PURPOSE: There has been little research into socio-economic factors and work condition s as risk factors for workplace injuries in Korea. Separating work from social class is difficult as the social division of labour is at the origin of social class (1). The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship of working conditions and socio-economic factors with workplace injury rates. METHODS: Three year-follow up data sets for workplace injury data analysis for retrospective cohort study were obtained linking the total workforce and workplace injuries between 1995 and 1997. The Proportional Hazards Model (Cox regression) is used to estimate the hazard ratios for workplace injury by different possible risk factors: work department, income, job status, age and tenure. RESULTS: The press, body and engine departments have higher hazard rates for severe injuries; the press, engine, and supporting departments for lower-back pain; and the assembly line (with wider confidence interval) and supporting departments for Herniated Intervertebral Discs. Lower waged workers have higher rates of workplace injuries, especially for lower-back pain. Workers with low job status have higher rates than foremen or supervisors. Thus, socio-economic factors and work department contribute independently to workplace injury rates. CONCLUSIONS: Even though this study could not fully investigate the relationship between socio-economic factors and working conditions, the working conditions as well as socioeconomic factors need to be considered as risk factors of workplace injuries in the workplace.
Cohort Studies ; Dataset ; Intervertebral Disc ; Korea ; Low Back Pain ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Social Class ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The variables (occupation, education, cause of death, age, and sex) on death certificates can be used for health related studies, however, there has been little research on health related studies using death certificates in Korea. Also, the validity of the values of these variables on death certificates is questionable in Korea. Therefore, we compared occupation, data obtained from WELCO(Korea Labour Welfare Corporation) between 1995 and 1997. METHODS: WELCO data on deaths due to workplace injury between 1995-1997 were merged with data from NSO on deaths occurring during the same period, using social security numbers. Out of a total of 7,698 deaths due to workplace injury reported to WELCO between 1995 and 1997, final study population are linked to 6,513 deaths among aged 20-64 between 1995 and 1997. On linking the data sets, two different sources of data are cross-tabulated to determine the percentage of agreement. Expected agreement and Kappa index are also calculated. RESULTS: The results are as follows : Some manual workers are promoted into the non-manual group in the national death data from the National Statistics Office. Educational groups are promoted or demoted between NSO and WELCO death data. The Kappa index for occupational group is 0.49 when the occupational groups are categorised as manual and non-manual workers. The Kappa index is 0.50 in the two-category classification for education : beyond and below university levels; 0.32 in the three-category classification : university, high-school and less than middle-school; 0.25 in the four category classification : university, high-school, middle-school and less than elementary school. The Kappa index is 0.69 for the three-category disease classification : injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (S00-T98, ICD10), disease of the circulatory system(I00-I99, ICD10) and other disease categories except the two-category classification. The Kappa index for the 5-year age band is 0.99. There is no disagreement for the sex. CONCLUSIONS: The comparison between national workplace injury data and national death data and tells us that occupational and educational variables are not in the range of 'excellent agreement' suggested by Koch(1997). Our comparison study suggests strong prediction of random errors as well as systemic errors. As for the cause of death, injury and cardiovascular disease from the NSO data are well-matched with those from the WELCO workplace injury death data. However, this comparison may have a limitation as the present study is confined to comparing only the categories of infury and cardiovascular disease. This study suggests that national death data as well as workplace injury data need to be improved for use as health indicators in studies relating socio-economic factors and working conditions to mortality in Korea.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cause of Death* ; Classification ; Dataset ; Death Certificates* ; Education* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Mortality ; Occupational Groups ; Occupations* ; Poisoning ; Social Security

PURPOSE: In this study, nosocomial bloodstream infection rate and fatality rate for 774 and 386 patients, who whose blood cultivation were obtained after 48 hours of hospitalization between March 1999 and February 2000 in two university hospitals, were sought. A distribution of etiologic agent and risk factors of the nosocoial bloodstream infection were also investigated. METHODS: This study was carried out through medical record review and a structural questionnaire. Besides registers of microbe cultivation in the department of clinical pathology and medical records of patients were checked. The nosocomial bloodstream infection was also checked through medical records of patients using the standard of CDC. Statistical analysis were performed using SAS 6.12. RESULTS: The nosocomial bloodstream infection rate in hospital K and hospital A were 3.9 and 3.5 per 1,000 discharged patients, respectively. Although the rates were increased accoding to patients' age, they were different by medical departments, showing the highest level in the ICU. The fatality rate from nosocomial bloodstream infection in hospital K and hospital A were 12.5% and 21.8%, respectively. A distribution of etiologic agent of the nosocomial bloodstream infection in hospital K was 17 cases(21.8%) of Coagulase negative staphylococcus(CNS), 12 cases(15.0%) of Staphylococcus aureus and 8 cases(10.0%) of Enterococcus spp. For hospital A, it was 14 cases925.4%) of Coagulase negative taphylococcus(CNS), 9 cases(16.4%) of Staphylococcus aureus and 7 cases(12.7%) of Klebsiella pneumoniae. While risk factors of the nosocomial bloodstream infection edentified in hospital K were ICU, intracranial injury and hospitalization period, those for hospital A were a use of the central nenous tube, intracranial injury and hospitalization period. CONCLUSION: It is expected that nosocomial bloodstream infection increases as aged group increases by the change of the population structure, as the usage of invasive instrument increases by development of new medical instrument as well as large scale hospitals. For these reasons, further studies developing countermeasures against nosocomial bloodstream infection are recommended.