BACKGROUND: The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis has decreased progressively after the control of the tuberculosis began as national control. But as diabetes, malignancy, immunodeficiency disease recently tend to be increased, the tuberculosis become to the important national health problem. So, this study was designed to observe the state and the change of the prevalence and the clinical status of pulmonary tuberculosis for recent 10 years at one women's university. METHOD: We retrospectively investigated the epidemiology and the clinical status of 612 patients who were registered at the Ewha Womans University Health Center by analyzing records from 1983 to 1992. RESULTS: 1) The prevalence rate had been steadily decreased from 0.63% in 1983 to 0.11% in 1992. The prevalence of freshman and the incidence rate according to the entrance year while in the university significantly decreased since 1989. 2) In classifying by registered source, 45.6% of students were detected by annual periodical health examination, 34.5% by entrance physical examination, 12.0% by hospital, 5.4% by health center clinic, 2.5% by reentrance physical examination, sequentially. 3) The students with past history of tuberculosis were 70(11.4%) and 61(10%) suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. The patients with family history of tuberculosis were 142(23.3%). 4) There were 530(86.6%) with minimal disease, 79(12.9%) with moderate and only 3(0.5%) with far advanced, when classified by the severity of disease. 5) The initial symptoms were mild breathing difficulty in 30.1%, sweating in 14.9%, fatigue in 14.3%, febrile sense in 11.7%, hemoptysis in 8.2%, sequentially. 6) The duration of treatment was 10.6+/-3.6 months in mild group, 14.9+/-5.2 months in the moderate group(P<0.05). 7) The side reactions of the drug were GI trouble in 7.2%, hepatitis in 1.8%, skin rash in 0.8% and streptomycin side in used patients in 9.1%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis among the students in one women's university was significantly lower than that of university students and 20-24 year-old age group announced in tuberculosis survey on a national scale, and significantly decreased since 1989. The treatment effect was desirable in student's group managed by university health center.
Epidemiology ; Exanthema ; Fatigue ; Female ; Hemoptysis ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Physical Examination ; Prevalence ; Respiration ; Retrospective Studies ; Streptomycin ; Sweat ; Sweating ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary*

PURPOSE: This descriptive study aims to describe the levels of mobility in community-dwelling older Koreans with chronic illnesses, and to examine the associations of their mobility with sleep patterns, physical activity and physical symptoms including fatigue and pain. METHODS: The participants were a total of 384 community-dwelling older adults recruited from three senior centers in Seoul, Korea. Measures included mobility assessed using 6-minute walk test (6MWT), physical activity behavior, sleep profiles, fatigue and pain. Data were collected from July to December 2012. RESULTS: The mean 6MWT distance was 212.68 meters. Over 90% of the study participants (n = 373) were classified as having impaired mobility using 400 meters as the cutoff point diagnostic criteria of normal mobility in 6MWT. The 6MWT distance was 246.68 meters for participants in their 60s, 212.32 meters for those in their 70s, and 175.54 meters for those in their 80s. Significant predictors of mobility included younger age, taking mediation, regular physical activity, female gender, higher income, higher fatigue and better perception on sleep duration, which explained 18% of the total variance of mobility. CONCLUSION: A high-risk group for mobility limitation includes low income, sedentary older men who are at risk for increased fatigue and sleep deficit. Further research should incorporate other psychological and lifestyle factors such as depression, smoking, drinking behavior, and/or obesity into the prediction model of mobility to generate specific intervention strategies for mobility enhancement recommendations for older adults.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Chronic Disease/*epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Fatigue/epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Independent Living/*statistics & numerical data ; Male ; *Mobility Limitation ; Motor Activity ; Pain/epidemiology ; Risk Factors ; Seoul/epidemiology ; Sleep ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Increasing the susceptibility of young populations to HAV infection could result in an outbreak in a high-risk group. The author investigated the characteristics of hepatitis A outbreaks among Korean military personnel to obtain the fundamental data for determining the necessity for selective HAV vaccination. METHODS: A case was defined as a person who had an onset of an illness compatible with acute viral hepatitis A between 4 February and 6 April 1998. RESULTS: A widespread outbreak of hepatitis A affected 102 military personnel. The epidemic curve indicated a common-source exposure in the initial stage. At the end of the first month of the initial onset, the occurrence was specific to the location of the military post. Investigation suggested that contamination most likely occurred prior to the local distribution of food. The mean age was 23 years. The overall attack rate was 91 cases per 10000 persons at risk. All cases were jaundiced. The most frequently reported symptoms included icteric sclerae, dark urine, anorexia, malaise and fatigue, nausea, fever, abdominal pain, headache, upper respiratory symptoms, vomiting, itching, diarrhea, light-colored stools, myalgia, arthralgia, and skin rash. The laboratory test showed the serum total bilirubin of 5.5 mg/dL, AST of 344 IU/L, and ALT of 868 IU/L (mean value). CONCLUSION: All patients were clinically apparently diseased with jaundice and were completely recovered. The outbreak was food borne common-source exposure. The changing epidemiology hepatitis A in Korea calls for the economic evaluation of costs and benefits for selective HAV vaccination in high risk adult groups including military personnel.