Although acute occupational poisonings are very rare officially, it seems that there are a considerable number of unreported cases seen from non-intentional poisoning cases of the national injury and poisoning survey on discharged patients. Establishing a proper national surveillance system for acute occupational poisonings is needed. It is difficult for clinical physicians to diagnose acute occupational poisonings appropriately because the victims who usually are not mentally alert can not provide the information on the workplace hazard. Consulting a specialist of occupational and environmental medicine may help to reveal the cause of poisoning. Furthermore, reporting to the public organization such as workers health center and Korea occupational safety and health is helpful to prevent additional injuries.
Environmental Medicine ; Humans ; Korea* ; Occupational Health ; Poisoning* ; Specialization

Septic arthritis is rarely caused by anaerobic bacteria, which is mostly secondary to hematogenous dissemination among the immunocompromised host. We report a patient of septic arthritis on the right knee joint caused by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. To the best of knowledge, this is the first report of septic arthritis caused by Bacteroides spp. in Korea.
Arthritis, Infectious* ; Bacteremia* ; Bacteria, Anaerobic ; Bacteroides* ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Knee Joint ; Korea ; Multiple Myeloma*

Previous exposure to antimicrobials is a major risk factor for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Antibiotic prescription and C. difficile toxin assay records of patients admitted to a tertiary hospital in Korea from 2009 to 2013 were collected to investigate the association between antibiotic consumption and CDI incidence. A Spearman's correlation analysis between CDI incidence (positive result of toxin assay/10,000 admissions) and antibiotic consumption (defined daily dose/1,000 patient-days) was performed on a monthly basis. Using the matched month approach, we found a significant correlation between CDI rate and moxifloxacin consumption (Spearman's r = 0.351, P < 0.001). Furthermore, using the onemonth delay approach, we found that the consumption of clindamycin (Spearman's r = 0.272, P = 0.037) and moxifloxacin (Spearman's r = 0.297, P = 0.022) was significantly correlated with CDI incidence. Extended-spectrum cephalosporins did not have any effect on CDI incidence.

BACKGROUND: Impairments of language function represent patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the early stage and as the disease progresses the damage spreads over a much broader range of cognition and communicative functions. And, performances of the naming tasks in AD patients may reveal the gradual deterioration of their naming ability. METHODS: In this study, naming ability was studied in patients with questionable AD (CDR 0.5, n=10), mild AD (CDR 1, n=10), moderate AD (CDR 2, n=10) and 10 healthy controls matched for age, gender and educational level using confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition tasks. The purpose of present study was 1) to investigate whether the confrontation naming and naming by verbal definition in Alzheimer's disease is different depending on the severity, 2) to examine the effects of the syllabic cue on the two naming ability for the errors questions. RESULTS: The results from this study are as follow: 1) The two naming performances of the all AD groups were lower than those of normal people and showed significant difference. 2) There were differences between the two naming tasks, significantly lower performance on confrontation naming task than naming by verbal definition. 3) The effects of syllabic cue decreased gradually as severity progressed. 4) The effects of syllabic cue were no significant differences between the two naming tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that anomia in patients with AD is due to various impairment including to lexico-semantic system, visual processing, phonological processing and auditory comprehension.
Alzheimer Disease ; Anomia ; Cognition ; Comprehension ; Cues ; Humans

PURPOSE: Recently, the interest in positive psychotherapy is growing, which can help to encourage positive relationships and develop strengths of people. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a positive psychotherapy program on positive affect, interpersonal relations, resilience, and mental health recovery in community-dwelling people with schizophrenia. METHODS: The research was conducted using a randomized control group pretest-posttest design. A total of 57 adults with schizophrenia participated in this study. The study participants in experimental group received a positive psychotherapy program (n=28) and the participants in control group received only the usual treatment in community centers (n=29). The positive psychotherapy program was provided for 5 weeks (of 10 sessions, held twice/week, for 60 minutes). The study outcomes included positive affect, interpersonal relations, resilience, and mental health recovery. The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA for examining study hypothesis. RESULTS: Results showed that interpersonal relations (F=11.83, p=.001) and resilience (F=9.62, p=.003) significantly increased in the experimental group compared to the control group. Although experimental group showed a slight increase in positive affect, it was not significant. CONCLUSION: The study findings confirm that the positive psychotherapy program is effective for improving interpersonal relations and resilience of community-dwelling people with schizophrenia. Based on the findings, we believe that the positive psychotherapy program would be acceptable and helpful to improve recovery of mental health in schizophrenia.
Adult ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations* ; Mental Health* ; Psychotherapy* ; Resilience, Psychological ; Schizophrenia*

