BACKGROUND: Hospital infection surveillance is a dynamic process for gathering, managing, analyzing, reporting and re-evaluating the data. Recently there has been an increased awareness of the importance of hospital infection surveillance and management program in Korea. The most ideal way among the hospital infection surveillance systems is known to be the "reference method". In this method all hospital patient records and charts are reviewed and the infected patient are investigated in daily basis. However it requires enormous efforts to apply this method in hospitals with limited personnel resources. Although the number of the hospital having full-time hospital infection control nurses has been increased considerably in Korea the effective hospital control programs have not been established yet in most hospitals owing to the lack of full-time hospital infection control nurses. Nevertheless it became indispensable to develop an alternative hospital infection surveillance program that is readily available. This study was carried out to investigate epidemiologic characteristics, and assess the efficiency and validity of ward liaison surveillance method for nosocomial infection surveillance in a general hospital without full-time infection control nurses. METHOD: During the period of the study, from March 1 to March 31, 2000, cases of hospital infection collected by two different methods, reference method and ward liaison nurse surveillance, were compared. The validity of ward liaison surveillance data was examined using the data collected by the reference method as gold standard. RESULT: In the data collected by the reference method, 94 cases of hospital infection were identified whereas 83 cases by the ward liaison nurses. The incidence rate of hospital infection was 9.5% during one month; the incidence rates were higher in males (12.6%) than female (6.7%) and in age group of 50s. The incidence rates by ward were 38.8% in intensive care unit, 45.5% in neurosurgery, 18.6% in neurology ward, 12.8% in internal medicine, 10.6% in orthopedic ward, and 8.6% in general surgery. Sites of hospital infection in the order of decreasing frequency were urinary tract (24.8/1000 discharge patients), lung (22.2), wound (18.2), and other respiratory systems (15.2). The type of microorganisms isolated were 16: three gram-positive bacteria, eleven gram-negatives and two fungi. Staphylococcus was the most frequently isolated organism, 21 strains, among which 17 strains were methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (only one strain was sensitive to methicillin) and three strains were methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis. Seventeen strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from pneumonia, urinary tract, and wound. Escherichia. coli, Serratia marcencecs, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, Enterobacter cloacae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Candida albicans were also isolated. There were twenty-two specimens that revealed no growth of any organisms. In the ward liaison nurse surveillance method, the number of false positive hospital infection was eleven cases and the false negative was 22 cases. The validity evaluated by four different measurements were sensitivity 76,7%, specificity 98.7%, positive predicted value 86.7%, negative predicted value 97.5%. Thus the ward liaison nurse surveillance method was shown to be a valid method with high efficiency. The false positive and false negative cases were mainly occurred by the deficient knowledge in the definition of hospital infection, and deficient skills of investigating the patient's symptoms and clinical course; the liaison nurses had not checked all the surgical site resulting in low sensitivity in surgical site infection. CONCLUSION: According to the results, the epidemiologic characteristic of hospital infection in this particular community hospital studied was not much different from other study results; the incidence rate of hospital infection for one month was 9.5%. On the other hand the ward liaison nurse surveillance method was shown to be satisfactory in detecting hospital infection. This could be a useful method for hospitals without full-time infection control nurses. Furthermore, the validity of this method could be improved by accumulation of the knowledge and skills on hospital infection surveillance through a well planned on-the-job training program for the nurses.
Acinetobacter baumannii ; Candida albicans ; Cross Infection* ; Enterobacter cloacae ; Enterococcus faecalis ; Escherichia ; Female ; Fungi ; Gram-Positive Bacteria ; Hand ; Hospitals, Community ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infection Control ; Inservice Training ; Intensive Care Units ; Internal Medicine ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Korea ; Lung ; Male ; Methicillin Resistance ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Neurology ; Neurosurgery ; Orthopedics ; Pneumonia ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Respiratory System ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Serratia ; Staphylococcus ; Staphylococcus epidermidis ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Urinary Tract ; Wounds and Injuries

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of nutrition education about the Korean food guide to middle school students on food intake measured by food frequency. Three hundred first graders were sampled from two coeducational middle schools located in the small city of Chungnam area, and divided into 167 (74 boys, 93 girls) education groups of one school and 133 (70 boys, 63 girls) non education groups of the other school. Nutrition education was given to the education group for a total of 16 hours and no education to the non education group during the same period. After education, average nutrition knowledge scores of education group increased from 6.40 +/- 2.17 to 6.81 +/- 1.56 significantly, especially boys with a high range of increase and girls no increase. Dietary habit scores improved significantly from 46.2 +/- 6.5 to 49.1 +/- 6.2 in both boys and girls of education group. Of the knowledge and dietary habits, ability of choosing a balanced meal, biased eating to some food, and taking diverse foods at every meal improved significantly in education group. In non education group no significant increases of either nutrition knowledge scores and dietary habit scores were shown. In addition education group showed significant increases after education, in the intake frequencies of rice noodle loaf bread, kimchi, green and yellow vegetables, and soybean soybean curds by 0.27, 0.23, 0.40 and 0.32 servings per day, compared with non education group. These changes were greater in girls than in boys. According to these results, it can be concluded that nutrition education about the Korean food guide improved effectively not only student's nutrition knowledge and dietary habits, but also healthy food intake ability. It is necessary to prepare long-term and continuous school-based nutrition education programs for the students to get into a habit of healthy food intake.
Adolescent* ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Bread ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Eating* ; Education* ; Female ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Meals ; Soybeans ; Vegetables

