• Title/Summary/Keyword: Medical education

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Survey on Period Prevalence Rate and Therapeutic Practice For Low Back Pain in Adult Population of Rural Area (농촌지역 성인의 요통 유병률과 치료방법 조사)

  • Lee Seung-Ju;Park Jung-Han
    • The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.109-121
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    • 1991
  • To investigate the period prevalence rate and therapeutic practic for low back pain (LBP) in the adult population of rural area, a personal interview was conducted for 2.024 persons or 20-59 years old in Seohu Myon, Andong County, Kyungpook Province between 1st and 20th of April, 1991. The period prevalence rate (l February 1990-31 January 1991) of LBP for 1,106 adults who were interviewed was $47.9\%$. The age adjusted period prevalence rate for males was $43.7\%$ and that for females was $52.3\%$ and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.005). Clinical course of th LBP was acute in $14.1\%$ of males and $9.0\%$ of females, recurrent in $57.0\%$ and $55.2\%$, and chronic in $28.9\%$ and $35.8\%$, respectively. Common causes of the LBP were insidious on set with aging without known cause$(48.1\%)$, heavy work $(15.1\%)$, and trauma $(11.3\%)$. Due to LBP $12.5\%$ of the patients were not able to stand or walk for more than an hour and $2.5\%$ were bed-ridden or unable to carry out daily routine. To have the LBP diagnosed $10.2\%$ of the patients utilized a oriental medical clinic or hospital, $31.3\%$ visited a clinic or hospital, and $56.6\%$ hat not utilized any medical facility. Main reason for not having the LBP diagnosed was that the LBP was tolerable. The most popular therapeutic method that the LBP patients chose at the first was drug and physical therapy. Herb medicine was most commonly used when the first therapeutic method was not effective and the acupuncture was the most popular choice of therapy when the second therapeutic method failed. Folk medicine was utilized in $15.5\%$ of the LBP patients and it included 36 regimens such as tincture of motherwort (Leonurus sibiricus), boiled chicken with liquor, etc. It was revealed by this survey that the LBP is a serious health problem in the rural area and many of the LBP patients do not utilize a clinic or hospital but take non-scientific folk remedy. To prevent the economic waste and side effects of the folk remedy, public health education is needed for tile rational therapy of LBP.

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Assessment of the Activities of General Physicians in Health Subcenters and a Scheme to Improve the Training Program (보건지소 공중보건 일반의사의 업무수행정도와 수련개선방안)

  • Park, Jung-Han;Chun, Byung-Yeol;Woo, Kuck-Hyeun
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.19 no.2 s.20
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    • pp.193-202
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    • 1986
  • The activities of general physicians (GPs) in health subcenters and their competency for clinical skills were assessed to develop a scheme to improve the training program. One hundred-twenty GPs in southern four provinces (Kyungpook, Kyungnam, Chunpook, Chunnam) were randomly selected and 97 were interviewed between January 9 and February 10, 1984. Of the 97 GPs, 86 provided all the information we requested. Average number of patient visits per health subcenter in a day was 30-40 in the demonstration project area for the class II medical insurance whereas it was 3-4 visits in other area. The interviewees were asked to rate their competency in 63 clinical skills. The skills in which over 50% of the interviewees rated themselves competent were only 12 items including IM injection, IV injection, wound dressing, etc. Less than 10% of the interviewees rated themselves competent in such skills as maternal health care, emergency medical care, preventive and promotive health services. Most part of the training program of the NIH for the GPs were not applicable to their field work as the training contents were unrealistic. Clinical training at a local general hospital was of great help in 38.8% and the rest of training was not much helpful as the training was inadequate due to lack of trainer or indifference of the trainer. For more effective training of the GPs, the training program of the NIH should be modified to be more realistic and utilize competent field workers as the instructors. It may be more effective if the training is carried out at several local centers. Ideal length of the clinical training for the GPs is 4 months. A pocketbook should be developed that includes specific skills to master during the clinical training and require the trainer to confirm the achievement. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs should provide the training hospitals with a training guideline and evaluate the training activities and make sure that the training hospital has specialist for each of the 4 major clinical departments. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs should provide the GPs with a continuing education to assist the problem solving in the field and motivate them to actively carry out the health program. A province may be divided into several regions and a supervisory committee may be organized with specialists in each region. The committee may hold a meeting for the GPs periodically and respond to the specific questions of the GPs by mail.

