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Degree of stress and stress-related factors by the Korean version of the BEPSI.

Kyu Nam KIM ; Jung Yong PARK ; Taek Soo SHIN ; Kwang Joon JUN ; Eun Young CHOI ; Hyeon Ju KIM ; Sung Hee LEE ; Tai Woo YOO ; Bong Yul HUH

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):559-570.

BACKGROUND: The BEPSI(Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument) was developed as an instrument for quick assessment of stress in a busy office setting, and well correlated with other stress scales. Bae et al. developed the BEPSI(Korean version)[BEPSI-K] in Korea, which was used broadly in health examination. In this study, we attempted to assess degree of stress and to find stress-related factors among Koreans by the BEPSI-K. METHODS: A household telephone survey of 1,060 responders was carried out using multistage stratifed random sampling technique from April to May, 1997. The data were collected from 947 subjects who answered all the items of the BEPSI-K. RESULTS: The reliability of the BEPSI-K was demonstrated (Cronbachs alpha 0.71). The BEPSI-K score showed left-shifted distribution, and its mean was 1.72. It also was significantly high in the unmarried, those with a low educational level, those with a low income, non-economic group, hypertensive patients, smokers, non-exercisers and drinkers. Among 947 subjects, 7.7 percent was high stress according to tercile of the original BEPSI score. CONCLUSIONS: Stress-related factors were marital status, educational level, income level, occupation, exercise, smoking, drinking, and hypertension in Korea.
Drinking ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Marital Status ; Occupations ; Single Person ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Telephone ; Weights and Measures

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Depressive tendency in medical inpatients.

Kil AHN ; Kap Soo MOON ; Eun Chul JANG ; Gyu Nam CHO ; Sung Soo KIM ; Moon Gyu PARK

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):549-558.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are common in the medically ill patients although depressive disorders are considerably underdiagnosed and undertreated. Therefore, we examined the characteristics of depressive tendency in medical inpatients. METHODS: The patient group-144 subj.cts(90 males, 54 females) were selected from medical inpatients of Kae Jung hospital. 158 subjects(106 male, 52 females) with no prior history of diseases were selected for the control group. The Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression(HRSD) was used for both groups from June to December 1997. RESULTS: The patient group had a significant higher BDI and HRSD score than controls(p<0.01). In the patients, 31.3% had scores on the BDI greater than the cutting score of 21, and 26.4% had scores on the HRSD greater than the cutting score of 22. In the patients, demographic and medical variables were evaluated with respect to depression. those in their 60's, with education level of elementary school and below. the divorced, bereaved and separated, and having duration of illness more than one year were statistically more depressed, but depression was not associated with sex, religion and medical diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that depressive tendency may be a common phenomena in medically ill patients. Therefore, we should suspect depression in the management of these patients.
Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnosis ; Divorce ; Education ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Male

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Relationship of health behaviors and physical health status in the elderly.

Ka Young LEE ; Tae Jin PARK

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):538-548.

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to investigate the relationship of health behaviors and physical health status in the elderly. Therefore, we evaluated the significance of health behaviors and acquire useful data for health promotion in the elderly. METHODS: The eklerly 65-years old or over were recruited and enrolled at a medical service practiced in 8 different rural areas in 1997. A total of 217 completed questionnaires were obtained. The questionnaire consisted of the variables of sociodemography, health behavior, physical health status, health concern, and depression. The data were analysed by Mantel-Haenszel test for linear association, t test, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Among the health behaviors eating breakfast and physical activity were related to physical health status. Factor the level of practicing health behavior was related to physical health status, especially to the admission history, and disability in work because of the illness. The predictors of health status score were health concern and total health behaviors. Only physical activity among the health behaviors was the significant predictor of physical health status. CONCLUSIONS: The result that health behaviors are related to health status in the middle aged is applicable to the elderly. And physical activity is the predictor of physical health status in the elderly. These results suggest health behaviors will be helpful to the elderlys health.
Aged* ; Breakfast ; Depression ; Health Behavior* ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Motor Activity ; Surveys and Questionnaires

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The coincidence of the english keywords of the journal of korean academy of family medicine with MeSH and selection validity.

Byung Sung KIM ; Soo Young KIM

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):531-537.