BACKGROUND: The aims of the study are to investigate the present state of occupational health management (OHM) in small enterprises, to explore the related factors, and to provide the information for effective policy of OHM in those enterprises. METHODS: The study subjects were 155 small enterprises that had referred the measurement of workplace hazards to a hospital at the East Seoul, Korea. Self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted by Fax. The contents of the survey were present state of OHM and related factors. RESULTS: 1. The characteristics of OHM in charge were as follows; among the health manager (1) 81.9% had the high authority, (2) 63.2% could explain workplace hazard, (3) 52.9% had outside professional education, (4) 49.7% recognized the need for occupational health, and (5) 67.7% had pragmatic perspective on workers' health protection. 2. The occupational health activities that showed higher performance rate were as follows; periodic health examination (86.5%), measurement of workplace hazard (92.9%). The occupational health activities that showed lower performance rate were as follows; appointment of emergency hospital (26.5%), replacement health examination (18.1%), health education (30.0%), health promotion (23.3%), preparation of health statistics (14.8%), planning health management (9.7%) 3. As results of multiple logistic regression analysis, the factors associated with the higher activity of occupational health were longer duration(more than 5 years) of health manager in charge(OR=2.41), pragmatic perspective on workers' health protection (OR=3.79), experience of outside professional education (OR=2.40), repair of automobiles(OR=3.31), workplace that employed more than 10 workers (OR=4.02), history of workers' compensation (OR=8.05), employers' high concern (OR=4.61). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that interest of employers and appointment of suitable health manager in charge were important, and minimum regulations and the development of occupational health program integrated with promoting productivity are required to activate occupational health in small enterprise
Education, Professional ; Efficiency ; Emergencies ; Health Education ; Health Promotion ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Occupational Health ; Seoul ; Social Control, Formal ; Workers' Compensation ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: The aims of the study are to evaluate the effectiveness of a workplace smoking cessation program, and to investigate the role of the occupational characteristics for planning better smoking cessation program (SCP). METHOD: 258 workers' smoking statuses were surveyed. A follow up survey was conducted after 6 Month SCP including campaign, health education, provision of nicotine patches, and smoking cessation incentives. Theup rate was 89.2%. RESULTS: 1. Thesmoking rate was reduced from 67.4% (before SCP) to 45.3 %. The rates after SCP were different by the type of job and the status of employment. The participation rate of the office workers was 32.8%, and that of the technician was 55.6% (p<0.01). The rate of the regular workers was 59.4%, and that of the irregular workers was 36.8% (p<0.05). 2. Among of 174 smokers, 55.9% participated in SCP. According to the type of job and the job position, the participation rate was different. The rate of office workers was 69.9%, and that of the technician was 47.5% (p<0.01). Among the managerial personnel 86.4% participated in SCP, and amongthe plain workers, 52.5% (p<0.01). 3. In multivariate analysis, the smoking cessation rate was higher in office workers (OR=3.21), the group of lower job demand (OR=3.12), that of absence of family stress (OR=2.91), and that of lower perceived stress (OR=3.51). CONCLUSION: The SCP based on social-cognitive theory reduced smoking rate, but increased the difference of the smoking rates by the type of the job. These results suggest that the SCP using social-context model is important to establish the better strategy to stop the smokin
Education ; Employment ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Motivation ; Multivariate Analysis ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Use Cessation Products

