OBJECTIVES: A total of 320,000 Korean soldiers in three combat units and four supporting units participated in the Vietnam War. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between Vietnam experience and mortality by comparing mortalities in Korean Vietnam War veterans to the general population. METHODS: The deaths of 185,760 Vietnam veterans from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 2005 were confirmed by matching the veterans' information to death records from the National Statistical Office. Crude death rate, age adjusted rate and Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated 95% confidence. Age was standardized to the total male population during 1992-2005 with the age of 36 to 83 years old. RESULTS: The age adjusted death rate per 100,000 was 868.1 among veterans and 1226.5 among the general population. Mortality of all causes was significantly lower among veterans (SMR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.82-0.84). Mortalities from neoplasms (SMR=0.87), circulatory diseases (SMR=0.79), and external causes of deaths (SMR=0.92) were significantly lower among veterans. Mortalities from several external causes of deaths including Intentional self-harm (X60-X84), assault and accidental poisoning, angina pectoris, chronic ischemic heart diseases, prostate cancer, and malignant neoplasms of hematopoietic system including multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and leukemia were not different between veterans and the general population. CONCLUSIONS: Mortality among Vietnam veterans was lower than that among the general population. It would be explained mainly by healthy veteran effect.
Angina Pectoris ; Cause of Death ; Death Certificates ; Hematopoietic System ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Multiple Myeloma ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Veterans ; Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Through analyzing 1998 National Health Nutrition Survey (NHNS) data, we investigated the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and several basic factors reflecting the status of DM control: health behaviors, HbA1c level and the prevalence of hypertension among DM patients. METHODS: The NHNS selected 200 districts which represented the national population of Korea and surveyed all inhabitants within the districts. National Health Examination Survey (NHES) and National Health Behaviors Survey (NHBS) surveyed all inhabitants within the related districts. We analyzed the prevalence and management status of DM through analyzing the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data of 39,331 responders and NHES data of 10,876 participants. RESULTS: According to NHIS the prevalence of DM was 2.26% for male, 2.03% for female. 11.0% of DM patients exercised more than three times per week. 32.7% were current smokers. 43.1% were drinkers. 30.0% of DM patients had hypertension, but only 15.8% of them controlled blood pressure. From NHES the prevalence of DM was 9.73% for male, 7.95% for female. 10.5% of DM patients exercised more than three times per week. 36.5% were current smokers. 57.4% were drinkers. 45.3% of DM patients had >8% of HbA1c level. 38.1% of DM patients had hypertension, but only 5.3% of them properly controlled blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Considering the results of previous studies, the prevalence of DM have increased rapidly. The level of recognition of patients to control DM, however, was not enough to prevent late complications. Therefore national health policy should be reset to register DM patients and manage them properly.
Blood Pressure ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Disease Management ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea* ; Life Style ; Male ; Nutrition Surveys ; Prevalence*

Japanese encephalitis(JE) is the leading viral cause of encephalitis and disability in Asia. The disease primarily infects children under the age of 15, leaving up to 70% of these who develop illness either dead or with a long-term neurological disability. We reviewed not only JE disease burden, etiology, vector, mode of transmission, reservoir but also geographic distribution and incidence of the disease in Asia, with a focus on the South Korea. A special comment on the methods of control JE and perspective for South Korea also included.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Child ; Encephalitis ; Encephalitis, Japanese* ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea*

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between sexual adjustment and quality of life and to evaluate the difference of sexual adjustment between small group counselling program and simple sexual rehabilitation program for spinal cord injury couples. METHOD: Fifteen subjects who had participated in 4 weeks small group counselling and twenty subjects, who had participated in simple sexual rehabilitation education were enrolled among among spinal cord injury couples. Direct interview was conducted. Visual analogue scale, Time trade off, Hospital anxiety and depression, and Beck depression inventory were used as quality of life indexes. Sexual Interest, Activity and Satisfaction was used as a sexualadjustment measure. RESULTS: The sexual adjustment index was very significantly positively correlated with all 4 indexes of the quality of life. The couples of the small group counselling had significantly higher sexual adjustment index than the simple education group. Satisfaction for small group counselling was also higher. CONCLUSION: To improve the quality of life for spianl cord injury couples, sexual adjustment level must be improved. Systematic sexual rehabilitation program such as small group counselling may be better solution than simple sexual rehabilitation education program.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Quality of Life* ; Rehabilitation ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

