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

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to explore the prevalence of and the factors affecting constipation in elementary school students in urban and rural areas. METHODS: Study subjects were 585 grade 5 and 6 students. We conducted self-administered questionnaires during October, 2009. Outcome measure was the prevalence of constipation evaluated by the Rome III Diagnostic criteria for functional constipation. Independent variables were gender, grade, residence, mother's employment status, self-rated health status, number of family members, bowel movement habit, and health behavior (nutrition, exercise, and stress). RESULTS: The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that females, grade 5 students, those with working mothers, and those physically inactive reported having constipation significantly more often. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that the female gender, increasing age, mother's employment status, and physical inactivity were risk factors for constipation in elementary school students. To improve bowel function in children, health education programs and school health promotion programs targeting healthy life habits should be implemented.
Child ; Constipation* ; Employment ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Mothers ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; School Health Services ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study was to evaluate an occupational health promotion program for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. METHOD: This study employed a quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre and post test to evaluate the program. The subjects of this study were 48 employees selected by convenience sampling who were suspected of having hypertension and hyperlipidemia in routine physical examinations and who were working in A University Hospital in Suwon. 25 subjects were assigned to the experimental group and 23 to the control group. Data collection was done using questionnaries before and after the subjects used the program. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that systolic blood pressure, ALT, gamma-GTP in the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. There were significant differences between two groups in the percentage of 'irregularity of diet' and in health behavior compliance. There were significant differences between the two groups in the number of complaints of symptoms after using the program. CONCLUSION: This study shows that there were no obvious differences between the two groups in all areas, but this program had a positive effect on health behavior changes. It is expected that employees' lifestyles can be changed through continuous health promotion programs.
Blood Pressure ; Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Compliance ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Gyeonggi-do ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Life Style ; Occupational Health* ; Physical Examination

BACKGROUND: Previous reports have suggested that alleles at the plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene are associated with increased risk of developing coronary artery disease, including myocardial infarction and stroke through their effect on PAI-1 levels. Method: We attempted to search English literatures for all reports of possible effects of PAI-1 gene on cardiovascular disease in human published prior to November 1998. We used a Mantel-Haenszel method (fixed effect model) and random effect model, respectively, to perform a meta-analysis of 7 case-control studies that provided information related to the effects of PAI-1 gene on risk of cardiovascular disease. RESULTS: From 7 studies for diagnosed cardiovascular disease, the relative frequencies of the three genotypes among controls was (5G/5G) (homozygous normal), 24.5%; (4G/5G) (heterozygous), 48.2%, and (4G/4G) (homozygous for the mutant, 675 GGGG), 27.3%. These relative frequencies in cases were 21.7% for 5G/5G, 48.0% for 4G/5G, and 30.3% for 4G/4G. In fixed effect model, compared with those with genotype (5G/5G), the overall odds ratio (OR) for cardiovascular disease among those with (4G/5G) was 1.12 (95% CI, 0.93 to 1.34), and it was 1.20 (1.01 to 1.44) for the (4G/4G) genotype. For five studies with myocardial infarction as the outcome, the overall OR of myocardial infarction was 1.20 (0.99 to 1.47) for those with (4G/5G) and 1.24 (1.00, 1.54) for those with (4G/4G) genotypes, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide support for the weak association between PAI-1 gene and cardiovascular disease, in particular, myocardial infarction.
Alleles ; Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Case-Control Studies* ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Genotype ; Humans ; Myocardial Infarction ; Odds Ratio ; Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1* ; Plasminogen Activators ; Polymorphism, Genetic* ; Stroke

No abstract available.
Brain* ; Child* ; Humans ; Seizures*

PURPOSE: This study was done to describe the research trend of Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM) in Korea and internationally. METHOD: A Systematic review of CAM related literature published from 2000 to 2005 was done. A comprehensive search by using 34 CAM modalities as search terms to identify all articles dealing with CAM was undertaken from 4 databases: PubMed, RICHIS, KoreaMed, and Riss4U. A Total of 588 abstracts and 223 original articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers using systematic analysis guidelines. Data regarding the types of study design, characteristics of subjects and researchers, and classification of CAM modalities was recorded. The outcome measures of CAM were identified. RESULTS: CAM research has been rapidly increasing worldwide in the last decade. In Korea, nursing(53.5%) followed by medicine(42.7%) occupied the majority of CAM research in comparison to medicine(42.9%) and disciplines in CAM(25.0%), like homeopathy, internationally. Prevailing research designs in Korea were experimental and quasi-experimental, however, randomized clinical trials were found. Internationally, survey research was dominant, with the exception of randomized clinical trials that were mostly an experimental design. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that a robust research design in CAM research is needed to accumulate strong scientific evidence and to adopt nursing interventions from CAM modalities.
Biomedical Research/statistics & numerical data/*trends ; Complementary Therapies/statistics & numerical data/*trends ; Humans ; MEDLINE ; Models, Nursing ; PubMed ; Research Design

No abstract available.
Endometriosis* ; Female ; Humans ; Hydronephrosis* ; Ureter* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

PURPOSE: This study was performed to examine if CT classification of renal blunt injury could aid in expectation of hemodynamic stability and clinical decision of whether to intervene surgically. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Over a 80-month period between July 1987 and March 1994, 41 patients were admitted to our hospital with the diagnosis of renal blunt injury. The renal blunt injuries were classified on Fedede's three-point scale CT classification methods :grade I, contusion, intrarenal hematoma, segmental infarction, and small subcapsular hematoma;grade II, complete or incomplete laceration, large subcapsular hematoma, and renal fracture;grade Ill, shattered kidney and renal pedicle injury. Hemodynamic stability, treatment method and clinical outcome of the patients with different CT grade were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: All 34 patients with grade I or II CT findings were hemodynamically stable and were successfully managed with conservative method. Among 7 patients with grade III CT findings, 6 patients were hemodynamically unstable. Out of the 6, One patient with grade IIIb or renal pedicle injury was expired before surgical intervention due to ischemic shock. Four patients were intervened surgically with one failure to thrive. The remaining one patient refused to be intervened surgically, and was discharged against medical advice. Only one out of 7 patients was hemodynamically stable and was managed conservatively. CONCLUSION: The patients with grade I or II CT findings are prone to be hemodynamically stable and to be managed with conservative method. But the patients with grade III CT findings are more likely to be hemodynamically unstable. Therefore patients with grade III CT findings should be closely monitored and be pre- pared for the possibility of immediate surgical intervention
Classification* ; Contusions ; Diagnosis ; Failure to Thrive ; Hematoma ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Infarction ; Kidney ; Lacerations ; Retrospective Studies ; Shock ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating

No abstract available.
Anemia, Hypoplastic, Congenital*

No abstract available.
Gangwon-do* ; Humans