The association between blood lead children and Intelligent Quotient(IQ) was investigated in a sample of l00 boys and girls aged 6-8 years from one primary school within an industrial area of Pusan. The trained undergraduates in school of public health administered an I.Q. test one by one. Parents answered a questionnaire on demographic, perinatal and socioeconomic variables. Atomic Absorbtion spectrophotometer was used to determine blood lead levels. The geometric mean of blood lead value was 7.99 microgram/dl. In total children, there was no significant relationship between blood lead level and I.Q. But in the children who were born of gestational age of less than 38 weeks, children with higher levels of blood lead performed more poorly on I.Q. test with correlation coefficient from -0.68 to -0.71. But, the children who were born of gestational age of 38 weeks and more were same as total children. These results suggest that exposure to low levels of lead in the children who were born premature probably may result in impaired intelligent development. But, we think that more profound study should be performed with sufficient numbers of subjects.
Busan ; Child* ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Intelligence* ; Parents ; Public Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Though people occupationally exposed to machineries and automation in the industrialized society desire work involving decreased strength, due to the continuous and repetitive activities, a new industrial stress is present. Studies on prevalence of musculoskeletal disease and their related risk factors have evolved. In this study in relation to work tasks, we investigated the differences in musculoskeletal symptoms occurring in each body region. The results of the survey were as follows. 1. When comparing age, level of education, work duration, job satisfaction and leisure time activities according to work risk, age in control group was 32.83+/-5.5, in comparison to the other 2 groups was smaller(p<0.05), and level of education in control group was higher(p<0.05) Work duration in the cutting department as 8.04+/-4.99 years longer than the other 2 groups(p<0.05), but there was no difference in the job satisfaction and leisure time activities. 2. The mean of symptom scores of each work task was 1.54 in the cutting department, 1.57 in the press department and 1.59 in the control group, and there was no significant difference in the 3 groups. The mean of symptom scores for upper extremities in the control group was low but mo statistically significant difference was shown. 3. When comparing the mean of symptom score according to work task in the each body region, in the shoulder region, the symptom score in the press department which desired strength was higher than the other 2 groups but no significant difference was shown. In the wrist region the cutting department scored 1.01 and in comparison to the other 2 groups was significantly increased(p<0.05). 4. The results of the univariate regression analysis on the major individual risk factors associated with musculoskeletal symptom relating work showed that previous symptom complaints in the same body region was significant risk factor(p<0.001) in the whole body, Besides wrist, hip, and knee, psychological problem was shown to be a significant factor(p<0.05). And the body regions which work task was significant risk factor were wrist and neck region(p<0.05). 5. The results of the multiple regression analysis involving significant factors of each body region from the unfavorite regression analysis showed that previous symptom shoulder, elbow and lumbar region(p<0.001) and psychological problem in the shoulder, elbow and lumbar region(p<0.05) were significant factors, and work task was significant factor in the wrist(p<0.05).
Automation ; Body Regions ; Education ; Elbow ; Hip ; Job Satisfaction ; Knee ; Leisure Activities ; Musculoskeletal Diseases ; Neck ; Occupations ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors ; Shoulder ; Upper Extremity ; Wrist

No abstract available.

The authors conducted this study to evaluate some differences in blood lead levels between inner-city and suburban children and obtain the basic data of the reference value of the blood lead concentrations in children. The subjects were composed of 102 children residing in inner-city and 86 children in suburban. Their age range were 6 to 8 years old and the obtained results were as follow; 1. The arithmetic means of the blood lead level in male and fenlale, male, and female children were 7.24, 7,40, 7.08 microgram/100ml, and geometric means were 6.92, 7.08, 6.76 microgram/100ml, respectively. 2. The children residing in inner-city had the higher blood lead levels both male and female than suburban children with statistical signficance (p < 0.05) 3. Seventeen percent of the total subjects had lead cencentrations ( 5 microgram/100ml, and 5.88% of inner-city children and 30.23 % of suburban children had this lead values. But in > or = 10 microgram/100ml group, the inner-city children (20.39 %) were more distributed than suburban chilren(2.33 %) , and 12.33 % of total subjects had this lead values.
Child* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Reference Values