BACKGROUND: Depression increases the risk of cardiovascular risk factors in adults. However, the association between depression and cardiovascular risk factors was not well evaluated in South Korea. Our study was done to evaluate the association between depression and cardiovascular risk factors in workers. METHODS: The study population was selected among adults working in several industries that had more than 50 employees. They had received their medical examinations at the Health Promotion Center of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital between March and November 2005. We estimated the odds ratio to determine whether depression (Korean Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score > or =21) was associated with each cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity). RESULTS: The prevalence of depression was 15.5%. Depression was significantly associated with hypertension (P<0.001), obesity (P=0.03) and hypercholesterolemia (P=0.004). The adjusted odds ratio for hypertension and hypercholesterolemia were 1.41 (95% CI 1.04~1.91) and 1.59 (95% CI 1.05~2.40), respectively. The association between depression and obesity was eliminated after adjustment (1.25, 95% CI: 0.97~1.61). CONCLUSION: Depression was significantly associated with hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in workers. Further long-term study on the association of depression with cardiovascular risk factors is necessary.
Adult ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Depression ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Health Promotion ; Heart ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; Hypertension ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea ; Risk Factors

No abstract available.

We report a case of acute, painful polyneuropathy in a woman with newly diagnosed type I diabetes mellitus associated with a precipitous drop in hemoglobin A1c . She has had poorly controlled diabetes mellitus type I for 5 years despite diet, execise, oral therapy because she has been diagnosed type II diabetes mellitus 5 years before. She experienced diabetes ketoacidosis, and she presented with a hemoglobin A1c of 17.8% and was hospitalized for continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Following the initiation of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion, the patient's hemoglobin A1c fell to 6.1% within 2 months. During this 2-month period, she developed severe burning in her hand, feet and trunk, accompanied by tingling paresthesia and dysesthesia. Nerve conduction studies were consistent with mild sensorymotor peripheral neuropathy. Initially, she required opiate analgesics for pain control because gabapetin or tramadol/acetminophen did not help. Three months after presentation, the patient showed dramatic improvement and her pain resolved. Although not well described in the neurologic literature, this case represents insulin neuritis, one of the few diabetic neuropathies that has a favorable outcome.
Acute Pain ; Analgesics ; Burns ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetic Neuropathies ; Diet ; Female ; Foot ; Hand ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Insulin ; Ketosis ; Neural Conduction ; Neuritis ; Paresthesia ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; Polyneuropathies

BACKGROUND: The revised Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) were developed to improve the reporting of Randomized Controlled Trials. We studied to survey the extent to which RCTs report items included in the revised CONSORT recommendations. METHODS: A descriptive survey of RCTs enrolled in 2005 at KoreaMed, which is a representative database in Korea was done. The main outcome measures were the proportion of RCTs that reported each of 22 checklist items of CONSORT. RESULTS: We identified 125 RCTs from 26 journals. Random sequence implementation (0%), estimated effect size and its precision (0%), sample size determination (8.9%), method of random sequence generation (7.3%), allocation concealment (3.2%), participant flow (4.8%) and any other analysis (7.3%), generalizability of the trial findings (0.8%) were pooly reported. CONCLUSION: The proportions of following the CONSORT recommendations in Korean medical journals were very low. An effort to improve the reporting of RCTs by application and recommendation of CONSORT statement is required.
Checklist ; Double-Blind Method ; Korea ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Random Allocation ; Sample Size

BACKGROUND: Physicians rarely take patients' sexual history during routine medical visit, although it would give very helpful information to reach accurate diagnosis and proper management. This survey was conducted to assess the primary physicians' perspectives towards sexual history taking and their actual behaviors on it. METHODS: The survey questionnaire was made through the literature review, in-depth interview and pilot survey. We mailed this questionnaire to 400 primary care physicians who were randomly selected from the lists of internists and family physicians in Seoul and Gyunggi province and 73 of them responded. RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 44.3 years. Most of them responded that sexual history is necessary only when the patients' chief complaints are directly related to sexual issues. Among the total, 94% of them answered that he or she took sexual history in less than 25% of the patients who visited his/her own clinic during last one month. The most prevalent barriers to initiate sexual history taking were fear of patients' misunderstanding about sexual harassment or intrusion into patients' personal life (60.3%) and uncertainty to conducting sexual history taking (53.4%). They thought that they were not well educated enough to take sexual history with confidence and more structured education is needed in medical schools and postgraduate residency training. CONCLUSION: Sexual history seemed not to be taken by primary care physicians as a routine medical practice and physicians showed rather passive attitude. Beneficial effects of sexual history taking on patients' management and related communication skills should be emphasized and systematically educated.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Physicians, Family ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Postal Service ; Primary Health Care ; Schools, Medical ; Sexual Harassment ; Uncertainty