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Coagulase ; Cross Infection ; Enterococcus ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Hospitalization ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Medical Records ; Pathology, Clinical ; Risk Factors ; Staphylococcus aureus ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: To assess whether blood pressure is reduced by the intervention of intensive weekly counseling to lower alcohol intake for 12 weeks in heavy drinkers with elevated blood pressure, we conducted the quasi-experimental study through workplace health promotion program. METHODS: Thirty workers with an average intake of alcohol over 180 g/week(2 bottles of Soju, Korean popular liquor) and with over 90 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure(DBP) or over 140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure(SBP) assigned to intervention group(15 men, IG) and control group(15 men, CG) voluntarily. Mean age was 47.2 6.5 and 43.0 5.4 years old respectivel. The goal of intervention was below 45g/week(1/2 bottle of Soju). RESULTS: Average weekly alcohol intake after 12 weeks in IG was significantly reduced(before 300.6 114.8g/week, after 24.8 24.5g/week) compared with CG(before 334.4 150.7g/week, after 311.3 150.8g/week). In IG, SBP(before 141.5 9.4mm Hg, after 128.7 13.0mm Hg) and DBP(before 95.5 6.3mm Gg, after 88.0 10.8mm Hg) was significantly decreased after 12 weeks of alcohol restriction program, but in CG there was no change. CONCLUSION: Restriction program of alcohol intake in workplace was so effective to reduce blood pressure among hypertensives, although this study has a limitation of small subjects, short duration of follow up and no randomized controlled design.
Blood Pressure* ; Counseling ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Clinical Trial* ; Male

PURPOSE: In Korea, vivax malaria re-emerged in 1993 and the outbreak continued in several areas near the DMZ until now. This study was conducted to define the epidemiologic pattern of malaria in Korea and to examine the changes comparing to the one in 1999. METHODS: We collected information about civilian, veteran patients through the National malaria surveillance system and soldier from the Ministry of National Defense. We analyze epidemiological characteristics of malaria by groups (civilian, veteran, soldier). RESULTS: The reported cases of malaria in 2000 were 4,142 that number is an increase of 14% in numbers compared with those of 1999's. Most of cases occured in 17 counties nearby DMZ and from May to October(98.7%) seasonally. The incidence rates (per 100,000) in 2000 by residence were 17.0 in Gangwon-Do, 15.5 in Incheon Metropolitan city, 10.3 in Gyeonggi-Do was dereased. The risk area in 2000 were 17 counties located nearly DMZ and the high risk area were 5 counties where the incidence rate greater than 100. In case of civilian and veteran, the time required to diagnosis from onset of symptom was 8.1 days on the average. CONCLUSION: Epidemiologic pattern of malaria in 2000 did not differ from the one in 1999. Et showed regional spread (increasing risk area) but incidence rate was lowered in the high risk area of 1999. And it is necessary that we pay more attention to Gangwon-Do and Incheon metrocity to reduce the incidence rate in 2001.
Diagnosis ; Epidemiology* ; Gangwon-do ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Incheon ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Malaria* ; Malaria, Vivax ; Military Personnel ; Seasons ; Veterans

PURPOSE: Even though atomic energy and radioisotope had been made for a peaceful purpose, some of the public do't feel safe possibly due to potential exposure to ionizing radiation. While health effects of high level radiation are almost deterministic, the stochastic effects of the 'low-dose radiation' have not come to a correct conclusion. This correlation study was conducted to assess the health effect due to potential exposure th low-dose radiation in the nuclear power plants workers in Korea. METHODS: The study subjects was selected among the nuclear workers. Among those who attend the epidemiologic survey for screening of any malignancies done by the study group of Seoul National University Hospital during 1992-1993, 1) those who had undertaken both the physical examination with clinical laboratory tests and the direct interview with questionnaire, 2) male workers, and 3) those with record on radiation dosimetry as well as employment records in the company. Correlation analysis with Pearson's correlation coefficients and quantitative analysis with normal ranges of various tests were done by the PC-SAS for window. RESULTS: Total cumulative radiation doses was relatively low, ranging 1 mSv at the lowest to 391 mSv at the highest. Moreover, mostly 68.7% of the subjects was within lower limit of total cumulative doses under 10 mSv. Among the clinical laboratory test, statistical significant correlation was see in hemoglobin(HGB), creatinine(CRE), and carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA). CONCLUSION: This study concluded that health effect of occupational exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation is minimal or, if any, extremely lower than expected in the nuclear power plants workers in Korea. Major limitation of this study is that the healthy worker effect could not excluded. A large-scale prospective epidemiologic study on the relationship between radiation exposure and health hazard is needed to draw a more valid conclusion.
