PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to analyze the smoking behaviors and to identify the impacts of depression, temperament, and characteristic on smoking experience in the female adolescents. METHODS: This study surveyed 691 highschool girls in the Gangwon area using self-administered questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS 12.0. using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression. RESULTS: The smoking rate of the highschool girls was lower than that of the national average. Depression was observed to be seriously in the highschool girls. There were a positive correlations among smoking experience, the school records and novelty seeking and a negative correlation between smoking and cooperativeness. The significant predictors of smoking experience were the type of school, the satisfaction with school, the school records, novelty seeking, reward dependence and cooperativeness. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that femalel adolescents who have the factors identified in this study are considered to have the potential for smoking. These results provide the basis for developing smoking prevention and cessation programs.
Adolescent* ; Depression* ; Female ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Reward ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Temperament* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Creatine Kinase* ; Electrophoresis*

OBJECTIVE: The aim of study was to analyze obstetric and neonatal causes of Korean neonatal deaths. METHODS: The study subjects are a cohort of infants who were born during 1996 and who died before their first birthday. The data were collected through three stages of the study: the collection of existing data, a national infant mortality survey at medical facilities, and data integrating and adjusting process. The sources of existing data were health insurance data and the resident registration data. The National infant mortality survey was conducted by both 'Ministry of Health and Welfare' and 'Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs'. 3930 medical and health facilities where obstetrics services are available were surveyed during November 1998. The survey results were computerized to match data sets, and any overlap among different data sets were filtered. Causes of deaths were grouped according to the KCD (Korean Standard Classification of Diseases). Causes of neonatal death were further analyzed using composite causes combining obstetric and neonatal conditions. RESULTS: Causes of 2,433 neonatal death were known out of 2,856 deaths. "Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period" comprised 77.1% of neonatal death, being the most common cause. The next common cause was 'congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities', constituting 15.7% of neonatal death. Among the 'certain conditions originating in the perinatal period', 'respiratory distress of newborn' constituted 17.1% of neonatal deaths and 'disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight', constituted 15.6% of neonatal deaths. Neonatal sepsis constituted 14.8% of neonatal death. Among congenital malformations 'congenital malformation of the heart' was most common, constituting 6.2% of neonatal death. 'Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period' was more important cause of preterm neonatal death. Of the related maternal condition, idiopathic preterm birth, multifetal pregnancy, premature rupture of the membranes and hypertensive diseases during pregnancy were common conditions. Congenital malformation was the most important cause of term neonatal death. CONCLUSION: Prematurity-related condition was more important cause of preterm neonatal death while congenital malformation was the most important cause of term neonatal death.
Cause of Death ; Classification ; Cohort Studies ; Dataset ; Gestational Age ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant Mortality ; Insurance, Health ; Membranes ; Obstetrics ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Premature Birth ; Rupture ; Sepsis

No abstract available.
Neuroendocrine Cells* ; Prostate* ; Prostatic Hyperplasia*

No Abstract Available.
Bacteroides fragilis* ; Bacteroides* ; Chemokines, CXC* ; Enterotoxins* ; Epithelial Cells* ; Humans* ; NF-kappa B*

No Abstract Available.
Bacteroides fragilis* ; Bacteroides* ; Chemokines, CXC* ; Enterotoxins* ; Epithelial Cells* ; Humans* ; NF-kappa B*

BACKGROUND: In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded a 20-fold increase in the incidence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) associated with nosocomial infections between 1989 and 1991. Although VRE has been reported in Korea since 1992, infections caused by these organisms are still extremely rare in Pusan, Korea. Therefore, a point prevalence culture survey was carried out to investigate the prevalence of intestinal colonization with VRE among patients admitted to Kosin Medical Center, which can predict the appearance of clinical infections with VRE. METHODS: Between July 1997 and August 1997, stool specimens were obtained from 303 patients. Specimens were placed in bile esculin azide broth containing vancomycin (64 microgram/mL) and aatreonam (60 microgram/mL). Cultures were done for 48 hours at 37degrees C, and turbid solutions were subcultured on blood agar. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of vancomycin and teicoplanin to Enterococcus isolates were determined by Etest on Mueller-Hinton agar. For amplification of the vanA, vanB, and vanC genes, polymerase chain reactions were performed. RESULTS: VRE isolates were isolated from 6 of the patients (2%). Four of them were identified as E. faecium, and 1 was identified as E. avium, and 1 was identified as Enterococcus spp. All of them were highly resistant to vancomycin (MICs >256 microgram/mL), and they were also resistant to teicoplanin (MICs 32-->256 microgram/mL). All of 6 VRE strains carried vanA gene. CONCLUSION: The colonization of VRE was not infrequent among the patients of a university hospital in Pusan, Korea. Moreover, a large proportion of the colonizing VRE was revealed Enterococcus faecium with vanA gene, which implies quite a possibility of a sudden rising of infections by this organism in the near future. So we propose that the vancomycin susceptibility test should be done for every enterococcal isolate from clinical specimens and the intestinal colonization rate of VRE should be closely monitored at regular intervals for the purpose of surveillance 50 that proper establishment of plans for the prevention of this troublesome pathogen's spread can be promptly made.
Agar ; Bile ; Busan ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Colon* ; Cross Infection ; Enterococcus ; Enterococcus faecium ; Esculin ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Teicoplanin ; United States ; Vancomycin