No abstract available.
Occupational Health*

The purpose of this study is to analyze occupational history of coal miners with pnemoconiosis. In this study, occupational chracteristics of 49 coal miners with pneumoconiosis were compared with those of 45 coal miners without pneumoconiosis but in similar age category (43-52 years of age) based on interview survey. Various indices on occupational characteristics were developed for the following areas: duration of employment, perception of working condition, working density, dust concentration, temperature, humidity, and experience of respirator wearings. Perception of working condition were measured in 5 points scales but experiences of respirator wearing was measured in 3 points scale. Each index was multiplied by duration of employment. From the analysis, only the experience of respirator wearing showed statistically significant difference between the two groups. Therefore, respirator wearing seemed to be effective in reducing occurrence of pneumoconiosis.
Coal* ; Dust ; Employment ; Humidity ; Pneumoconiosis* ; Ventilators, Mechanical ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: In this study we performed an analysis of the stress associated with the working conditions of 6,764 workers based on 'A survey of healthy condition of workers on 1999'by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency. The Purpose of this study was to provide basic data for health education and management for industrial workers'health promotion. METHODS: Collected data were analyzed using the t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis, using the SPSS 10.0 program. RESULTS: When the degrees of stress were analyzed according to demographic characteristics, females were found to have higher levels of stress than males (p<0.001). Furthermore, as age was lowered and as the work space became larger, the degrees of a stress were also found to be higher (p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively). When the degrees of stress were analyzed according to working conditions, longer working hours (p<0.001) and reduced break times (p<0.05), gave rise to higher degrees of stress. Also, as the work space was reduced in size and as the work intensity was augmented, the degrees of a stress were made higher (p<0.01). In terms of physical working conditions, humidity and a lack of sense of security resulted in higher degrees of stress (p<0.01). When the workers sense that their environment is noisy or dusty has poor lighting or ventilation or that the rest room and cafeteria facilities are inadequate, the degrees of stress are found to be higher. As regards the social environment, when the workers sensed that the degree of job demand or job control was higher or that the degree of social support was lower, the degrees of stress were increased (p<0.001). Among those factors which influenced physical stress in the stepwise multiple regression analysis, the primary factor was found to be the safety of the working place (5.1 %). Other factors which influenced physical stress were degree of job demand, age, work intensity, humidity, sexual discrimination, length of working hours, size of work space and the existence or not of a regular break time in this order. Total R2 due to these factors was 12%. Among those factors which influenced mental stress in the stepwise multiple regression analysis, the primary factor was the degree of job demand (4.8 %). Other factors which influenced mental stress were humidity, age, sexual discrimination, the degree of a job control, safety of the working place, degree of social support, a working site, size of the work space, quality of lighting, the existence or not of a regular break time and length of working hours in this order. Total R2 due to these factors was 13.1 %. CONCLUSIONS: The above results shows that working conditions are strongly related to stress. Furthermore, when both physical and social working conditions are continuously managed and improved, workers may not only reduce their levels of stress but also maximize their working efficiency.
Analysis of Variance ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Humidity ; Male ; Occupational Health ; Social Environment ; Social Work ; Ventilation

No abstract available.
Central Nervous System* ; Solvents*

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of hospitalization and diagnosis of disease on the mental health of coal workers' pneumoconiosis patient. The study subjects were composed of four groups for comparison; hospitalized coal workers' pneumoconiosis, healthy coal miners, and railroad workers employed by government. About a hundred of respondents in each group were sampled by random. Mental health data were collected by symptom distress checklist 90 (SCL-90), and other characteristics were collected by interview with questionnaire administered trained interviewers in each respondents. Mental health dimension was classified into 9 dimensions; somatization, obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostality, phobic anxiety, paranoid, psychosis. And as total index, global severity index, positive symptoms total, positive symptom distress index were also computed. As a result there is difference of mean score of 9 symptom dimensions among four groups. The mean score of the examinees of depth diagnosis of the impressed coal workers' pneumoconiosis is the highest score in all 9 symptom dimensions. However in the hospitalized coal workers' pneumoconiosis scores of somatization, depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety were still higher than that of healthy coal miners. And other symptom dimensions were not different from that of healthy coal miners.
Anxiety ; Checklist ; Coal* ; Data Collection ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Pneumoconiosis* ; Psychotic Disorders ; Questionnaires ; Railroads

Recently, we experienced a patient with a B cell leukemia which could not be classified as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), prolymphocytic leukemia (PL) or follicular lymphoma in leukemic phase. He is a 58-year-old male and suffered from progressive lymphadenopathy at both inguinal and cervical areas. His blood film showed lymphocytosis (79%), and the cells were heterogeneous in size and shape. Twenty-five percent of the lymphocytes had nuclear irregularities or cleavages unlike the lymphocytes of CLL In which the cells often shows monomorphic features, small size with scanty cytoplasm and round nucleus. The bone marrow trephine biopsy specimen showed a diffuse pattern of infiltration of atypical Iymphoid cells. The lymph node histology showed atypical lymphoid colls proliferated as wide mantles around non-neoplastic appearing germinal centers. The immunophenotype of circulating lymphocytes in peripheral blood showed strong reactivity with CD5, CDl9 and CD20 without expression of CD2, CD3, CD7, CD10, CD22 and CD23. Although this case resembled CLL, the laboratory features showed major differences, notably in the Peripheral blood morphology, histology Patterns and the membrane Phenotype. By combining these data, we diagnosed this case as a leukemic phase of mantle cell lymphoma.
Biopsy ; Bone Marrow ; Cytoplasm ; Germinal Center ; Humans ; Leukemia, B-Cell ; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell ; Leukemia, Prolymphocytic ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphocytosis ; Lymphoma, Follicular ; Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell* ; Male ; Membranes ; Middle Aged ; Phenotype

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disorder. Osteoporosis has emerged as a leading public health problem with elderly persons and its detection is important for prevention and treatment of fracture. this population-based study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of osteoporosis in the elderly women. METHODS: One hundred thirty eight women aged 60 years or older in rural area were investigated with questionnaires and measurements of height, weight. Bone mineral density(BMD) measurements of lumbar spine and femoral neck were made with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry(DEXA). The World Health Organization criteria for diagnosis of osteoporosis using the manufacturer's young adult population mean and our study young population mean have been applied. Our study's young adult population mean was derived using normal premenopausal 37 women aged 30~45 years. RESULTS: The prevalence of osteoporosis was 45.7% for lumbar spine, 13.0% for femoral neck by the manufacture's young adult mean and 63.0% and 34.8% by our study young adult population mean, respectively. Weight and smoking were associated with lumbar spine BMD. Age was associated with femoral neck BMD. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the prevalence of osteoporosis is dependant on reference population mean and measurement site.
Aged* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Femur Neck ; Humans ; Osteoporosis* ; Prevalence* ; Public Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Spine ; World Health Organization ; Young Adult

No abstract available.
Nails, Malformed* ; Pachyonychia Congenita*

No abstract available.
Nails, Malformed* ; Pachyonychia Congenita*

No abstract available.