This study was carried out to investigate relationships between characteristics of foodservice and job satisfaction of Korean dietitians. The subjects were 2987 dietitians who responded to the questionnaire distributed at the annual education program of the Korean Dietetic As-sociation in 1995. The results were followings; 1)The level of jov satisfaction of Korean dietitians was low for payment work environment and value achievement as a dietitian while it was relatively high for the relationship with col-leagues. The other parts of job satissatisfaction such as work load work contents supervision by the superiors participation of policy decision and selp disccertion were just below average. 2)The type of operating style menu style and serving time in foodservise were not sig-nificantly related to all fields of job satisfaction but the kinds of meals served a day and the to-tal number of persons served a day were significantly correlated. 3) The dietitians who had to provide meal plans such as breakfast+dinner and + snack or all day serving had significantly lower job satisfaction in all fields. 4)Job satisfaction was significantly higher when the total number of persons served a day was between 500-700.
Education ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction* ; Meals ; Nutritionists* ; Organization and Administration ; Snacks ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.

A 62-year-old female patient was scheduled for emergent explo-laparotomy under general anesthesia because of traffic accident. Preoperative checked chest x-ray showed multiple fractures of the ribs but didn't show the sign of pneumothorax or hemothorax. she had no dyspnea. Compared with previous value(PaO2; 210.5 mmHg), Arterial PO2 value(PaO2; 143.0 mmHg) was reduced significantly two hours after starting general anesthesia. Chest x-ray was taken in the operating room, which showed pneumothorax in the right side lung. The patient was treated with immediate closed thoracostomy. She recovered uneventfully three days later with complete resorption of the pneumothorax.
Accidents, Traffic ; Anesthesia, General* ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Hemothorax ; Humans ; Lung ; Middle Aged ; Operating Rooms ; Pneumothorax* ; Ribs ; Thoracic Injuries* ; Thoracostomy ; Thorax*

In order to investigate the adolescent's beverage drinking pattern and its related ecological factors, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the subjects of 920 middle and high-school students, 450 boys and 470 girls, residing in 4 cities of the Chungnam area. Of the subjects 65% liked, or liked very much, beverages and only 3.7% did not like beverages. They drank beverages 4.3 +/- 4.0 times a week on average, but 10.4% of them drank beverages more than twice a day. Male students drank more frequently than the females. The intake frequency of carbonated drinks was 1.7 +/- 2.3 a week, which was about 40% of the total beverages. However, more students drank mainly ion beverages (33.6%) than carbonated drinks (28.7%). As the students took more balanced food and ate more regularly, their beverage drinking frequency decreased and those taking carbonated drinks also tended to decrease. The more frequent the students took fast food, the more frequent they drank carbonated beverages. The drinking frequencies for beverages or carbonated beverages were also less in students eating cooked rice with sidedishes as breakfast than in students eating others. The drinking frequency for carbonated drinks showed significant correlations with the students' activities such as the time spent using computers and watching TV got longer, the drinking frequency for soft drinks was also higher. When nutritional knowledge was higher, drinking frequency for carbonated drinks got lower. In conclusion, to make the adolescents improve their attitudes toward drinking beverages and to prevent excessive drinking of carbonated drinks, they should be educated not only on the nutritional knowledge and the proper intake of beverages, but also on good dietary habits including balance, regularity, and types of meals. Proper snacking and fast food consumption also should be taught. Since ion beverages were taken more frequently than carbonated drinks among adolescents, further study is recommended on the impact of excessive intake of ion beverages.
Adolescent* ; Beverages* ; Breakfast ; Carbonated Beverages ; Chungcheongnam-do* ; Drinking ; Fast Foods ; Female ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Snacks

