OBJECTIVETo explore the characteristics of violence events occurred at the Emergency Department in the hospital and to provide evidence for prevention and control of the problem.

METHODSSurveillance on injuries was performed on those patients who first visited the Emergency Department in a general hospital in Shantou from January 1st 2000 to December 31th 2002.

RESULTSA total number of 11 472 injured patients registered in a 3-year surveillance program at the Emergency Department. Among the patients under surveillance, 29.0% of them were injured by violence events. The ratio of male to female was 3.8:1. The high risk age groups of violence patients were 15 - 44 years (77.1%) with workers as the majority. Home was the most common place for suicide/self-hurt (occupied 42.2%), and highway seemed to be the most common place for homicide/be injured (occupied 44.7%) to occur. Pre-hospital care for the injured patients was mostly taken care by other people (80.1%). Opening trauma appeared to be the most common injury caused by the violence.

CONCLUSIONOur study on violence surveillance program at the Emergency Department provided information for identifying the main problems and population at high risk. Violence surveillance in the emergency department of different areas needs to be carried out in order to take preventive measures accordingly.

Age Factors ; China ; epidemiology ; Emergencies ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Occupations ; Population Surveillance ; Sex Factors ; Time Factors ; Violence ; classification ; statistics & numerical data ; Wounds and Injuries ; classification ; epidemiology ; etiology

OBJECTIVES: To identify any association between implementing smoking regulation policies and workers' urine cotinine concentration levels in Korea. METHODS: From the first stage of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Research from 2009 to 2011, 2,475 non-smoking workers selected. We analyzed the trend in the changes of cotinine concentration in urine using the general linear model and linear regression, in various jobs as categorized by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and Korea Standard Classification of Occupations (KSCO). RESULTS: The urine cotinine concentration tended to decrease every year (2.91 ng/ml in 2009, 2.12 ng/ml in 2010, and 1.31 ng/ml in 2011), showing a decreasing trend (P < 0.001). The total subjects' decreased cotinine concentration in urine between 2009 and 2011 was 2.72 ng/ml (54.1 % relative decrease). The changes in each subgroup's urine cotinine concentration ranged from 1.59 to 6.03 ng/ml (33.2 to 77.5 %). All groups except for the managerial group (n = 49), which had a small sample size, had statistically significant negative regression coefficients (p < 0.05). The ranges of the decrease in urine cotinine were 2.75 ng/ml (53.6 %) for males and 2.72 ng/ml (54.9 %) for females. The negative slope in urine cotinine level was statistically significantly greater in men than women. The changes in urine cotinine by occupation as classified by the NCHS occupational categories ranged from 2.43 to 3.36 ng/ml (46.6 to 61.5 % relative decrease). The negative slopes in urine cotinine levels of the white-collar and farm workers were statistically significantly greater than those of the service workers and blue-collar workers. The change by occupation as classified by the KSCO ranged from 1.59 to 6.03 ng/ml (a 33.2 to 77.5 % relative decrease). The negative slopes in urine cotinine levels of the professionals and related workers and clerks were statistically significantly greater than those of the service workers and plant and machine operators and assemblers. CONCLUSIONS: The cotinine concentration in urine among non-smoking worker groups tended to decline from 2009 to 2011. Such a result may be an indirect indicator of the effectiveness of smoking regulation policies including the revision of the National Health Promotion Act.
Classification ; Cotinine* ; Environmental Health ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Korea* ; Linear Models ; Male ; National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.) ; Occupations ; Plants ; Sample Size ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the relationship of occupational class and educational background with proportional mortality ratios in Korea. METHODS: Mortality was investigated using the entire registered death data from 1993 to 2004, obtained from the Korean National Statistics Office. Proportional mortality ratios (PMRs) for specific diseases were calculated according to the occupational class and educational background of men aged 20-64. RESULTS: Manual workers were found to have higher PMRs for liver disease and traffic accidents, as did the lower educated group. Especially, this study showed trends of an increasing of the wide gap between lower and higher socioeconomic stati for liver disease, traffic accidents, diabetes mellitus and cerebral vascular disease. The mortality for cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, traffic accident and liver disease showed increasing trends according to the calendar year for the lower than the higher social class. CONCLUSIONS: The specific conditions that had higher PMRs in the Korean lower social class were liver disease and traffic accidents. Especially, there was an increasing trend for a widening of the gap between manual and nonmanual groups in relation to mortality from liver disease, diabetes mellitus and traffic accidents.
Socioeconomic Factors ; Odds Ratio ; Occupations/*classification/statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Liver Diseases/mortality ; Korea/epidemiology ; Humans ; *Educational Status ; Diabetes Mellitus/mortality ; Cerebrovascular Disorders/mortality ; Cause of Death/*trends ; Adult ; Accidents, Traffic/mortality

OBJECTIVEThis study aimed to develop an estimate of the actuality and characteristics of poisoning suicide attempted patients in emergency department (ED) in China.

METHODSWe selected 25 hospital EDs in whole country as the investigation spots, and designed one special questionnaire to collect information from the poisoning suicide attempted patients from 1st July, 2001 to 30th June, 2002.

RESULTSResults were based on 4060 cases hospitalized during the investigating period. In general frequency analysis, the ratio of male to female was 1:2.95. In all patients, 98.40% cases took poisons orally, and 93.57% cases occurred at home. The average age was 31.5 years old (min 8, max 93). The leading occupations of cases were farmers, unemployed house-wives, jobless, service people and students. The main types of poisons were druggery (54.29%) and pesticide (35.84%). 2044 cases (59.23%) were cured timely (in 1 hour). When comparing cases from rural hospitals (RHs) and urban hospitals (UHs): ratio of poisoning attempted suicides in RHs to all poisoning cases was higher than UHs with significant gender difference (P < 0.05). UHs number one cause of poisoning was druggery, but in RHs it was pesticide.

CONCLUSIONPoisoning attempted suicide was very serious in China. Farmers and women were among the high-risk groups. Druggery and pesticide were the primary poisons, suggesting that management enforcement was in urgent need.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; China ; epidemiology ; Emergency Medical Services ; statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Hospitals ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Occupations ; Poisoning ; classification ; epidemiology ; Sex Factors ; Suicide, Attempted ; statistics & numerical data ; Time Factors ; Treatment Outcome