OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression in medical students and to evaluate whether interpersonal social support, health-related behaviors, and socio-economic factors were associated with depression in medical students. METHODS: The subjects in this study were 120 medical students in Seoul, Korea who were surveyed in September, 2008. The subjects were all women and over the age of 20. Their age, body mass index (BMI), quality of sleep, diet, household income, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise levels, and self-reported health status were surveyed. The degree of perceived social support was measured using the interpersonal support evaluation list (ISEL). Depression was evaluated using the center for epidemiology studies depression scale (CES-D). RESULTS: The mean CES-D score was 14.1+/-8.6 and 37.1% of the participants appeared to suffer from depression. Low levels of perceived interpersonal support increased the risk of depression by more than 10 times and having higher household income did not necessarily decrease the risk of depression. CONCLUSION: Medical students have a relatively high level of depression. Efforts should be made to encourage social support in order to promote mental health in medical students.
Alcohol Drinking ; Body Mass Index ; Depression ; Diet ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Prevalence ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Class ; Students, Medical

PURPOSE: To compare the evaluation results of faculties to those of Standardized Patients (SP) participating in a Clinical Performance Examination (CPX) administered at Ewha Womans University College of Medicine. METHODS: The CPX was taken by 77 fourth year medical students. Cases and checklist were developed by the medical school consortium in capital area. Six cases were used and 24 SPs participated and evaluated the students' performances. The whole session was recorded on videotapes so that 6 medical school faculties could analyze and evaluate the students' performances as well. The results were compared and analyzed by SPSS package. RESULTS: The agreement between the faculties and the SPs was relatively good (r=0.79), but not good enough. In every case, SPs gave higher marks than did the faculties. Clear disease entity cases like "hepatitis" and "anemia" showed better agreement than obscure clinical contexts such as "bad news delivery". Better agreement was seen in the items of physical exam category (r=0.91), but the agreement was very poor in the items of doctor-patient (Dr-Pt) relationship category (r=0.54). The construction of checklist and the character of each evaluation item should influence the differences. CONCLUSION: More detailed guidelines and clear/specific evaluating items are necessary to improve the agreement rate. In certain categories like physical exam and brief history taking, the SP' s evaluation can replace the faculties', but for complex contexts like Dr-Pt relationship.
Checklist ; Female ; Humans ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical ; Videotape Recording

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Timing of almond intake during a day may result differently in the perspectives of body composition and changes of lipid profile. The current study was conducted to compare the effects of daily almond intake as a preload versus as a snack on body composition, blood lipid profile, and oxidative and inflammation indicators among young Korean adults aged 20–39 years old. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a pre-meal almond group (PM), a snack almond group (SN) in which participants were instructed to consume 56 g of almonds either as a preload before meals or as a snack between meals, respectively, and a control group (CL) in which participants were provided high-carbohydrate iso-caloric control food. Measurements were performed at baseline, weeks 8 and 16. RESULTS: A total of 169 (M 77/F 92) out of the 227 participants completed the study between June 2014 and June 2015 (n = 58 for PM; 55 for SN; and 56 for CL). A significant decrease in body fat mass was observed in the PM group at both weeks 8 and 16 compared with the CL. There were significant intervention effects on changes of body fat mass (P = 0.025), body fat percentages (P = 0.019), and visceral fat levels (P < 0.001). Consuming almonds as a daily snack reduced the levels of total cholesterol (P = 0.043) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (P = 0.011) without changing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol compared with the CL. CONCLUSION: Almond consumption as a preload modified body fat percentages, whereas snacking on almonds between meals improved blood lipid profiles. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03014531.
Adipose Tissue ; Adult* ; Body Composition* ; Cholesterol ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Intra-Abdominal Fat ; Lipoproteins ; Meals ; Prunus dulcis* ; Snacks