Employment ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Healthy Worker Effect ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Nuclear Energy ; Nuclear Power Plants ; Occupational Exposure* ; Physical Examination ; Radiation Effects ; Radiation, Ionizing* ; Radiometry ; Reference Values ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Breast cancer ranks second to stomach cancer as a primary cancer site. An increasing trend in mortality and morbidity of breast cancet has been shown since 1980s. Studies on migrant populations, in which higher incidences were shown than population in their motherlands, indicated the importance of environmental factors on breast cancer development. Older age, family history of breast cancer, early menarche, late menopause, late full-term pregnancy, never-having had a breast-fed child, and postmenopausal obesity were idenrified as risk factors in Korea. These are not different from risk factors detected in western countries. Nevertheless, a ^-shape age-specific incidences surve is shown in Korea shose incidence is relatively low. In western countries, where incidence rates are high, the incidences increase with age in a straight line. This difference may be explained by the "Estrogen-Augmented-:rogesterone Hypothesis" that is relevant to sex hormones. In fact, a nuch lower estradiol levels was reported in Korean women compared to those in American. On the other hand, genetic polymorphism is expected for future research on breast cancer etiology. Only preventive strategies based on epidemiology of breast cancer in Korea may effective to counter this malignancy in Korean women.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Child ; Epidemiology ; Estradiol ; Female ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea* ; Menarche ; Menopause ; Mortality ; Obesity ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Pregnancy ; Risk Factors ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Transients and Migrants

PURPOSE: A field investigation was done to evaluate the level of the epidemic of Shigellosis in Jeju Island during the first half of year 2000. METHODS: Confirming the Shigellosis was done by the structured questionnaire and the result of rectal swab for the residents having a diarrhea. RESULTS: As the confirmed patients with Shigella sonnei were 933 from 25 April to 14 August 2000, the crude incidence rate was 174 per 100,000 persons. The highest incidence rate was shown in 5-9 year-old group. Especially the south area of Jeju Island, called as Namjejugun, had the major epidemic occurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The huge and chronic epidemic of Shigellosis was confirmed. The nature of this epidemic suggested that the endemic occurrence had been existed in Jeju Island.
Diarrhea ; Disease Outbreaks ; Dysentery, Bacillary* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Shigella ; Shigella sonnei ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of stroke in Pyongchang county, Kangwon do. METHODS: The presumptive stroke patients of Pyongchang county were identified with a key-person method in October 2000. And then, medical records of these patients were reviewed by well-trained two students who major in the science of medical record. RESULTS: In the year 2000, there were 92 males and 68 females of self-diagnosed stroke. Of these, stroke patients based on physician's diagnosis were 102, and stroke patients based on CT/MRI findings or Minnesota criteria were 93. Prevalence rate of self-reported stroke, stroke based on physician's diagnosis, and stroke based on CT/MRI findings or Minnesota criteria were 0.33%, 0.29%, and 0.26% respectively. CONCLUSION: We conclude that verifying process of diagnosis is needed to estimate the prevalence of stroke in community.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Records ; Minnesota ; Prevalence* ; Stroke*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to provide the baseline data for the epidemiologic and microbiologic investigation for the etiology of sudden deaths of cattle in Sara-Ri, Seo Myun, Kyongju. METHODS: This survey was performed between April 11 and 22, 1994. Epidemiologic investigation consisted of interview of the residents, as well as pathologic and microbiologic test on tissues and blood samples from cardiac puncture. RESULTS: The dead numbers of cattle were 149 in 35 households during about 20 years. The cows(63.9%) were more than bulls(36.1%) and most of them were raised in playpen(95.7%). The first death occurred in 1974, and then number of deaths increased until 1994. Besides the age of cattle at death was over two years old (88.3%), most of them(69.4%) died within one hour after onset of noticeable symptom by the farmers. The most common symptom of cattle at death was 'sudden death after screaming(71.1%)' and 'seizure (33.3%)'. Colonies from blood of case 3 showed double hemolysis in blood agar plate. The microbiologic test results in the culture of Clostridium perfringens. The pathological features were characterized as most of renal tubules revealed coagulative necrosis. Some gram-positive bacilli are scattered in interstitium. CONCLUSIONS: Above results suggest C. perfringens as a possible pathogen of this ourbreak in livestock. The possibility of human infection, although nonfatal, and lack of vaccination against C. perfringens raises a need for stronger preventive action toward this communicable disease of cattle on this village.
Agar ; Animals ; Cattle* ; Clostridium Infections ; Clostridium perfringens ; Communicable Diseases ; Death, Sudden* ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Epidemiology ; Family Characteristics ; Gyeongsangbuk-do* ; Hemolysis ; Humans ; Livestock ; Necrosis ; Punctures ; Vaccination