BACKGROUND: We studied gender difference in prevalence, risk factors, medical management, workplace activities for the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal diseases (WMSDs), and the role of gender in analysis of the factors affecting the prevalence of WMSDs. METHODS: In 3, 339 workers at 29 workplace, questionaire survey was conducted. The questionaire was consisted of personal factors, perceived workload and ergonomic factors (modified KOSHA code H-30), perceived job stress (modified Karasek model). musculoskeletal symptoms, medical management, workplace activities for the prevention of WMSDs. RESULTS: Female workers' overall prevalence of WMSDs (37.4%) was higher than that of male workers (18.9%), and there are many differences in the prevalence by the involved site of the body. The rate of personal risk factors, perceived workload, ergonomic risk factors, and the perceived job stress were higher in female workers than those of male workers. In gender-sensitive multivariate analysis, female worker's prevalence of WMSDs was higher in regular workers (OR=2.08), manufacturing, professional, service workers (OR, 2.25, 3.89, 3.26, respectively)). It was also associated with higher perceived workload (OR, 1.48~1.74), higher ergonomic risk (OR, 1.86~3.65), high job demand (OR=1.62), and low social support by co-workers (OR=1.29). The prevalence of WMSDs of male workers was higher in people living with dependent (OR=1.39), manufacturing workers (OR=1.54), but lower in service workers (OR=0.54). It was also associated with high workload (OR=1.98), higher ergonomic risk (OR, 3.26~5.55), and lower job control (OR=1.39). CONCLUSION: These results showed that female workers' high prevalence of WMSDs is the reflection of 'gendered' workplace, i.e. all aspects of WMSDs have profound association with gender from risk factors to medical management. Therefore, gender-sensitive analysis can reveal more realistic factors affecting WMSDs, and provide more valuable implications in prevention of WMSDs.
Female ; Humans ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Musculoskeletal Diseases* ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the symptom prevalence and the primary intervention of work-related musculoskeletal diseases(WMSDs) and their related factors among manufacturing workers. METHOD: A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on 2,457 workers, at 22 enterprises in Chungnam province, Korea, from September 1 to December 1, 2003. The contents of the questionnaire included general and work-related characteristics, musculoskeletal symptoms and workers' past one-year experience of primary interventions. RESULTS 1. The overall symptom prevalence of the musculoskeletal diseases was 23.9%. The WMSD symptom prevalences at the neck/shoulder, arm/elbow, hand/wrist and back/leg were 14.8%. 2.7%. 7.3% and 12.0%, respectively. 2. In multivariate analysis, all WMSD symptom prevalences were high in the high workload, high force & high repetitiveness, and 'high job strain' groups. The WMSD symptom prevalence at neck/shoulder was also high in females and the group experiencing low social support from the supervisor. 3. The rates of the primary interventions were as follows : 13.7% for health education, 5.8% for health counselling, 18.8% for preventive exercise, 24.7% for ergonomic intervention, and 9.8% for administrative intervention. 4. In multivariate analysis, the size of the enterprises and the type of occupational health management system(OHMS) were significantly associated with all primary interventions except health counselling(p<0.05). The other individual-level predictive factors were as follows. Those for the health education were male and union presence. Those for the health counselling were older age(> or =40 years), irregular employment, and the active group of Karasek's job strain model. Those for the preventive exercise were male, older age, longer tenure and regular employment. Those for the ergonomic intervention were longer tenure, job of physical force and/or repetitiveness, high job stain and the group experiencing high social support from the supervisor. The predictive factor for the administrative intervention was male (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: To establish an effective strategy for the primary prevention of WMSDs, approaches are needed which consider the individual nature of small and medium sized enterprises. IAlso necessary is to promote the participation of labor and management because the activation of the primary intervention was associated with the type of OHMS and union presence. Moreover the reduction of workload and increased intervention into the high risk group could be effective in the prevention of WMSDs.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Employment ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Musculoskeletal Diseases ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence* ; Primary Prevention ; Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Vibrio parahaemolyticus belonged to the new 03:K6 serotype was demonstrated an unusual potential to spread and an enhanced propensity to cause infection in the worldwide. Recently, increased numbers of V. parahaemolyticus 03:K6 had been isolated in Korea, and we analyzed the prevalence and molecular genetic characteristics of V. parahaemolyticus 03:K6 isolates. METHODS: V. parahaemolyticus were isolated from clinical specimens of patients with diarrhea in Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, Korea, from 1998 to 2005. The serovars of isolates were determined by slide agglutination test with specific antisera. All isolates were examined for the presence of tdh/trh genes. AGS-PCR method detecting the new 03:K6 clone was used in this study. We analyzed clonality of these isolates by infrequent restriction site-polymerase chain reaction (IRS-PCR). RESULTS: Thirty-six strains were isolated from 1998 to 2005. The main serotype of isolates were 03:K6 (24/36: 67%), All of them have tdh gene but not trh gene and an unique toxRS gene of the new 03:K6. The morphotypes of 03:K6 isolates show a same pattern of IRS-PCR, but can easily be differentiated from non-03:K6 and 04:K68 isolates. CONCLUSION: The 03:K6 was a main serotype of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from 1998 to 2005 and they show same molecular characteristics.
Agglutination Tests ; Clone Cells ; Diarrhea ; Humans ; Immune Sera ; Korea ; Molecular Biology* ; Prevalence* ; Seoul ; Vibrio parahaemolyticus* ; Vibrio*