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Anorexia ; Arthralgia ; Bilirubin ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Diarrhea ; Disease Outbreaks ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Epidemiology ; Exanthema ; Fatigue ; Fever ; Headache ; Hepatitis A* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Korea ; Military Personnel* ; Myalgia ; Nausea ; Pruritus ; Sclera ; Vaccination ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of physical symptoms, anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QOL) during chemotherapy for colorectal cancer patients in South Korea and to identify factors influencing their QOL. METHODS: Data were collected from 144 colorectal cancer patients receiving chemotherapy during 2012 at one general hospital located in Seoul. Physical symptoms were measured by the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory-Gastrointestinal Cancer Module, and anxiety and depression were measured by the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. QOL was measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe post hoc test, Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 56.6 and most of them were not employed. In terms of cancer stage, 38.2% were in stage 3, followed by stage 4 (34.7%). The most frequent symptom was lack of appetite, followed by sleep disturbance and fatigue. The mean score for anxiety was 5.40 with a prevalence of 23% and that of depression 8.85 with a prevalence of 64.6%. The mean score for quality of life was 81.93 out of 136 and 75.3% of the variance in QOL was explained by depression, symptoms, anxiety, treatment place, and occupational status. Depression was the strongest predictive factor. CONCLUSION: Oncology professionals need to pay special attention to relieving depression as well as physical symptoms to improve QOL during chemotherapy for colorectal cancer patients.
Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use ; Anxiety ; Colorectal Neoplasms/drug therapy/pathology/*psychology ; Depression/epidemiology ; Fatigue ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prevalence ; *Quality of Life ; Republic of Korea ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Recently in Europe, some epidemiologic studies reported that various physical symptoms and social, psychological wellbeing are related to low blood pressure. But in Korea, none has been studied on symptoms related to low blood pressure yet. In this study, we would like to see if the somatic symptoms and social, psychological wellbeing shown t,o be related to low SBP is truly associated with it. METHODS: Questionnaire interview was done to the people who have visited Department of family practice in two university hospitals and two health promotion center from April, 1996 to August, 1996. Seven somatic symptoms and Psychosocial Wellbeing Index(PWI) for the evaluation of social, psychological health status were included in the questionnaire. SAS statistics packages was used in statistical precess. We used logistic regression to see the frequency of somatic symptoms related to the systolic blood pressure(SBP) group and the confirmation of confounding variables was done by ANOVA. RESULTS: Total of 304 completed the questionnaire. Average age was 44 years old and average SBP was 115.4+/-16.4. 84 of them (27.6%) felt that they had a low BP & 69 were women compared to 21 men, being meaningfully more common. 107(35.2%) people answered that they had heard that their blood pressure was low and 66% were from doctors. Only 32(38.1%) of the group who felt of having hypotensive symptoms and 38 of the group who heard of having hypotension actually had SBP of below 100 mmHg. Vocation, income, smoking & alcohol history, present illness, marital status were not significant as a confounding variable. SBP of 100 or below group had a less presentation of fatigue & significantly higher PWI than the group of above 100mmHg (p<0.05). The group who felt that they had a low BP had more complaints of fatigue, dizziness, palpitation, cold hands and feet and had significnatly higher PWI than the group who didnt. CONCLUSIONS: SBP of 100mmHg or below group has more frequent manifestion of fatigue and low level of sociopsycholgiacl health index than the above 100mmHg group. But most of the people who complained of hypotensive symptoms didnt have low blood pressure and a lot of them misunderstand of having low blood pressure and after checking blood pressure by doctors, so great deal of caution is called for when seeing patients.
Adult ; Blood Pressure* ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Dizziness ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Europe ; Family Practice ; Fatigue ; Female ; Foot ; Hand ; Health Promotion ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Marital Status ; Occupations ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires