Background
: An inverse relationship between cholesterol level and the degree of depressive symptoms was found in several studies targeted to Westerners. But, other studies failed to replicate this finding giving diverse opinion on this matter. The objective of the study was to investigate the association between the degree of depressive symptoms and lipid level, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively in adults screened in a health promotion center in Korea.
Method: The study group consisted of 352 men and women who visited the Health Promotion Center of Seoul National University Hospital from Jane to August in 1998. Their depressive symptoms were measured by Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). Lipid level was measured by enzymatic methods with fasting blood specimen. Total calorie and fat intake were calculated from a self-reported questionnaire on the types and amount of food.

Results : Depressive symptoms were not significantly related to lipid levels, total calorie intake, fat intake, age, exercise, BMI, smoking or alcohol consumption(p<0.05). But sex(p<0.05), marital status(p<0.05). educational level(p<0.05) and average income(p<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms in the whole study group(n=352). Educational level(p<0.05), menopausal status(p<0.05) and LDL cholesterol(P<0.05) were significantly related to depressive symptoms only in women(n=185). However in multivariate models which adjusted for confounding factors these associations were not found(p>0.05).

Conclusion : In contrast to the results of previous studies, no significant association between he degree of depressive symptoms and lipid levels, total calorie intake and fat intake respectively were found in Korean adults after adjusting for several factors related to health.

Background
: In Korean family medicine, 73.3~76.4 percent of three year resident training time is spent in outside rotations with other specialties. But there has been no study which investigated the attitudes of family medicine faculties, residents, and non-family medicine specialists regarding the contents of family medicine resident training rotations, such as whether a family physician should perform Caesarean section, etc. In order to achieve a family medicine program whose content is based on the consensus of family medicine faculties, residents, and nonfamily medicine specialists, we compared the attitudes of these groups toward various components of family medicine resident training in internal medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, and psychiatry which account for 68.5% of outside rotations of family medicine resident training programs.

Methods : A questionnaire was sent to 679 family medicine faculties, family medicine residents and non-family medicine specialists in 21 different family medicine centers and related hospitals. Total response rate was 57.6%.

Results : Significantly more numbers of non-family medicine specialists felt that various skills and tasks should not be performed by family physicians. Family medicine residents and family medicine faculties were generally similar to each other in their attitudes toward training in various skills and tasks, but, in some elements of psychiatric training, more family medicine faculties failed to see the need for such training compared with family medicine residents.

Conclusion : In many elements of family medicine resident training, family medicine faculties and nonfamily medicine specialists do not agree. In order to resolve this problem, it is urgent to establish a curriculum, which is agreed upon between by family medicine faculties, residents, and nonfamily medicine specialists who are involved in the training of family medicine residents.