PURPOSE: We estimated the incidence of cancer in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The indicence of cancer was estimated using national mortality data, and the incidence data from four frontier regional cancer registries, including Kangwha, Seoul, Busan and Deagu. These four registries served a population about seventeen million, which is almost 38% of entire population in Korea. RESULTS: The overall age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) were 287.0 and 163.1 per 100,000 for males and females, respectively. Among males, stomach cancer was the most frequent (ASR 69.6), followed by lung cancers, including bronchus cancer (ASR 54.5), liver cancer (ASR 47.0) and colo-rectal cancer (ASR 25.2). The most frequent sites of cancer in females, by rank order, were stomach (ASR 26.8), breast (ASR 20.1), uterine cervix (ASR 18.0), colo-rectum (ASR 15.9), lung (ASR 13.0) and liver (ASR 12.0). CONCLUSION: It is hoped that these results will provide valuable leads for cancer research and cancer control in Korea.
Breast ; Bronchi ; Busan ; Cervix Uteri ; Daegu ; Female ; Hope ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea* ; Liver ; Liver Neoplasms ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Male ; Mortality ; Registries ; Seoul ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms

PURPOSE: A college or university faculty can be regarded as an educator, researcher, and service provider. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accountability of medical school professors focusing on the educational duties and to propose the solution and strategy for accountability evaluation of medical school faculty. METHODS: The study used questionnaires which was developed in five big categories asking basic information of the faculty, educational activities, subject of the accountability evaluation, and the primary disturbing factor in accomplishing the educational accountability. The questionnaires were asked to 61 faculty members in Yonsei University College of Medicine. RESULTS: The accountability importance of the medical school faculty was research(37.13%), teaching(31.80%), practice medicine(21.97%) and service(9.10%). Much weight was given for research(40.00%) and education(19.42%). The faculty concentrated mostly on delivering learning objectives as their educational activities. The biggest problem affecting the faculty from concentrating on educational accountability was the over workload. Insufficient incentives and lack of interest in education came next. The faculty also showed dissatisfaction with the obscurity of accountability assessment in operation, uniformity of the measurement and the absence of objective assessment standard. CONCLUSION: Medical schools need to create an environment in support of the faculty to focus on the educational activities. And when evaluating their accountability, the assessment standards need to be systematized and differentiated according to their specialities.
Education ; Learning ; Motivation ; Schools, Medical* ; Social Responsibility* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Education* ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional*

The objective of this study is to differentiate the mild dementia of Alzheimer type from the questionable dementia and non-demented elderly using the neurocognitive assessment. Subjects of 28 women who were registered to kwangju Community Mental Health Center were as follows: 14 non-demented, 9 questionable dementia, 5 mild dementia of Alzheimer type. The diagnosis were made using DSM-IV, Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. The neurocognitive functions were assessed with following test tools 1) attention: Digit span, Visual span, Continuous attention; 2) memory: Logical memroy, Verbal paired associates-easy/hard 3) visual perception and visuospatial ability: Visual recognition test, Construction; and 4) language: Comprehension and Aphasia severity rating scale; 5) higher cortical function: Hypothesis formation, Perseveration, Similarity, Judgment, and Go-No-Go test. Group differences were analyzed with one way ANOVA test in SPSS 8.0 for win and LSD method as post-hoc analysis. The questionable dementia group showed significant difference in Verbal paired associateseasy pair, Construction, Aphasia severity rating scale and Similarity from the non-demented normal control group but showed no difference from the mildly demented group. These results suggest that the questionable dementia is actually very early or very mild stage of dementia of the Alzheimer type.
Aged* ; Aphasia ; Comprehension ; Dementia* ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Female ; Gwangju ; Humans ; Judgment ; Logic ; Lysergic Acid Diethylamide ; Memory ; Mental Health ; Visual Perception