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The effect of global disaster competency development program on paramedic and nursing undergraduate students (글로벌 재난 역량 개발 프로그램이 응급구조과와 간호학과 학생에게 미치는 효과)

  • Kang, Sun-Joo;Piao, Mei-Hua
    • The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.83-94
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    • 2014
  • Purpose : This study assessed the improvement of competency levels for participants, as well as their satisfaction from completion of the special international disaster response program. Methods : The program structure followed an intensive two-week course that included a combination of lectures, discussions, case studies, and field trips. "ICN Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies" was used for designing the program. A pre-post survey was done to measure the change in the competencies of students and assess their satisfaction after finishing the program. Focus group interviews were also performed to further understand the attitudes of participants toward the disaster issues. Results : The overall pre-program test score for disaster competency was $2.18{\pm}0.68$ and the post-program test score was $6.30{\pm}0.84$, which showed statistically significant gains in all competency items (p <.001). The general satisfaction of participants with the program was quite high, demonstrated by a mean score of $4.5{\pm}0.51$. The benefits for students from program participation included increased knowledge and better understanding of the important roles of international organizations and NGOs. Conclusion : The international disaster education programs are necessary to provide an opportunity for students to increase their disaster competency. In addition, future development of a unified educational competency framework is also necessary.

Hypertension Management Status in Rural Hypertensives (농촌지역(農村地域) 고혈압환자(高血壓患者)의 고혈압(高血壓) 관리행태(管理行態))

  • Kim, Hyun-Sook;Kam, Sin;Kim, Jong-Yeon;Park, Ki-Soo;Lee, Kyeong-Soo
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.93-106
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    • 2003
  • Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the treatment status and its related factors of the rural hypertensives. Methods: A questionnaire survey was performed to 618 rural hypertensives during September, 2002. Results: The proportion of those who were compliant to the antihypertensive medication was 68.9%. The compliance rate to the antihypertensive medication was significantly related with sex and economic status(p<0.05). That is, if they were female, higher economic level, the regular antihypertensive medication rate was higher. The regular antihypertensive medication rate was higher when they had higher knowledge for hypertension, higher severity for hypertension of him or her(p<0.01). And the compliance rate to the antihypertensive medication was significantly related with hypertensives' own explanatory model for hypertension(p<0.01). The rate of drug use except antihypertensives was 12.5%. The rate of drug use except antihypertensives was higher when they experienced side effects of antihypertensive drug and when they had irregular medication for antihypertensive drug(p<0.01). The rate of medical equipment use was 18.9%. The utilization rate of medical equipment such as jade mat, germanium material was significantly related with age, experience of side effects of antihypertensive drug, medication status for antihypertensive drug(p<0.05). The rate of folk therapy use was 16.2%. The rate of folk therapy use was higher when they had no family, when they had knowledge about hypertension on the average, when they had hypertension over 10 years(p<0.05), and when they experienced side effects of antihypertensive drug and when they had irregular medication for antihypertensive drug(p<0.01). The rates of drug use except antihypertensives, medical equipment use, and folk therapy were significantly related with hypertensives' own explanatory model for hypertension(p<0.05). Conclusions: On consideration of above findings, it would be essential to provide knowledge about hypertension and its treatment, and severity of hypertension complications through health education.

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A Study on the Development Trend of Artificial Intelligence Using Text Mining Technique: Focused on Open Source Software Projects on Github (텍스트 마이닝 기법을 활용한 인공지능 기술개발 동향 분석 연구: 깃허브 상의 오픈 소스 소프트웨어 프로젝트를 대상으로)

