Background
: Continuity is very important in primary care, and in most studies continuous care has been reported to have a good effect on the result of care. So we studied the factors influencing the continuity of patient care by physician in charge, especially in case of out-patient department in a university hospital.

Methods : We posed questionnaires to 55 persons who had visited continually to Paik Hospital in Pusan for at least 6 months. We classified them into three groups according to the degree of continuity using 'Modified Continuity Index', and compared the lower group(18 patients) with the higher group(18 patients).

Results : The income of the higher continuity group was significantly less than that of the lower continuity group(P=0.042). But there were no significant differences between the two groups according to sex, age, the type of family, marital status, job and the level of education. The higher continuity group agreed more significantly than the lower continuity group with the question whether it is important to be treated continually from physician in charge(P=0.005). About the reasons for visiting to other doctors instead of the physician in charge, most of them in both group replied that they could not keep appointment. And there were no significant differences in the care pattern of disease between the groups.

Conclusion : To improve the continuity of patient care by physician in charge, it is necessary to instruct the importance of continuous care to the patients and to motivate them through various methods.

Background
: Psychogenic and physical aspects of health is interesting issue in the field of family medicine. We intended to study the relationship between physical illness and symptoms with self esteem, and hoped to understand disease in general behavioral context.

Methods : We selected 124 persons who visited family medicine OPD in Paik Hospital from August 3 to August 20, 1995, and answered questionnaire frankly. The qestionnaire consisted of Rosenberg self esteem scale as parameter of self esteem and Hopkins symptomcheck list as parameter of physical health. The third author analyzed the medical record and rated the severity of disease as grade I-VII, for another parameter of physical health. The other factors-age, sex, marriage, education level, family, income-were analyzed by self esteem.

Results : We divided the study population into two groups, low self esteem group and high self esteem group. In low self esteem group, the persons complain more symptoms in Hopkins symptom check list significantly(P=0.0009). Those who were highly educated had significantly higher self esteem(P=0.047). The severity of disease, sec, age, marriage, type of family, income showed no significant relationship with self esteem.

Conclusion : The education level was the factor that influence self esteem. The person of low self esteem complains more symptoms. So we should consider self esteem in medical practice.

Results : Patients studied were 90 male and 47 female and ages ranged from 17 years to 83 years with a mean of 48.7±16.1 years. The mean of the APGAR scores was 6.75±2.58 with 91 families with scores 7 points or over, 28 families between points 4 and 6, and 18 families with 3 points or less. The coping scores mean was 10.37±2.87 with 74 families with scoress 11 points or over, 55 families between points 5 and 10, and 8 families with 4 points or less.