No abstract available.
Education* ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional*

No abstract available.

The effect of self rated health on all cause mortality was. examined in a community residents sample of 2, 848 men and 3, 534 women aged 55 years or over who has been followed for eight years, 1985-1993. This longitudinal study, conducted in Kangwha County, Keanggido, began in 1985 with baseline examinations of physical and life style characteristics. The results indicate that the self-rated health has a profound and independent effect on all cause mortality during the study period. Cox's hazard model estimates that persons with 'poor' self-rated health has 1.7 times (CI 1.2-2. 6) higher risk of all cause mortality than persons with 'excellent' self-rated health and persons with 'worst' one has 4.2 (CI 2.6-6.2) in male. Estimates for women are similar to those of men. Further researchs to investigate the effects on cause specfic mortality and effects to reveal the work mechanism of self-rated health are highly expected.
Aged* ; Cohort Studies* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Life Style ; Longitudinal Studies ; Male ; Mortality* ; Proportional Hazards Models

Japanese encephalitis(JE) is the leading viral cause of encephalitis and disability in Asia. The disease primarily infects children under the age of 15, leaving up to 70% of these who develop illness either dead or with a long-term neurological disability. We reviewed not only JE disease burden, etiology, vector, mode of transmission, reservoir but also geographic distribution and incidence of the disease in Asia, with a focus on the South Korea. A special comment on the methods of control JE and perspective for South Korea also included.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Child ; Encephalitis ; Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea*

For many years, members of medical profession have believed that the shorter symptoms to diagnosis interval(SDI) might be related to early stages and that the prompt treatments might improve survival rates in cancer patients. But this notion has been challenged by many researches for many years. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of SDI on the cancer survival for 221 stomach cancer cases, 106 lung cancer cases, 74 liver cancer cases and 59 cervix cancer cases. These cancer cases are registered ones in Kanghwa Cancer Registery Program from 1987 to 1991. Relationships among SDI, stages of cancers, operation rates, and survival were analysed. Results are as follows: 1. SDI was not related to stages of cancer. There were no difference in the distribution of stages among five SDI subgroups. 2. This data did not support that SDI affects the survival of stomach cancer patients. The cancer stages did affect survival in stomach cancer patients though. 3. Our data did not support that SDI affects cancer survival. A Cox proportional hazard model showed that SDI does not play a important role in cancer survival controlling age, gender, stage and other variables in the model. Further studies are highly expected to clarify the relationships between SDI and cancer survivals. Researches with bigger sample size and more sophisticated variables would be needed.
Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; Lung Neoplasms ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Sample Size ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

This article reviewed the historic and epidemiologic reasons for the emergence of health promotion with a special focus on lifestyle. Health effects of tobacco, alcohol, physical exercise, and nutrition were briefly presented by reviewing recent researches. Social environments supposed to limit the application of health promotion strategies are also mentioned.
Exercise ; Health Promotion ; Life Style* ; Social Environment ; Tobacco

Stomach cancer is the most common cancer in Korea with highest mortality. Therefore, finding risk factors involved in its prevention is vitally important. Case-control study was done to demonstrate the relationship between smoking, drinking, food, nutrition, 5% salt solution and the incidence of stomach cancer. The study group consisted of 82 patients with stomach cancers confirmed by pathology as case group and 113 patients with chronic superficial gastritis as control. General characteristics, smoking and drinking habits, dietary habit according to food groups, individual preference to salty and spicy foods were analyzed. Subjects had undergone taste test with 10cc of 0.5% salt solution. Age adjusted odds ratios by Mantel-Haenszel test were performed for each variable. 1. Smoking in males had no direct relationship with incidence of stomach cancer, but in females there is a higher odds ratio in smoking group (OR=2.63). Drin-king had no effect on the odds ratio in males, whereas in females, the odds ratio was significantly decreased in drinking group (OR=0.25). 2. Consumption of fruits in females showed a protec-tive effect on developing stomach cancer (OR=0.41). Males who had more protein and iron intake were found to have significantly higher odds ratio for stomach cancer risk (protein OR=2.86, iron OR=5.18). 3. Salty diet habit in females showed a higher odds ratio for stomach cancer risk (OR=2.49). No correlation was found between spicy diet habit with stomach cancer. 4. Male subjects who did not feel salty with 0.5% salt solution showed significantly increased odds ratio (OR=4.59) for stomach cancer. This study is limited due to fact that the number of subjects was not large enough for indepth evaluation and that other confounding factors other than age was not sufficiently controlled. Further investigation that concerns ingestion of fruit group, the level of subjects' taste to 0.5% salt solution, and protein and iron intake on a larger scale is recommended.
Case-Control Studies* ; Drinking ; Eating ; Female ; Food Habits ; Fruit ; Gastritis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Iron ; Korea ; Male ; Mortality ; Odds Ratio ; Pathology ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach*

