PURPOSE: Asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality have been increasing in the whole world in recent years, especially among children. The estimated prevalence of asthma among children in the United States has been increased by almost 40% from 1981 to 1988, making asthma a predominant cause of morbidity in childhood. Recognition of the continued significant social and economic impact of asthma has led the medical community to consider new management strategies emphasizing patient education. Educating asthmatic children about the disease can have demonstrable long-term benefits, including improved independence and compliance as well as better control of asthma symptoms. The specialized asthma summer camps were developed in the late 1960s to provide pleasant camping experiences for the children perceived to be too ill to participate in regular camps. Despite the usefulness and the need of the asthma camp programs, there are a few asthma camp programs developed in Korea. METHODS: As an effort to develop the Korean camp programs for childhood asthma, this study proposes a model of 4-days-camp program for 20 patients who diagnosed as asthma. RESULTS: This successful exercise the model will achieve better control of childhood asthma by leading the patients to participate actively in their asthma treatment. CONCLUSION: Further studies are needed to investigate empirically the positive effects of asthma education programs in camp settings in terms of asthma exacerbations and school day absences due to asthma.
Asthma* ; Camping ; Child ; Compliance ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Mortality ; Patient Education as Topic ; Prevalence ; United States

The clinical and biological study for Sarcoptes scabiei from 66 scabies patients was performed form Nov. 1974 to April 1975. The diagnosis of these scabies patients were confirmed by method proposed by Muller et al. The results were as follows; 1) Male to female ratio is 5. 6: 1 in total patients and predominant age group is in 16~20 in both sexes(Table 1). 2) 50% of cases had family history of similar troubles and the duration of subjective symptom complaind at their first visit was 1~2 weeks in 20 cases, 3~4 weeks in 25, 2 months in 10, and over 3 months and unknown were 12. 3) Suspected sources of infestation were, 22 cases from one of their family members, 15 at hotel, 7 at boarding house, 2 at camping, 1 at military camp, 19 were unknown. 4) Distribution of burrows was hand(79.4%), wrist(12.4%), foot(3.1%), penis(2.6%) scrotum(2.1%) and axillary area(0.5%). Number of burrows was 1~2 in 61.4%, 3~4 in 19.3%, 5~6 in 5.3%, 7~8 in 1.8%, 9~10 in 5.3% and 10 in 7. 6%. 5) 44 patients (66.7%) were confirmed by finding of female mite and among them 50% had 1 female mite, 36.7% had 2, 6.8% had 3, 2.3% had 4 and 4.5% had 6. 6) 69 among total 79 female mites detected were found at burrow, 6 from papule and 4 from vesicle. Total 7 male mites were found from patients and 4 from papules and 2 from veside and 1 from pustule(Table 5) 7) From total 194 burrows examined 69 female mites (36.1%) were found and non of male mite were found. 8) Mean size of female mite(length*breadth) was 359.3u*266.5u, male mite 21.1u*160.9u, larva 131.8ux94.2u, egg with developing larva 167.3*93.6u, egg with developed larva 159.7u * 92.3u and scybala 18.7u x 12.3u. Sizes of egg with developing larva and egg with developed larva had no significant difference, statistically.
Camping ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Larva ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Mites* ; Ovum ; Sarcoptes scabiei ; Scabies*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: When a patient is diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, it is important to help both the patient and their family members gain knowledge and confidence with regard to self-management. A diabetes camp is an excellent way to recognize the benefits of education. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of diabetes camp on patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: This study comprised 30 patients with diabetes who had participated in a diabetes camp from August 2005 through August 2011. The effectiveness of the diabetes camp was examined retrospectively via clinical parameters, compliance behavior, and a self-esteem questionnaire. RESULTS: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c; p = 0.004) was significantly decreased, while measures of self-esteem (p = 0.000) and compliance (p = 0.001) were significantly increased after attending the camp. No significant differences were observed in other clinical parameters, such as weight, body mass index (BMI), and lipid profiles, before and after camp attendance. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes camp may be an effective way to control diabetes mellitus.
Body Weight ; Camping ; Compliance ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Self Care

In diabetes camps, medical social workers interact with individuals and groups of participants to help them learn to adapt psychologically and emotionally to the stress from diabetes and to improve their ability to cope with interpersonal relationships. The change stage model (transtheoretical model) is applied to change the behavior of diabetics. Social worker intervention programs in diabetes camps provide opportunities for patients to manage their diabetes healthily by increasing self-esteem, participating in motivational counseling, and developing stress management, fear and conflict resolution. In particular, in the 2030 diabetes camp program, young diabetics can learn the personal importance of medical social workers through the ‘post-camp’ talk.
Camping ; Counseling ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Motivation ; Negotiating ; Social Work* ; Social Workers*

A case-control study was conducted to identify the specific risk fatctors for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS) in Korean soldiers. The case group consisted of 196 confirmed HFRS patients who were admitted to the Capital Armed Forces General Hospital between I November 1989 and 15 January 1992 and were 25 years old or younger. The control group consisted of 258 non-HFRS patients who were admitted to the same hospital and meeting following conditions; onset of symptom was within five days before or after the onset date of case, had regular military activities up to the onset of symptom, and no noticeable signs for the diagnosis. Most of the cases and controls came from the units located in Kyonggi province (61.7% of cases, 75.9% of controls) and Kangwon province (31.6% of cases, 15.5% of controls). The distribution of places where the cases and controls had moved into during 60 days period prior to admission was similar to that of the base units. Among 196 cases, 89.3% occurred in October through December and 46.9% in November. Significant risk factor was the field living condition. The odds ratio (OR) for sleeping in a tent vs not sleeping in a tent during 60 days period prior to admission was 1.55 (95% CI=1.07-2.25) and that for sleeping on the bare ground or in a vehicle was 3. 63 (95% CI=1.48-8.86). Other statistically significant risk factors were advanced tac tical training (OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.02-2.24), drinking surface water (OR=1.83, 95% CI=1.21-2.77), exposure to indoor dust (OR=1.58, 95% CI=1.05-2. 37), fixing trench (OR=1.63, 95% CI=1.12-2.37) and having seen Apodemus in the outdoors (OR=4. 61, 95% CI=2.12-10.02). Most of these risk factors were related with camping (field living condition) and thus the interaction between each risk factor and camping was examined by cross tabulation. None of the ORs for five risk factors was statistically significant for the cases who had no camping. However all of the ORs for the cases who had camping were increased and statistically significant ;2.27 for advanced tactical training, 2.64 for drinking surface water, 2.14 for exposure to indoor dust, 2.91 for fixing trench, and 7.58 for having seen Apodemus in outdoors. It was revealed in this study that the highest risk factor for HFRS is camping in the area where the Apodemus inhabits.
Adult ; Animals ; Arm ; Camping ; Case-Control Studies* ; Diagnosis ; Drinking ; Dust ; Fever ; Gangwon-do ; Gyeonggi-do ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Military Personnel* ; Murinae ; Odds Ratio ; Risk Factors* ; Social Conditions ; Water