Cognitive impairment and depression are the most common symptoms affecting the elderly on physical and mental states. Studies have shown that these symptoms in mild cases are improved by psychosocial intervention, emphasizing the importance of therapeutic intervention provided in the community. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the psychosocial program at a geriatric day care service has any therapeutic effect on the cognitive function and depressive symptoms in the elderly and whether such effect can be maintained. The experimental group was composed of 37 elderly patients attending the day care service at the mental health center located in Kwangju county, Kyonggi province. The control group was composed of 22 elderly patients who either refused intervention or who dropped out of the program. Cognitive function was assessed with the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Exam(MMSE-K) and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Short-form Geriatric Depression Scale(SGDS) The experimental group and the control group were compared on the score of on each test, which was administered before and after the program and 10 weeks after discontinuation of program. In the experimental group, the scores acquired immediately after the program and at 10 weeks of follow-up were also compared. The results showed that psychosocial intervention at a geriatric day care service was significantly associated with the change in SGDS scores dependent on time but not significantly associated with the change in MMSE-K scores. In the experimental group whose follow-up assessment was possible, it was further shown that 43% of patients had increased SGDS scores 10 weeks after the program ended, indicating that depressive symptoms had worsened. This study suggests that psychosocial therapeutic intervention in the geriatric day care service improve depressive symptoms but not cognitive functions in the elderly. In addition, for a considerable percentage of subjects in the experimental group, the improvements in depressive symptoms were not sustained after the intervention was withdrawn. These findings proposes a need of strengthening therapeutic intervention to maintain such effect.
Aged* ; Day Care, Medical* ; Depression* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gwangju ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Mental Health

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of adolescent obesity is so rapidly increasing in Korea that there are concerns not only for increased risk of adult obesity in the future, but also for psychosocial problems in this period. This study is to find out the psychosocial correlates of adolescent obesity such as demographic characteristics, concerns about body image and weight, self-esteem, depression, and the locus of control for obesity. METHODS: A total of 963(obesity, 433 ; normal weight, 530) among 8,209 students from schools that underwent survey of physlcal examination in Seoul were assessed with a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: There were stastically significant differences between the obese group(OG) and the normal weight group(NWG) in family structure(p<0.05) and economic status(p<0.01). Adolescents in a extended family were more frequent in the OG(14.3%), than in the NWG( 9.4% ). Those in the high economic status were less frequent in the OG(15.3% ) than in the NWG (23.8% ), Although almost all obese adolescents considered that they were fat, normal weight students did not view themselves as they really were(p<0.001). That is, 57.5% of the NWG thought that they were either fat or thin instead. The majority of the OG was not satisfied with (86.4%) and was worried(88.0%) about their weight(p<0.001), and these aspects were more remarkable in women(p<0.001). The total self-esteem score in the OG was higher(p<0.001) than the NWG, and the depression score was lower in the OG than the NWG(p<0.001). Higher scores for powerful others and chance in the OG than those in NWG were shown(p<0.001). The psychosocial aspects which were highly associated with obesity were self-esteem in peers (odds ratio=1.547) and school(odds ratio=2.041), and powerful others(odds ratio=2.181) and chance(odds ratio=2.367) locus of control for obesity, and less probable characteristics were depression(odds ratio=0.723) and high economic status(odds ratio=0.498). CONCLUSIONS: Obese adolescents neither had low self-esteem nor were they depressive to the contrary of belief in the general public. Since they were not satisfied with and were worried about their body weight, however, there is a need to change our misconception of obese people who may risk unhealthy weight reduction. Further studies using various instruments and reinforcing internality for management of obesity would be needed to deeply understand the psychosocial correlates of obesity.
Adolescent* ; Adult ; Body Image ; Body Weight ; Depression ; Humans ; Internal-External Control ; Korea ; Obesity ; Pediatric Obesity ; Prevalence ; Seoul ; Weight Loss ; Surveys and Questionnaires