OBJECTIVE: To determine the differences between the patient's and physicians' views of the effects of internet health information on the physician-patient relationship. METHODS: An online survey was carried out with 25 items developed by revising the questionnaire of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising to accommodate the internet health information. The respondents were 671 patients who were active participants in online patient communities and 493 physicians who were the professors of medical schools and practicing physicians. RESULTS: Most of the patients were positive toward the Internet Health Information saying that it gives them advice from a doctor with self-confidence, allows them to follow their doctor's directions well, obtain more medical treatment after retrieving the information, etc. In contrast, physicians perceived that the internet health information may have variety of negative effects, such as increasing the healthcare cost, unnecessary clinic visits and undermining of the doctor-patient relationship. There were significant differences in the perspectives between the physicians and patients. CONCLUSION: It will be necessary to ensure experts provide internet health information, which will have beneficial effects on the quality of care, physician-patient relationship, and health service utilization.
Ambulatory Care ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Dietary Sucrose ; Health Care Costs ; Health Services ; Humans ; Internet ; Schools, Medical

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to obtain basic data required to plan and develop consumer-centered internet health information site for Korean population. METHODS: An internet survey was conducted on 5 internet patient community sites between 23 January and 5 February, 2007. A total of 958 surveys were completed and included in the study. Data were analyzed with descriptive analysis, Pearson's correlation analysis, and stepwise logistic regression analysis using SPSS version 12.0. RESULTS: According to our logistic regression analysis, the more internet usage, foreign country residents, members of breast cancer internet community, any workers except sales, and higher level of necessity/usefulness/reliability showed a higher Odds ratio for frequency of internet health information usage. Educational status, frequency of using internet, importance, necessity, usefulness, reliability of internet health information (p<.001), income, and satisfaction of internet health information (p<.05) were statistically significant in the frequency of internet health information usage. CONCLUSION: Above characteristics should be considered for planning to develop consumer-centered internet health information portals.
Breast Neoplasms ; Commerce ; Consumer Health Information ; Consumer Satisfaction* ; Educational Status ; Humans ; Internet* ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to determine patient's views of the effects of internet health information on the doctor-patient relationship. METHODS: Online survey with 26 items was conducted which was developed by revising the questionnaire of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising to accommodate to the internet health information. Members of the active online patients communities were solicited by e-mail. RESULTS: Most of them gave an affirmative answer on Internet Health Information saying that it makes them get advice from doctor with self-confidence, follow their doctor's direction well, get more medical treatment after retrieving the information and so on. By contrast, physicians perceived that internet health information may have variety of negative effects according to the preceding research. CONCLUSIONS: There are the differences of perspectives between physicians and patients. Therefore it will be necessary to make the experts' intervention in the provision of internet health information, which will have good effects on quality of care, doctor-patient relationship, and health service utilization.
Electronic Mail ; Health Services ; Humans ; Internet ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Evolutionary psychiatry is a branch of medical science concerning mental disorders, and also a multidisciplinary research field with close relation to psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and ethology. Although evolutionary psychiatry is a promising area for further psychiatric studies, it is still in its infancy. Thus, there are no certain research methods using evolutionary approaches toward mental diseases. It is still at the level of adopting and applying the research methods of the aforementioned adjacent fields. We aim to investigate a variety of research methods proposed to date and then compare them, which will provide a glimpse of the future of evolutionary psychiatry in the upcoming era.
Anthropology ; Biology ; Ethology ; Mental Disorders ; Neurosciences ; Psychology

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this research are to survey the consumers' opinions about the health information privacy, to understand the consumers' privacy.protective behaviors out of the concern about the privacy breaches, to know the consumers' recognition about the constitution of the health information privacy law, to know the consumers' willingness to share their personal medical information. METHODS: The questionnaire was developed and conducted by the California HealthCare Foundation on "National Consumer Health Privacy Survey" was translated into Korean and reviewed by the authors to conform to the Korean situation. We collected data from 335 on.line survey responses. RESULTS: Consumers concerned about the privacy of their personal health information. Consumers are unfamiliar with health information privacy law. Consumers think that the paper medical records are more secure than electronic medical records. Not so many Korean consumers practice the privacy.protective behaviors even though they worry about the misuse of the health information. However, consumers will share their personal medical information with limited others such as family members and physicians involved in their care. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the consumers answered that the information could be shared when necessary, however, the ownership and the right to decide the disclosure should belong to patient, and patient should be allowed to access their own information with certain degree of regulation.
California ; Constitution and Bylaws ; Consumer Health Information ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disclosure ; Electronic Health Records ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Medical Records ; Ownership ; Privacy* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The Consumer Health Informatics has been developing very fast recently as the new trends of consumerism emerged. This article reviewed the numerical expansion of the CHI researches since 1989 based on the search results of the PubMed database, and classified the main issues of CHI researches and categorized them into 10 issues. The trends of the CHI researches were analyzed by the categories and the timeline.
Informatics*