BACKGROUND: As the importance of keywords useful for indexing increases with the development of evidence based medicine, the importance of the English keywords also increases with the commencement of Koreamed. Though the information of authors recommends using MeSH terms for keywords, many authors do not stick to this principle. The objectives of this study are to investigate how much of the English keywords of the Journal of Korean Academy of Family Medicine(JKAFM) are used with precise MeSH terms and how weR the keywords stand for the articles. METHODS: The English keywords were analyzed from the 455 articles of JKAFM published from Jan. 1992 to Dec. 1997. The authors investigated the frequently used keywords and what percentage of the keywords coincide with MeSH using MeSH browser. And for the ten randomly chosen articles from each of the six volumes, we examined what percentage of the English keywords coincide with the MeSH terms which had consensus of two family physicians and evaluated the validity. RESULTS: The total number of the English keywords used was 897, and 23 kinds of keywords including depression were used 5 or more times. The number of terms precisely coincident with MeSH was 161(17.9%), the number of terms with trivial difference(order or singular/pleural) was 34(3.8%), and 702 terms(78.2%) were not MeSH terms. Among the 202 MeSH terms determined with consensus from the randomly chosen 60 English abstracts, 51 terms(25.2%) were precisely coincident, 38 terms(18.8%) showed trivial difference, and 113 terms(55.9%) were not used. CONCLUSIONS: Many of the English keywords of JKAFM does not coincide with MeSH, and over half of the keywords does not validly stand for the contents of the articles.
Abstracting and Indexing as Topic ; Consensus ; Depression ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Humans ; Physicians, Family

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Correlation of liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine and liver disease in Western medicine.

Kyung Sup PARK ; Wu Jin PARK ; Young Jin LEE ; Byung Mook LYM ; Sang Hyup YOON ; Chul Young BAE

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):522-530.

BACKGROUND: Among the outpatient clinic visitors who were diagnosed as "your liver is fragile or weak" by Oriental doctors, many patients asked Western medical doctors of the opinion about their status of liver. No study exists on the correlation of Oriental and Western medicine concerning liver disease. The authors have investigated to evaluate the correlation of liver disease which was diagnosed in Oriental and Western medicine. METHODS: From January to March 1997, 122 subjects had undergone health screening program in Oriental Western Integrated Health Promotion Center of Pundang CHA General Hospital. Liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine was diagnosed by on Oriental medical doctor in the Center. Cases were reviewed and compared with laboratory and abdominal ultrasonographic findings on chart record. RESULTS: Of the total 122 subjects, 15 were diagnosed as having normal liver and 107 as having liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine. Comparing these two groups, there was no statistical significant difference. No statistical significance was found between liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine and HBsAg, HBsAb, HBeAb, alcohol drinking. 43 subjects had findings of fatty liver on abdominal ultrasonography in which. 26(21.3%) were mild, 14(11.5%) moderate, and 3(2.5%) severe. There was no statistical significance between liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine and fatty liver. Among the abnormal findings on abdominal ultrasonography, 43(35.2%) were fatty liver, 3(2.5%) polyp of gallbladder, and 2(1.6%) were gallstone. There was no statistical significance between liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine and abdominal abnormalities on ultrasonography. 58 patients were diagnosed as having liver disease by laboratory test and sonographic finding among which 43(35.2%) were fatty liver, 7(5.7%) hepatitis, 3(2.5%) alcoholic liver dysfunction, 3(2.5%) polyp of gallbladder, and 2(1.6 %) were gallstone. There was no statistical significance between liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine and liver disease in Western medicine. CONCLUSIONS: The result suggests that the meaning of liver dysfunction in Oriental medicine is different in Western medicine.
Alcohol Drinking ; Alcoholics ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Fatty Liver ; Gallbladder ; Gallstones ; Health Promotion ; Hepatitis ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Liver Diseases* ; Liver* ; Mass Screening ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional* ; Polyps ; Ultrasonography

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Quality of life after the menopause: influence of hormonal replacement therapy.

Hee Sun JANG ; Yong Hoon LEE ; Sun Hwa KIM ; Oh Sook KWON ; Seung Ah JEON ; Yung Su JANG

Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine.1998;19(7):515-521.

BACKGROUND: As life span is increasing, so is interest about adult disease. Especially the number of postmenopausal women has increased, and postmenopausal symptoms have become a important problem causing low quality of life. Hormone replacement therapy was introduced to overcome these problems. Authors investigated to evaluate the effect of hormone replacement therapy on the quality of life of postmenopausal women. METHODS: From April to June 1997, we surveyed 188 postmenopausal women (91 women were on hormone replacement therapy, and 97 women were in the controlled group in Sungnam Central Hospital) with COOP/WONCA chart Korean version. RESULTS: COOP/WONCA chart (Korean version) is composed of seven dimensions, among these four dimensions (change in health, overall health, daily activity and pain) were shown statistically significant difference between two groups. But three dimensions (social activity, physical fitness and feelings) were not shown to be statistically different. Total mean score of COOP/WONCA chart showed statistically significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: To improve the quality of life of postmenopausal women, primary care physician should consider hormone replacement therapy along with proper patient selection and periodic follow up.
Adult ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gyeonggi-do ; Hormone Replacement Therapy ; Humans ; Menopause* ; Motor Activity ; Patient Selection ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Quality of Life*