BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to survey hygiene behavior of healthcare personnel according to the Hygiene Inventory 23 (HI23) and to use the results in education and research for promoting hygiene behaviors. METHODS: We sampled a total of 400 people with 50 from each job category. The sample was obtained through convenient sampling among 8,200 employees working at a tertiary-care hospital with 2,600 beds in Seoul. The HI23 consisted of 5 subscales and 8 questions on general hygiene, 3 on household hygiene, 3 on food-related hygiene, 5 on hand hygiene methods, and 4 on personal hygiene, resulting in a total of 23 questions. The researcher also added 14 questions on the general characteristics of the subjects. The self-administered questionnaires were distributed on October 2009 and analyzed blindly. RESULTS: The average total score for hygiene behavior was 3.04+/-0.44 (maximum of 4). In the subcategory of hygiene behavior, the mean score was 3.20+/-4.24 for general hygiene, 3.07+/-0.68 for household hygiene, 3.07+/-0.68 for food-related hygiene, 2.91+/-0.69 for hand hygiene methods, and 2.97+/-0.48 for personal hygiene. When factors affecting the level of hygiene behavior were identified through multivariate regression analysis, independent factors were found to be gender (female), job category (food-related job), experience in hand hygiene education, and experience in teaching hand hygiene or general hygiene. CONCLUSION: Programs and education adapted to the characteristics of each job category in hospitals are needed to promote hygiene behaviors such as general hygiene, hand hygiene methods, household hygiene, food-related hygiene, and personal hygiene.
Delivery of Health Care ; Family Characteristics ; Hand Disinfection ; Hand Hygiene ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to evaluate the problems of pre-hospital Emergency medical care system (EMS) in workplace. We analysed 25 fatal work-place injuries during the recent 4 years and the work-place EMS of 8 enterprises located in Masan-city, Changwon-city and Kuje-island. METHODS: The safety managers and the members of Dept. of safety in the labor unions were interviewed about the work-place EMS. And we investigated on the injury reports, the work-place medical-room records and the medical records of emergency center for fatal 25 cases. RESULTS: The enterprises had the at-risk machines and processes, volatile materials and high-altitude working processes. There were duty doctors in only 3 enterprises but a few duty nurses or health-care providers in the others. The time spent for the education to the workers on safety was 24hrs/yr in 3 enterprises in 1998 but less than Bhrs in the others. There were medical service center in all enterprises but the ambulances in three. The time for activation of the ambulance was ranging from 5 minutes to 10 minutes in 6 enterprises, and from 10 minutes to 30 minutes in two. The patient transportation to the emergency center was possible within 30 minutes in all enterprises but there were no equipments for airway maintenance and shock management in all enterprises. The 15 (60%) fatal injuries were occurred at one enterprise. The 64% of casualties had the duration of job-employment more than 10yrs and the 68% were suffered the typical type of work-place injury as descending injuries, collisions and falls. Most of all primary calls for rescue were concentrated on the fire-service agencies. But in 85% of fatal injtories, the tome for the activation of ambulance was more than 10 minutes and no emergency care was taken in the field in 48 percent of casualtles. The transportation time to the emergency center was more than 30 minutes in 50 percent. It toolk from injury to death was less than one hour in the 40 percent of all cases, and from one hour to four in the 50 percent. The causes of death in the 68 percent were the head-and-neck injuries or thoracic injuries. CONCLUSIONS: We found that there was Insufficiency of the education associated with work-place injury for workers, manpower and facilities, equipments related to the work-place EMS, the problems of the delay in transportation system.
Ambulances ; Cause of Death ; Education ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Services* ; Humans ; Labor Unions ; Medical Records ; Shock ; Thoracic Injuries ; Transportation

No abstract available.
Fetal Death* ; Gastroschisis*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Metaphase* ; Mice* ; Oocytes*