Among 130 cholera patients treated in Seohae Hospital in 1991, 86 were cholera bacilli positive and remaining 44 were negative. All cholera bacilli 'positive' patients were confirmed bacteriologically by National Institute for Health team. Cholera related symptoms and laboratory findings were gathered by interviews and medical records surveys. Symptoms and some serological laboratory findings are compared between cholera bacilli 'positive' and 'negative' patients in 1991 cholera epidemic. Results are as follows: 1. There were no differences in symptoms distribution and in mean values of all serological laboratory tests done between two groups. These facts support that both cholera bacilli 'positive' and 'negative' patients are persons who have cholera bacilli infection. 2. The age distribution of the cholera bacilli 'negative' group tended to be much younger than that of 'positive' group. The infection source of this group is believed to be the environmental reservoir. This findings suggests that cholera bacilli 'negative' patients have the possibility of endemic characteristics. We think it is worth investigating Vibrio cholera antibody titers of people in area with frequent cholera epidemics in Korea.
Age Distribution ; Cholera* ; Humans ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Vibrio

The objective of this study is to differentiate the mild dementia of Alzheimer type from the questionable dementia and non-demented elderly using the neurocognitive assessment. Subjects of 28 women who were registered to kwangju Community Mental Health Center were as follows: 14 non-demented, 9 questionable dementia, 5 mild dementia of Alzheimer type. The diagnosis were made using DSM-IV, Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. The neurocognitive functions were assessed with following test tools 1) attention: Digit span, Visual span, Continuous attention; 2) memory: Logical memroy, Verbal paired associates-easy/hard 3) visual perception and visuospatial ability: Visual recognition test, Construction; and 4) language: Comprehension and Aphasia severity rating scale; 5) higher cortical function: Hypothesis formation, Perseveration, Similarity, Judgment, and Go-No-Go test. Group differences were analyzed with one way ANOVA test in SPSS 8.0 for win and LSD method as post-hoc analysis. The questionable dementia group showed significant difference in Verbal paired associateseasy pair, Construction, Aphasia severity rating scale and Similarity from the non-demented normal control group but showed no difference from the mildly demented group. These results suggest that the questionable dementia is actually very early or very mild stage of dementia of the Alzheimer type.
Aged* ; Aphasia ; Comprehension ; Dementia* ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Female ; Gwangju ; Humans ; Judgment ; Logic ; Lysergic Acid Diethylamide ; Memory ; Mental Health ; Visual Perception

Smoking, obesity and diet are just a few of the multifactors which have been suggested to be associated with the risk of CHD. It is a common phenomenon that persons who stop smokin gain weight. This fear of gaining weight is often given as a reason for giving up to quit smoking. The purpose of this study is to find the effects of cessation of smoking on body weight and the difference of BMI distribution according to smoking habits. The subjects of this study were 72 techinical high school teachers in Seoul and Kyounggi-Do, 85 offical wokers of the S-Company and 81 auto industrial workers in PyoungTaek. The investigation for this study has been conducted from Oct. 27th to Oct. 31st 1997. The method was self-feported questionnaire survey which consists of general characterisics, smoking habits and its relevant questions. The questionnaires were revised after two-times of pre-tests, carried out for twenty subjects. The results are as follows ; 1. Smoking habits have significant relations with diet, exercise, drinking and the amount of daily smoking. 2. BMI among different smoking habits groups showed significant differences in following variables ; age, the interaction between exercise and smoking habits, drinking level, the interaction etween drinking level and smoking habits and the interaction between total smoking duration and smoking gabits. 3. The mean values of BMI are 23.5 in non-smoker, 23.8 in ex-smoker and 23.4 in current smoker. There are no statistically significant differencs among amoking habits. 4. The average of 2.14kg weight gain is witnessed after 6 months of the cessation of smoking. Current weight was high by 3.89kh in average compared to the pre-cessation weight(p=0.0001). 5. The odds ratio for gaining weight among ex-smokers is 8.94 in "increase or very increase" group in diet compared to those of "no change". 6. The multiple regression analysis has a significant model in current smoker(p=0.001). The mean BMI of those who were "very active" in exercise is higher than that of "inactive" or "active". The mean BMI of those who were "light or moderate ot heavy drinker" is lower than that of "non-drinker". The mean BMI of those who have the monthly income 1.5millions-1.99millions won is significantly higher than those having less than 1.5millions or more than 2.0millions won. The implication of this study could suggest that health education for smoking cessation needs new approches to minimize weight gain.
Adult* ; Body Weight ; Diet ; Drinking ; Gyeonggi-do ; Health Education ; Humans ; Male* ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Seoul ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation ; Smoking* ; Weight Gain ; Surveys and Questionnaires