OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the effects of unemployment on health-related behavioral changes and worker's health, and to produce the basic data that is needed to formulate the necessary measures for reducing the health hazards and social costs caused by unemployment. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted with a group of 123 people who had lost their jobs due to structural unemployment (the unemployment group) and with a group of 155 employed people (the employment group). The 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used as a tool for evaluating the demographic characteristics, the health-related behaviors and the health level. RESULTS: Irregular mealtimes and increased smoking and drinking rates were observed in the unemployment group (P<0.05). The results of the logistic regression analysis that was conducted after correcting for the confounding variable showed that in the unemployment group, unlike in the employment group, the odds ratio of the group with a low health level score on the SF-36 has a significant difference in "Role limitation resulting from physical problems" (OR 2.20, 95% CI=1.01~4.78), "Role limitation resulting from emotional problems" (OR 4.51, 95% CI=1.90~10.69) and "Mental health" (OR 3.43, 95% CI=1.52~7.74) among the eight lower areas. CONCLUSIONS: Unemployment causes a negative change in health-related behaviors and lower levels of mental and physical health. Systematic research must be conducted to promote good health among unemployed workers and to reduce their social costs.
Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Drinking ; Employment ; Hazardous Substances ; Health Behavior ; Health Status ; Health Surveys ; Logistic Models ; Meals ; Odds Ratio ; Quality of Life ; Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Unemployment

INTRODUCTION: Studies evaluating rats and mice have provided convincing evidence that renal adenoma and carcinoma are induced by oral doses of lead acetate and lead subacetate, as well as by parenteral doses of lead phosphate. In addition, at least 2 cases of kidney cancer associated with heavy exposure to lead have been reported. However, there is still not enough information to confirm or rule out an association between kidney cancer and exposure to lead. CASE REPORT: In this study, we describe a case of kidney cancer in 54-year-old male worker that was exposed to lead-stearate while employed in the polyvinyl chloride processing industry for 17 years. The patient presented with gout and hypertension. Further examination revealed proteinuria, glucose in the urine and elevated blood urea nitrogen/creatinine levels. Renal ultrasonography, renal computed tomography and renal biopsy revealed chronic renal failure and renal cell cancer. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the gout and chronic renal failure in this case was caused by chronic lead exposure. However, further study is required to determine if the renal cancer was induced by lead exposure.
Adenoma ; Animals ; Biopsy ; Glucose ; Gout ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Kidney Neoplasms ; Lead ; Lead Poisoning ; Male ; Mice ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Diseases ; Organometallic Compounds ; Polyvinyl Chloride ; Proteinuria ; Rats ; Renal Insufficiency ; Urea

This study was undertaken to develop new analytical methods for assessment of anticoccidials. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was found to be a fast, reliable, and practical method. The anticoccidials used in this experiment were toltrazuril and diclazuril, and the analysis factors were specificity, linearity, accuracy, repeatability, and intermediate precision. The linearity of each anticoccidial was better than 0.99, and the accuracies were 99.5% and 99.1% with relative SD of 0.5 and 0.4, respectively. To assess whether the developed HPLC method could be effectively applied, toltrazuril and diclazuril post-market veterinary products (five products) that are currently sold were tested. The results revealed no non-compliant items and the method was applied successfully. Therefore, the newly developed HPLC method for anticoccidial assessment described in this study may be useful as a reference method in the Korean Standards of Veterinary Pharmaceuticals for the analysis of toltrazuril and diclazuril.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chromatography, Liquid* ; Coccidiostats ; Methods* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Veterinary Drugs