We carried out the mouse tail technique and the Candida albicans test for the study of the phototoxic reaction to amiodarone. The mouse tail technique is based on the inflammatory response of mouse tails after systemic administration of the drug and UVA irradiation and the Candida albicans test is based on growth inhibition of Candida albicana In the mouse tail technique, following the administration of amiodarone and UVA irradia tion for 5 consecutive days, there was a significant increase(14% ) in the relative water content as compared to other control groups. In the Candida albicans test, UVA irradiation after pretreatment with amiodarone resulted in a clear Candida-free zone around the disc. The results showed that amiodarone had a phototoxic potential and that both of the methods were a good screening test for demonstrat.ing the phototoxicity of a certain drug.
Amiodarone ; Animals ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Dermatitis, Phototoxic ; Mass Screening ; Mice* ; Tail* ; Water

Background: Post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) is one of the well-known complication of spinal anesthesia. Epidural blood patch is the treatment of choice for PDPH but is rarely used for the prevention of PDPH after spinal anesthesia. The purpose of this study is to observe the effectiveness of epidural blood patch for prevention of PDPH and to evaluate the complications after epidural blood injection. Methods: Three hundred patients (ASA I or II) receiving spinal anesthesia were studied. They were randomly devided into two groups. Patients in Group I, the control group, were maintained in a supine position for 24 hour after spinal anesthesia. Patients in Group II, the study group, received 3 ml of autologous blood in the epidural space after spinal anesthesia. PDPH was evaluated for 5 days. The incidence, location, onset, and duration of headache in the patients presenting with PDPH were measured for 5 days, and the complications following epidural blood patch in Group II were observed for 2 weeks. Results: The incidence of PDPH in group I was 11%, but 0% in group II. There were no specific complications following epidural blood patch in Group II. Conclusions: This study suggest that the 3 ml epidural autologous blood patch is an useful method for the prevention of PDPH in patients with spinal anesthesia.
Anesthesia, Spinal* ; Blood Patch, Epidural ; Epidural Space ; Headache ; Humans ; Incidence ; Post-Dural Puncture Headache ; Punctures* ; Supine Position

To investigate incidence of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) caused by Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis (referred to as Y. enterocolitica-pseudotuberculosis complex) in children, seropositive rates to major 8 serotypes of Y. enterocolitica-pseudotuberculosis complex antigens among 467 sera of three groups of subjects (298 acute gastroenteritis; AGE, 108 miscellaneous pediatric diseases; MPD, and 61 healthy medical students; HMS) were investigated by bacterial agglutination test using standardized, heat-killed, phenolized, smooth 0 antigens. In addition, cross-reactions between yersinia agglutinins and Widal agglutinins in patients with AGE caused by Y. enterocolitica-pseudotuberculosis complex were examined in paired serum specimens. Seropositive rates to Y. enterocolitica-pseudotuberculosis complex among three groups, AGE, MPD, and HMS, were 36.5%, 13.8%, and 14.7%, respectively. Of 109 seropositive AGE patients, the most common type-specific agglutinin which showed predominating agglutinin titer to one of 8 serotypes of Y. enterocolitica-pseudotuberculosis complex antigens was PO4b (27.5%), followed by PO2a (23.8%), EO3 (16.5%), PO5a (13.7%), PO5b (9.1%), PO3 (4.5%), EO9 (2.7%), and POlb (1.8%), in orders. The Widal agglutinins cross-reacted to Y. pseudotuberculosis PO4b antigen, but the yersinia agglutinins were differentiated from Widal agglutinins by rising agglutinin titers in paired serum specimens taken one to three weeks apart. In conclusion, acute gastroenteritis caused by Y. pseudotuberculosis in children must be regarded as a fairly common enteric disease in children.
Agglutination Tests ; Agglutinins ; Child* ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Phenol ; Students, Medical ; Yersinia enterocolitica* ; Yersinia*

No abstract available.
Encephalitis* ; Prognosis*

No abstract available.
Animals* ; Korea* ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis* ; Yersinia*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans