Background : Recently, adolescent smoking has become one of the most serious problems in our society. In this study, we surveyed smoking status, family function by Korean family function assessment tool, history of abuse, and others to know the factors associated with smoking for high school students.
Methods : In May 2001, a total of 1,033 students from 2 male and 2 female general high schools located in Seoul were assessed with self-completing questionnaire. Among the total, there were 502 male and 533 female students.
Results : The percentage of male smokers was 27.7% and that of female smokers was 14.5%. The percentage of smokers was significantly higher in students with a history of physical abuse, psychological abuse or negligence (only in males) than in students without them. The family function score of the smokers was 127.3±20.3 and that of the non-smokers was 140.3±21.0 in males. The family function score of the smokers was 121.5±17.45 and that of the non-smokers was 140.9±22.1 in females. The family function score of the smokers was significantly lower than that of the non-smokers in males and females. In 6 factors (supportiveness, alienation, closeness, roles, sociality, authority (only in males)) each family function score of the smokers was significantly lower than that of the non-smokers in males and females.
Conclusion : Adolescent smoking was associated with family function and history of abuse (physical, psychological and negligence (only in males)).
Background : Heavy drinking may be a cause of serious health problems in hepatitis B virus carriers. The aim of this study was to reveal the degree of drinking problems in the Korean hepatitis B virus healthy carriers.
Methods : The subjects were 218 hepatitis B virus healthy carriers (124 males and 94 females) recruited from those who visited the Health Promotion Center of Chungnam National University Hospital for a general health check-up. Drinking problems of the subjects were evaluated by the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) questionnaire.
Results : The AUDIT scores (mean±SD) of the male subjects (9.6±7.9) were significantly (P＜0.001) higher than those of the female subjects (2.7±5.2). The individuals with heavy drinking (more than 14 drinks in males and 7 drinks in females per week) are 24 (19.4%) in males and 5 (5.3%) in females. Alcohol use disorders were suspected in 36 (29.0%) males and 4 (4.3%) females.
Conclusion : It is suggested that, in Korea, clinical attention in primary health care should be focused on reducing the alcohol consumption among the hepatitis B virus carriers, considering a large proportion have drinking problems and the possible harmful effect on their health by heavy drinking.
Background : In severity of illness index, there is an acute physiologic and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) scoring system which was modified to APACHE III in 1990. Heart rate variability (HRV) studies for the intensive care unit (ICU) patients provides an indirect but noninvasive probe of autonomic cardiovascular control. Therefore, we intended to find out the relationship between the APACHE III score and the HRV variables in ICU patients.
Methods : We examined 22 patients in medical ICU of one college hospital from April to May of 2003, excluding patients with cardiac disorders, neurologic disorders or surgical diseases. We also examined 22 patients in general wards of family medicine. We checked the APACHE III during the 24 hours of admission, and examined the HRV on the second day of admission and then the total power (TP), normalized low frequency (LFnorm), low frequency/ high frequency ratio (LF/HF ratio) and approximate entropy (ApEn).
Results : The average of TP (msec2) were 538.9±896.7 in ICU patients and 1605.3±3091.8 in patients of general ward. The average APACHE III score was 35.9±18.5 and by Pearson correlation analysis, the correlation coefficient between the APACHE III score and the log (TP) was -0.58 (P=0.005).
Conclusion : We found that the medical ICU patients had more decreased autonomic function than the patients of general ward, and there was a negative correlation with the APACHE III score and the disease severity.
Background : This study was aimed to quantify the relationship between the bone mineral density and the body composition in Korean postmenopausal women.
Methods : Whole and regional body composition and bone mineral density (BMD) were measured with DEXA in 149 postmenopausal women. Data were analysed using ANOVA test, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression.
Results : The mean age was 53.4±6.9 years, the mean years since menopause(YSM) was 5.4±6.7 years, the mean height was 154.5±4.9 cm and the mean weight was 56.8±7.4 kg. They were classified under non-osteoporosis (n=40), osteopenia (n=66) or osteoporosis (n=43) group. There were significant differences in age, YSM, height, total lean body mass, bone mineral content (BMC), regional lean body mass of leg and trunk and regional BMD among the three groups (P＜0.05). In contrast, weight, BMI, total fat mass and body fat percentage were not significantly different among the three groups. The BMD of total body, lumbar spine and proximal femur had a negative correlation with age and YSM but positive correlation with height, weight, total lean body mass (P＜0.05). From multiple linear models, age, total lean body mass, total fat mass and YSM were found to be the best predictor of total BMD (R2=0.460, P＜0.05) and age and total lean body mass were found to be the best predictor of BMD of lumbar spine (R2=0.223, P＜0.001) and proximal femur (R2=0.351, P＜0.001).
Conclusion : From these results it is suggested that lean body mass is the major determinant of BMD at total, lumbar spine and proximal femur in postmenopausal women.
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