PURPOSE: Clinical performance examination(CPX) using standardized patients(SPs) is an acceptable method of testing medical professionals, but there has been some concerns about security. The objective of this work is to examine whether the day of the examination influences the scores of examinees of different medical schools at different times throughout the examination period. METHODS: Six medical schools, which had participated in the Seoul-Gyeonggi CPX Consortium 2005, were enrolled. Each station, controlled by the same regulations, included 12 minutes of SP encounter and 5 minutes of writing a short essay. We compared the mean scores using ANOVA and linear trends with multiple regression analyses and SPSS version 11.0. RESULTS: The mean score of examinees from all 6 medical schools was 63.2+/-.9. There was no difference in total mean scores among the medical schools according to the period when CPX was conducted. Classified by their examination day, there was no difference among the mean scores of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd day, but in one school where the examination was performed for 5days, the mean scores of the 4th day was higher than the others(p<0.05). There were trends of linear increases over the five days for the 'physical examination'question, but not for 'physician-patient interaction'and 'patient education'. CONCLUSION: The changes in scores according to the examination day in this study did not show consistent results. However, the variable results seen according to school, test question, and examination day need further analysis for test security issues.
Clinical Competence ; Humans ; Schools, Medical* ; Social Control, Formal ; Writing

OBJECTIVES : We aimed to define the effects of antioxidant vitamins and oxidative stress in the intrauterine period on childhood neurobehavioral development. METHODS : The behavioral status of 100 children (aged four) at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital in Korea was examined using the K-CBCL. Their maternal vitamin and oxidative stress status were analyzed at midterm as intrauterine circumstance indices. The relationship between intrauterine condition and childhood behavioral development was analyzed using a general linear model. RESULTS : K-CBCL scores were lower in the group which took high levels of maternal vitamins B6 and B12 than scores in the group which too low levels of these vitamin. In contrast, the group with high maternal oxidative stress exhibited higher scores in behavioral problem scales. After adjusting for inborn and childhood environmental covariates, K-CBCL differences were statistically significant in the B2 group comparison (high group vs. low group;total problem : 47.0+/-1.0 vs. 53.0+/-1.8, internalizing problem 46.5+/-1.0 vs. 51.2+/-1.8). In addition, significant highest means of K-CBCL were in low vitamin and high oxidative stress group than other combined groups. CONCLUSION : We have established a relationship between maternal vitamins and oxidative stress during pregnancy, and a 4 year-old child's behavioral development. This suggests that preventive efforts during pregnancy are influential on early childhood behavioral problems.
Child ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Oxidative Stress ; Pregnancy ; Vitamins ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether polymorphisms of genes encoding peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR gamma) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) are associated with preeclmapsia in Korean women and also to demonstrate whether there is any haplotypic association between preeclampsia and those genes. METHODS: DNA was extracted from whole blood of 226 preeclampsia patients and 235 healthy pregnant women. The genotypes of SNPs in PPAR gamma (-796A>G, P12A (C>G), H447H (161C>T)) and MTHFR (A222V (677C>T), E429A (1298A>C), R594Q (1793G>A)) were analyzed by a single base primer extension assay using a SNaPShot assay kit. Results were analyzed with the Student's t-test, Chi-square test, and Logistic regression analysis. Haplotype analyses were performed using Haploview 3.2 version. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies of PPAR gamma and MTHFR gene polymorphisms between preeclampsia patients and controls (p>0.05). No increase in the risk of preeclampsia for those genes was observed under any model of inheritance. Among SNPs of the PPAR gamma, MTHFR genes, only SNPs in MTHFR gene (677C>T, 1298A>C, 1793G>A) were in a strong linkage disequilibrium with each other (Lod score>2.0), but there were no significant differences in genotype distribution of haplotypes of MTHFR gene (TAG, CAG, CCA, CCG) between preeclampsia patients and controls (p>0.05). No statistically significant associations were observed between any haplotypes of MTHFR gene and preeclampsia risk. CONCLUSION: This study suggest that SNPs in PPAR gamma and MTHFR gene were not associated with preeclampsia in Korean women, and its haplotypes were also not associated with preeclampsia.
DNA ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Linkage Disequilibrium ; Logistic Models ; Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2)* ; Peroxisomes* ; Polymorphism, Genetic* ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; PPAR gamma ; Pre-Eclampsia* ; Pregnant Women ; Wills