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

BACKGROUND: The implementation of health care delivery system(HCDS) in 1989 affected the visit pattern of tertiary care hospital. In this study we analyzed the effect of implementation of HCDS in a university hospital. METHODS: We analyzed the yearbook of a university hospital from 1986 to 1992. The clinical departments were divided into three groups of medical departments, surgical departments with application of HCDS and clinical departments without application of HCDS. RESULTS: The total outpatient visits increased after implementation of HCDS. The new outpatient visits decreased after implementation in the medical departments and surgical departments but re-visit patients increased in all clinical departments. The number of emergent patients increased at year 1889, but decreased in 1990, then little changed. Admission rate via emergency room decreased in surgical departments and clinical departments without application of HCDS. The patient from Pusan in which hospital is located was little changed but patients that from other areas increased. So the proportion of patients from Pusan decreased, and from other regions increased. The visit of patients with self pay decreased, but patients with medical insurance increased. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of increased total outpatient visits, the new outpatient visits and patient visits from near place decreased through implementation of HCDS. The new outpatient visits decreased in the medical departments and surgical departments in clinical departments with application of HCDS, but the new outpatient visits increased in clinical departments without application of HCDS.
Busan ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Insurance ; Outpatients ; Tertiary Healthcare

PURPOSE: The proximal femoral morphology of normal Koreans was studied by radiographs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Proximal femoral morphology and ratio of lever arm in abductor muscle in 101 normal adults were measured and their correlations were comparatively analyzed. RESULTS: The femoral head diameter was 48.7+/-4.0 mm. The femoral neck shaft angle was 127.8+/-5.2 degree. The medial trabeculae angle was 20.0+/-1.2 degree. The femoral offset was 36.5+/-3.9 mm. Also, the tip of the greater trochanter relative to the level of femoral head center lay higher in 91 of 101 subjects (90.1%), upon examination and in average, located 3.8+/-3.4 mm higher. The ratio of the abductor lever arm to the distance between the femoral head center and the body midline was 1: 2.1+/-0.2. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between the tip of the greater trochanter of femur and the center of femoral head appeared to have wide individual differences with 0.89 coefficient of variation. Therefore, the tip of the greater trochanter was an unreliable anatomical indicator of femoral head center. The femoral neck shaft angle and the length of the medial trabeculae showed a significant correlation (P=0.001). However, a significant negative correlation existed between the femoral neck shaft angle and the femoral offset (P=0.024)
Adult* ; Arm ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Head ; Humans ; Individuality

In the field of industrial health, it is important to establish the efficient system for health management of workers. The management of health information of workers using data base will contribute to such a system. In this context, the utility of method using Mahalanobis distance(D(2)), the general probability distance in multivariate analysis, for decision of the results of health examination was evaluated. Six items of test among the health examination data of 278 prospective employee was used to calculate D(2). Sensitively and specificity of decision method using D(2) with 99% normal range was 95.8% and 90.2% respectively as compared with decision by doctor. This finding suggests the utility of method using D2 for decision of the results of mass screening for industrial workers.
Mass Screening ; Multivariate Analysis ; Occupational Health ; Reference Values ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Using audiometric test data, noise exposed workers were followed up to assess the activities for hearing conservation from 1989 to 1992. The subjects of study were 71 workers who could be followed up at least two years during this follow-up period. In all subjects, increasing trend of hearing threshold levels (HTLs) was observed after three years of follow-up at all testing frequencies in audiometry and this increase was statistically significant at 8KHz(p<0.05). Also, HTLs increased significantly(p<0.05) in the workers who complained tinnitus(at 0.25, 8KHz), who ws below 90 dB (at 8KHz). Effectiveness of the activities for hearing conservation, assessed by sequential test-retest comparisons, was lower in the workers who complained tinnitus, who had past history of ear disease, and whose workplace noise level was below 90 dB. These findings suggest that the activities for hearing conservation at workplace may have been unsatisfactory until now and more stringent measures may be necessary, especially in the workers who complain tinnitus, who have past history of ear disease, and whose workplace noise level is below 90dB.
Audiometry ; Ear Diseases ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing* ; Noise ; Tinnitus

No abstract available.
Occupations*

This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection in drug abusers. The subjects were 141 inpatients who had been admitted to a general hospital with the symptoms and signs of methamphetamine intoxication. Seroprevalence of antibody to the hepatitis C virus(anti-HCV) was 60.3%,(85/141) and it was higher in the group with increased frequency and duration of drug abuse, but such a relationship was not found in the seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg). These findings suggested the possibility of high prevalence of HCV infection in methamphetamine abusers, and the importance of repetitive percutaneous injection in the transmission of HCV infection.
Drug Users ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis B ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Methamphetamine* ; Prevalence ; Seroepidemiologic Studies* ; Substance-Related Disorders

In order to study the relationship between life-style and serum lipids level in young adults, the author measured the concentration of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and investigated age, relative weight, weekly alcohol intake and daily cigarette smoking through questionnaire in 310 male workers aged 20 to 39, in Ulsan area. The results obtained were as follows: 1. In the factors being able to influence serum lipids level there was negative correlation between age and alcohol intake, and the positive corrrelation between age and relative weight, alcohol intake and relative weight, alcohol intake and smoking with the strongest correlation between alcohol intake and smoking. 2. In univariate analysis, mean total cholesterol concentration were significantly different according to age, smoking and relative weight; mean triglyceride concentration were significantly different according to relative weight only; mean HDL-C concentration were significantly different according to alcohol intake alone. 3. In non-drinkers, HDL-C concentration of smokers were significantly lower than that of nonsmokers but triglyceride concentration of smokers were significant higher. And in drinkers, total cholesterol concentration of smokers was significantly higher than that of non-smokers. 4. In multiple regression analysis, significant independent variables were relative weight, age and smoking in the total cholesterol concentration, and relative weight, age and alcohol intake in the triglyceride concentration, and alcohol intake, relative weight and smoking in the HDL-C concentration. By these independent variables, total variation in each dependent variable was explained 7.9%, 17.6% and 7.4% respectively.
Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Humans ; Male* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Triglycerides ; Ulsan ; Young Adult*

To evaluate the association of individual health-related lifestyle and hypertension in rual population, data from a population sample of 633(257 men and 376 women) aged 40 years and older and residing in a rural area were analyxed cross-sectionally. The data had been collected by personal interview using structured questionnaire during August 1996. In multivariate analysis, adjusted prevalence rate ration of bypertension increased significantly with increasing amount of coffee drinkin(cups/day) in men(p=0.029) and body mass indes(kh/m2) in women(p=0.013). The level of perceiving his or her own health status was a positive correlate of hypertension in men(p=0.034) and women(p=0.107). Thus, in this population hypertension appears to be associated with coffee drinking in men, body mass index in women and the proportion of awareness of his or her own hypertension seems to be low.
Body Mass Index ; Coffee ; Drinking ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Life Style* ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prevalence ; Rural Population* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Variables derived from the health belief model were studied in relation to practices of health behavior, which was measured in terms of thoroughness. Data were collected from the sample of 984 adults living in A-Gu of Pusan, during in-home interviews using structured questionnaires. Women practiced more health behaviors than men. The significant negative relationship was found between perceived barriers to health behavior and practices of health behavior in men and women. In addition, emotional support in men and perceived benefits of health behavior in women were also significant predictors of health behaviors. These findings suggest that in the study population, perceived barriers is the most powerful predictor for practices of health behavior and social support is also important for facilitating positive health behaviors.
Adult ; Busan ; Female ; Health Behavior* ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires