medical or non-medical treatment) can also be considered for various accompanying symptoms. The efficacy of exercise in the treatment of LOH has already been evaluated in several studies, and many of them show beneficial effects for some specific symptoms and diseases. This study was designed to evaluate the relationship between exercise and plasma testosterone levels, and the potential beneficial effects of exercise for each specific symptom of LOH, and finally to consider the appropriate exercise treatment for LOH.
Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Plasma ; Quality of Life ; Testosterone

Impact of intestinal microbes on obesity and health is a new topic recently started to get attention. Comparing to the global concern and research trends, there are few research on the association between intestinal bacteria and life style disease in Korean. One voluntary case (female) was reported to show the change in gut microbiota and weight by diet intervention. She was overweight (BMI 23.2 kg/m2) and has abnormal liver function, and the causes of overweight were frequent drinking and meat consumption at the late evening hours. For 47 days, she was administered an improved diet on breakfast and dinner with reduction of meat consumption frequency by 50%. Alcohol consumption was reduced to once a week. As a result, she lost 3 kilograms of body weight. Her fecal sample was collected before and after the intervention, and gut microbiota change was compared using a high-throughput sequencing technique. After diet correction, the shift of gut microbiota was clearly observed with decreased proportion of Firmicutes (from 75.7% to 47.3% in total microbiota) but increased proportion of Bacteroidetes upto 47.7%. After incorporating the diet intervention, it is meaningful to confirm the changes in dominant gut microbiota and weight loss.
Alcohol Drinking ; Bacteria ; Bacteroidetes ; Body Weight* ; Breakfast ; Caloric Restriction ; Diet* ; Drinking ; Life Style ; Liver ; Meals ; Meat ; Microbiota* ; Obesity ; Overweight ; Weight Loss

OBJECTIVES: The positive effects of nap on cognitive function and memory have been researched intensively among children and adults. However, the relationship between afternoon nap and executive function among sleep deprived late adolescents has not been studied as much. METHODS: Ten sleep deprived, otherwise healthy Korean high school students were recruited, and asked to fill out Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire. They were put to nap for 5 min on three days during the first week, then for 10, 20, and 30 min in the same protocol during the consecutive weeks. After a 1-h class, both the students themselves and their corresponding teachers evaluated the participation level of the participants. They were then divided into two groups, and were instructed to play iPad game ‘Free Flow’. One group took a nap while the other group was prohibited from taking a nap. Both groups were instructed to play the game again. This was repeated once every afternoon for three days. RESULTS: The experiment showed that 20-min nap was superior in subjective evaluations to the other nap duration, and the mean game score differences before and after were significantly higher in the nap taking group after the 20-min nap when analyzed using non-parametric statistical method (p-value 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, 20-min nap is likely to boost planning domain of executive function on sleep deprived late adolescents.
Adolescent* ; Adult ; Child ; Cognition ; Executive Function* ; Humans ; Memory ; Methods ; Sleep Deprivation

As interest in sports rapidly grows in Korea, fostering of elite athletes and preservation of the athletic ability no longer became the task of advanced countries only. In that aspect, health of athletes and their associated coaches, athlete trainers, team members such as team doctors, and even their families is certainly a matter of concern. Especially when it comes to the inoculation of infectious disease prevention, it needs to be considered as one of the most economical and effective ways to promote health in sports people as well as elite athletes. The purpose of this article is to go over the specific circumstances of the athletes and related literatures on vaccination. In addition, we provide recommendations on the vaccination of athletes regarding the actual situation of sports in Korea.
Athletes ; Communicable Diseases ; Foster Home Care ; Humans ; Korea ; Sports ; Vaccination

Objective: Suicidal ideation (SI) precedes actual suicidal event. Thus, it is important for the prevention of suicide to screen the individualswith SI. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with SI and to build prediction models in Korean adults using machinelearning methods. Methods: The 2010–2013 dataset of the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey was used as the training dataset(n=16,437), and the subset collected in 2015 was used as the testing dataset (n=3,788). Various machine learning algorithms were appliedand compared to the conventional logistic regression (LR)-based model. Results: Common risk factors for SI included stress awareness, experience of continuous depressive mood, EQ-5D score, depressivedisorder, household income, educational status, alcohol abuse, and unmet medical service needs. The prediction performances of themachine learning models, as measured by the area under receiver-operating curve, ranged from 0.794 to 0.877, some of which were betterthan that of the conventional LR model (0.867). The Bayesian network, LogitBoost with LR, and ANN models outperformed the conventionalLR model. Conclusion A machine learning-based approach could provide better SI prediction performance compared to a conventional LRbasedmodel. These may help primary care physicians to identify patients at risk of SI and will facilitate the early prevention of suicide.Psychiatry Investig 2020;17(4):331-340