BACKGROUND: The association between obesity development and poor family function was controversial in previous studies and has been seldom evaluated in Korean adolescents. METHODS: A questionnaire asking family function (family APGAR, Korean family function assessment tool for adolescents), socioeconomic environment, and behavioral characteristics was self-administered to 1,056 adolescents enrolled in a Korean middle school. A total of 774 adolescents who answered the questionnaire thoroughly and had no diseases influencing family function were included. After calculating body mass index (BMI) using the data of physical measurement at school, we classified participants into overweight-obesity (upper 15%) and normal weight group (lower 85%) based on the reference data of Korean childrens' BMI distribution (Korean pediatric society, 1998). RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight-obesity was 13.0% (14.8% among boys and 10.9% among girls). Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis showed overweight-obesity was associated with better family function, higher school grade, fattier body shape of mother, and lower educational level of mother. Gender- specifically, overweight-obesity was associated with better family functioning and higher school grade with odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 2.36 (1.13, 5.55) and 2.59 (1.36, 4.93), respectively, in boys, whereas only those who were not living with both parents were 2.67 (1.09~6.54) times more likely to be overweight or obese among girls. CONCLUSION: The factors associated with overweight- obesity differed by gender and the family function of overweight-obesity group was better than normal weight group, especially in boys. These findings suggest poor family function is neither the cause nor the result of obesity development in adolescents.
Adolescent ; Body Mass Index ; Family Relations ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Mothers ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Overweight ; Parents ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: With the increasing mean height of children, concerns about stature seem to grow in Korea. However, most studies regarding short stature were performed in developing countries where population were likely to be exposed to malnutrition and poor hygienic environments and factors associated with height were seldom studied in well-nourished population. METHODS: Study participants were 449 Korean boys and girls enrolled in 2nd or 6th grade of a primary school. Height and weight were measured by standardized method and a questionnaire asking eating habits, birth weight, feeding method, physical exercise, household income, and height of parents was self-administered to each child and their parents. We classified participants into two groups according to the distribution of their height (lower 25% or upper 75%) and evaluated the factors associated with the short height (lower 25%) using multiple linear logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: In the analysis of the whole participants, short height of parents and normal body mass index were significantly associated with short height. Subgroup analysis stratified by gender and school grade showed that short height of father and normal body mass index, short height of mother, low household income, and not engaging in regular physical exercise were significantly associated with short height for 2nd grade boys, 6th grade boys, 2nd grade girls, and 6th grade girls, respectively. CONCLUSION: The factors associated with short height differed according to gender and school grades. In boys, parental height was significantly associated with and, in girls, environmental factors such as physical exercise or household income were significant factors of short stature.
Birth Weight ; Body Mass Index ; Child ; Child Development ; Developing Countries ; Eating ; Exercise ; Family Characteristics ; Fathers ; Feeding Methods ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Malnutrition ; Mothers ; Parents ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Restless Legs Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Dementia is the most important factor affecting everyday life of the elderly and there have been studies on the relationship between dementia and social withdrawal or loneliness. However, there is a lack of investigations on the relationship between loneliness and cognitive function in the elderly living alone. METHODS: Ninety five community-dwelling elderly people registered to Sungbook elderly welfare center in Seoul, who were living alone, were enrolled in the study. Personal visits by three pre-trained researchers were made during April 2006. One year later, 11 elderly dropped out, and 84 elderly were interviewed in the same way. They were interviewed based on loneliness scale, social support, Hasegawa dementia scale, instrumental activities of daily living, and depression. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 78.3 years. Most of them were women (90.5%) and education level was low (no schooling in 69%). The loneliness scale did not change much during one year (P=0.63), but the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) score had worsened from 10.5 to 11.2 (P=0.002) The mean Hasegawa dementia scale score decreased from 23.2 to 21.0 during one year (P<0.001). Multivariate regression analysis for the one-year difference in Hasegawa Dementia Scale revealed loneliness was a significant factor after adjusting for age, the level of education, social support, IADL score, and depression (regression coefficient=-0.712, P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Loneliness was associated with a decline in cognitive function in the elderly people living alone. In contrast, social withdrawal and depression had no effect on changes of cognitive function during one year.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Dementia ; Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Loneliness ; Prospective Studies

BACKGROUND: With the number of geriatric population on a steep increase, the roles of family physicians broaden to give comprehensive medical care to the elderly. Therefore, geriatrics is becoming increasingly more important for the residents of family medicine. The authors have surveyed and researched on resident's current attention, actual training conditions, and future needs on geriatrics. METHODS: Family medicine residents in 79 hospitals registered to Korean Family Medicine Resident Union were enrolled. By means of electronic and postage mail surveys, informations were gathered; including demographics, the order of importance of nine training curricula, the necessity of training itself, the facility and academic conference of geriatrics training. RESULTS: A total of 173 residents in 45 hospitals replied with return rates of 51.9%. Among the total, 169 (97.7%) of the answered agreed on the necessity of geriatrics training. Of the nine curricula, geriatrics was considered the most important. And residents considered family medicine outpatient department and inpatient ward to be the most important place for geriatrics training. Furthermore, the residents considered elderly's diseases or symptoms as more important conference title, but the parameters such as the quality of life, physiology of aging, care in nursing home were considered less important. CONCLUSION: The geriatrics training program is not up to the standards of residents' satisfaction. This is considered to be due to the absence of a formal training program. To provide a better care for the elderly, it is compulsory to gain broad knowledge of geriatrics and actual experience out in the field.
Aged ; Aging ; Curriculum ; Demography ; Electronics ; Electrons ; Geriatrics ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Inpatients ; Internship and Residency ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Nursing Homes ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Outpatients ; Physicians, Family ; Postal Service ; Quality of Life