In order to investigate the ecological factors affecting milk intake frequency of adolescents, the questionnaire survey was conducted with 929 middle and high school students living in Chungnam urban area through October and November 2004. The subjects consumed milk 8.6+/-6.7 times per week, other beverages 4.4+/-4.1 times per week and drinking water 3.7+/-2.1 cups per day. Of the students 77.3% took balanced meals, 72.8% ate regularly and 36.2% ate adequate amount. About 61% had breakfast everyday and nearly a half students snacked once a day. Nutritional knowledge scores about milk was 7.2+/-1.7 and milk attitude scores was 28.1+/-6.5. The subjects spent daily 1.8+/-1.1, 1.9+/-1.1, and 1.0+/-0.5 hours for computer use, TV watching and exercise, respectively. Milk intake frequencies were positively correlated with excercise, snack frequency, meal balance and regularity, breakfast frequency, food attitude score and milk preference, while showed negative correlationships with TV watching and computer use. Intake frequency of fruit-tasted and chocolate milk showed inverse correlation with nutritional knowledge. Subjects without either school store or vending machine took milk more frequently than those with one or both did. Of the correlated variables, milk preference was the most important influencing factor to milk intake frequency according to the stepwise linear regression analysis, which presented other 5 important influencing factors as food attitude, school vending facilities, excercise, snacking frequency and watching TV. In conclusion, the improvement of milk preference is the most important and effective way to promote milk consumption in adolescents. The favorite ways of drinking milk, nutritional benefit of milk, healthy beverage and good snacking should be taught in nutrition education. Also physical activities should be recommended to students rather than watching TV, computer use and vending facilities selling soft drinks should be limited to be established inside school.
Adolescent ; Beverages ; Breakfast ; Cacao ; Carbonated Beverages ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Drinking ; Drinking Water ; Education ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Meals ; Milk* ; Motor Activity* ; Questionnaires ; Snacks*

In order to study milk preference and intake pattern of adolescents, the questionnaire survey was conducted with 929 middle and high school students residing in Chungnam cities through October and November 2004. Of the subjects, 56.3% liked milk or liked very much. They preferred chocolate and fruit-tasted milk to plain milk. Reasons for liking milk were for health and its taste, while the reasons of disliking were unpleasant smell and stomach upset. However those who disliked milk did like milk products such as ice-cream, yogurt or cheese. Of the students 35.1% drank milk 2 times or more a day, while 11.8% drank milk less than 2-3 times a month. As a whole they drank milk 8.6+/-6.7 times a week, of which 4.3+/-3.1 times for plain milk. Daily intake amount was estimated as 308+/-315mL. Middle-school students and boys drank more milk than high-school students and girls, respectively. Among the students 64.3% used to drink 1 cup of milk at a time, and 58.3% drank only milk without other foods. It was shown that 51.8% took milk school-serviced and their milk intake frequencies were higher than those of who were not given school milk service. Also milk intake frequencies was higher in students whose mother were housewives than in students whose mother had jobs. Milk preference, intake frequency, and one portion size showed significant and positive correlations each other. In conclusion, milk intake level of the subjects was insufficient and unpleasant smell and stomach upset were the main reasons which decreased milk preference and consumption. Students with low milk preference should be guided with how to drink milk deliciously, how to choose milk type and its products. It is also effective to go into school milk service and to provide milk at home anytime. As students like much fruit-tasted and chocolate milk, the milk processing industries should take their nutritional and health benefits into considerations importantly.
Adolescent* ; Cacao ; Cheese ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Female ; Humans ; Insurance Benefits ; Milk* ; Mothers ; Portion Size ; Questionnaires ; Smell ; Stomach ; Yogurt

OBJECTIVE: The efficacy of two-drug combination treatment may be schedule-dependent. We investigated a simulated in-vitro interaction between taxol and doxorubicin in a Cervical cancer cell line HeLa and the role of peroxiredoxin in cytotoxicity. METHODS: Two contradicting schedules of two drugs (taxol followed by doxorubicin or vice versa) were compared each other in terms of cytotoxicity in parental HeLa cell line and the peroxiredoxin (prx)-overexpressing variant. Cytotoxic activity was determined by MTT assay. Cell cycle pertubation was evaluated by flow cytometric analysis. Protein levels were determined by western blot. RESULTS: The sequential treatment of taxol followed by doxorubicin (T-- Appointments and Schedules ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line ; Cell Line, Tumor* ; Cyclin D1 ; Doxorubicin ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Paclitaxel ; Parents ; Peroxiredoxins* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

PURPOSE: To review abdominal ultrasonography in Yersinia Pseudotuberculosis(YP) infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 1993 through June 1994, abdominal ultrasonograms were reviewed in 36 patients with YP infection. The age of patients was from 4 to 14 years. A diagnosis of YP infection was made on the basis ofisolation of YP from stool (n=15/36, 41.7%) and by documenting at least a minimum agglutination antibody titer of1:160 or greater (n=34/36, 94.4%). RESULTS: Abdominal US findings were identifed in 33/36 (91.7%) of patients with YP infection. US abnormalities included right lower quadrant abdominal lymphadenopathy in 28/36 (77.8%) of cases ;increased bilateral renal cortical echogenecity with renal enlargement, 11/36 (30/6%) of cases ;hepatosplenomegaly, 6/36 (16.7%) of cases ; bowel wall thickening in termnal ileum and cecum, 4/36 (11/1%) of cases ; and ascites, 2/36 (5.5%) of cases. Three patients revealed no abdominal sonographic finding. CONCLUSION: We conclude that abdominal US can help in the diagnosis of YP infection when US demonstrates multiple right lower quadrant abdominal lymphadenopathy, increased renal cortical echogenecity with renal enlargement, hepatosplenomegaly, intestinal wall thickening or ascites.
Agglutination ; Ascites ; Cecum ; Child* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Ileum ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Ultrasonography ; Yersinia