Nodular fasciitis is a pseudosarcomatous reactive process composed of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, and it is most common in the upper extremities. Nodular fasciitis of the external auditory canal is rare. To the best of our knowledge, less than 20 cases have been reported to date. We present a case of nodular fasciitis arising in the cartilaginous part of the external auditory canal. A 19-year-old man complained of an auricular mass with pruritus. Computed tomography showed a 1.7 cm sized soft tissue mass in the right external auditory canal, and total excision was performed. Histologic examination revealed spindle or stellate cells proliferation in a fascicular and storiform pattern. Lymphoid cells and erythrocytes were intermixed with tumor cells. The stroma was myxoid to hyalinized with a few microcysts. The tumor cells were immunoreactive for smooth muscle actin, but not for desmin, caldesmon, CD34, S-100, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, and cytokeratin. The patient has been doing well during the 1 year follow-up period.
Actins ; Calmodulin-Binding Proteins ; Desmin ; Ear ; Ear Canal* ; Erythrocytes ; Fasciitis* ; Fibroblasts ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hyalin ; Keratins ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphoma ; Muscle, Smooth ; Myofibroblasts ; Phosphotransferases ; Pruritus ; Upper Extremity ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among sexual function, sexual stress, and quality of life inmiddle aged women patients with diabetes mellitus. METHODS: Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 154 middle aged women patient with diabetesmellitus in one hospital. RESULTS: The mean sexual function score was 12.99±9.11. There were statistically significant differences in sexual function according to age, level of education, employment status, time of being diagnosed with diabetesmellitus, number of complications, self-monitoring of blood glucose,menopausal status, and level of glycosylated hemoglobin. Themean sexual stress score was 26.99±16.88. The score of quality of life was 79.12±14.30. There were statistically significant differences in quality of life according to level of education. Sexual function was negatively correlated with sexual stress (r=-.46 p<.001) and positively correlated with quality of life (r=.32, p<.001), while sexual stress was negatively correlated with quality of life (r=-.36 p<.001). CONCLUSION: Higher sexual dysfunction inmiddle aged women patients with diabetes mellitus was correlated with lower sexual stress and improved quality of life, while lower sexual stress was correlated with improved quality of life.
Diabetes Mellitus* ; Education ; Employment ; Female ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life*

BACKGROUND: Skipping family gathered meals, because of lack of time due to increased academic demands, leads to nutritional imbalance and further contributes to obesity among children and teens. This study was conducted to underscore the importance of family gathered meals and to serve as a basis for reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity. METHODS: The relation between frequency of family gathered meals and body mass index-standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) was assessed at 247 elementary students in Gyeonggi-do. Survey based on self reported questionnaire was conducted from April to May of 2013. Parental consents from participants were received and parents were asked to answer the questionnaire together with their children. The questionnaire included questions regarding anthropometric characteristics, socioeconomic informations, number and environmental characteristics of family gathered meals, and eating habits of their children. RESULTS: The average frequency of family gathered breakfast was 3.65+/-2.18 times/week, frequency of family gathered dinner was 6.10+/-1.54 times/week, and frequency of family eating-out was 1.64+/-1.43 times/week. Although the prevalence of family gathered breakfast among the participants was shown to be 51%, the prevalence of skipping breakfast was 14.2%, which was relatively high. The BMI-SDS increased in correlation with less frequent breakfast consumptions (P=0.015) and family gathered breakfasts (P<0.001), also with more frequent family gathered dinners (P=0.001) and family eating-outs (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The eating frequency of breakfast, family gathered breakfast, family gathered dinner, and the family eating-out is associated with BMI-SDS.
Adolescent ; Breakfast ; Child ; Eating ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Meals ; Obesity ; Parents ; Pediatric Obesity ; Prevalence ; Self Report ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Objectives: In regard to the social competition hypothesis, depression is viewed as an involuntary defeat strategy. A previous study has demonstrated that adaptation in microenvironments can result in a wide range of behavioural patterns including defense activation disorders. Using a simulation model with evolutionary ecological agents, we explore how the fitness of various defence activation traits has changed over time in different environments with high and low social mobility. Methods: The Evolutionary Ecological Model of Defence Activation Disorder, which is based on the Marginal Value Theorem, was used to examine changes in relative fitness for individuals with defensive activation disorders after adjusting for social mobility. Results: Our study examined the effects of social mobility on fitness by varying the d-values, a measure of depression in the model.With a decline in social mobility, the level of fitness of individuals with high levels of defense activation decreased. We gained insight into the evolutionary influence of varying levels of social mobility on individuals’ degrees of depression. In the context of a highly stratified society, the results support a mismatch hypothesis which states that high levels of defence are detrimental. Conclusions Despite the fact that niche specialization in habitats composed of multiple microenvironments can result in diverse levels of defensive activation being evolutionary strategies for stability, decreased social mobility may lead to a decrease in fitness of individuals with highly activated defence modules. There may be a reason behind the epidemic of depression in modern society.