  • Chong, JiSeon;Kim, Dongsung;Lee, Hong Joo;Kim, Jong Woo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.1-19
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    • 2019
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the main driving forces leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The technologies associated with AI have already shown superior abilities that are equal to or better than people in many fields including image and speech recognition. Particularly, many efforts have been actively given to identify the current technology trends and analyze development directions of it, because AI technologies can be utilized in a wide range of fields including medical, financial, manufacturing, service, and education fields. Major platforms that can develop complex AI algorithms for learning, reasoning, and recognition have been open to the public as open source projects. As a result, technologies and services that utilize them have increased rapidly. It has been confirmed as one of the major reasons for the fast development of AI technologies. Additionally, the spread of the technology is greatly in debt to open source software, developed by major global companies, supporting natural language recognition, speech recognition, and image recognition. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the practical trend of AI technology development by analyzing OSS projects associated with AI, which have been developed by the online collaboration of many parties. This study searched and collected a list of major projects related to AI, which were generated from 2000 to July 2018 on Github. This study confirmed the development trends of major technologies in detail by applying text mining technique targeting topic information, which indicates the characteristics of the collected projects and technical fields. The results of the analysis showed that the number of software development projects by year was less than 100 projects per year until 2013. However, it increased to 229 projects in 2014 and 597 projects in 2015. Particularly, the number of open source projects related to AI increased rapidly in 2016 (2,559 OSS projects). It was confirmed that the number of projects initiated in 2017 was 14,213, which is almost four-folds of the number of total projects generated from 2009 to 2016 (3,555 projects). The number of projects initiated from Jan to Jul 2018 was 8,737. The development trend of AI-related technologies was evaluated by dividing the study period into three phases. The appearance frequency of topics indicate the technology trends of AI-related OSS projects. The results showed that the natural language processing technology has continued to be at the top in all years. It implied that OSS had been developed continuously. Until 2015, Python, C ++, and Java, programming languages, were listed as the top ten frequently appeared topics. However, after 2016, programming languages other than Python disappeared from the top ten topics. Instead of them, platforms supporting the development of AI algorithms, such as TensorFlow and Keras, are showing high appearance frequency. Additionally, reinforcement learning algorithms and convolutional neural networks, which have been used in various fields, were frequently appeared topics. The results of topic network analysis showed that the most important topics of degree centrality were similar to those of appearance frequency. The main difference was that visualization and medical imaging topics were found at the top of the list, although they were not in the top of the list from 2009 to 2012. The results indicated that OSS was developed in the medical field in order to utilize the AI technology. Moreover, although the computer vision was in the top 10 of the appearance frequency list from 2013 to 2015, they were not in the top 10 of the degree centrality. The topics at the top of the degree centrality list were similar to those at the top of the appearance frequency list. It was found that the ranks of the composite neural network and reinforcement learning were changed slightly. The trend of technology development was examined using the appearance frequency of topics and degree centrality. The results showed that machine learning revealed the highest frequency and the highest degree centrality in all years. Moreover, it is noteworthy that, although the deep learning topic showed a low frequency and a low degree centrality between 2009 and 2012, their ranks abruptly increased between 2013 and 2015. It was confirmed that in recent years both technologies had high appearance frequency and degree centrality. TensorFlow first appeared during the phase of 2013-2015, and the appearance frequency and degree centrality of it soared between 2016 and 2018 to be at the top of the lists after deep learning, python. Computer vision and reinforcement learning did not show an abrupt increase or decrease, and they had relatively low appearance frequency and degree centrality compared with the above-mentioned topics. Based on these analysis results, it is possible to identify the fields in which AI technologies are actively developed. The results of this study can be used as a baseline dataset for more empirical analysis on future technology trends that can be converged.

A study on the establishment and regional strunture of Seoul metropolitan region (서울대도시권역의 설정과 지역구조에 관한 연구)

  • ;;Lee, Hee-Yeon;Song, Jong-Hong
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.35-56
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    • 1995
  • During the last two decades, Korea has achieved remarkable economic growth. In this process the nation has become urbanized and industrialized. But we have also encountered widening regional disparity, housing shortage of larger cities, transportation congestion, environmental pollution and many other problems. Rapid increasing urbanization and continuous migration toward Seoul since the late 1960s have been one of the major concerns of government. Government has sought ways to moderate the population increase in Seoul. The regulation which include new town development near Seoul and dispersion strategies of higher education and other administration and living facilities outside of Seoul havemade a great expansion of the spatial influence of Seoul city. Seoul metropolitan reaion has evolved as the most powerful center of political and economical spaces. Generally within a metropolitan region, there exists a growing mutual interdependence economically, as well as socially between a central city and its surrounding area. Seoul metropolitan region manifests itself not only as a coherent system of urbanized regions, but also as an integral part of the daily urban system. The surrounding Gyunggi province and Seoul city become closely linked both economically and functionally, constituting true functlonai urban system. This study is primarily undertaken with the purpose of delineation of the sphere of influence of Seoul city in 1990. At the time of 1985, Seoul metropolitan region was delineated according to the result of the study which was performed by Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements. Afterward, the rapid speed of metropolitanization process with dramatic increase in mobility through the provision of wider transportation system across the Capital region have evolved, resulting in the great expansion of the spatial influence of Seoul city. So this study examines the expanded area of Seoul metropolitan regin during the period of 1985-90. In order to delineate Seoul metropolitan region, the indices of urbanization and functional linkage are selected. Variables included in the measurement of the urbanization level are agricultural structure, population characteristics, manufacturing and service industries, and cultural aspects such as newspaper circulation, the ratio of car ownership and piped water supply. Variables included in the measurement of functional linkage are commuting, shopping pattern, centralized service such as medical facilities and trade of agricultural products. The standardization method and factor analysis are employed in making the delineation of Seoul metropolitan region. According to the result of this study, 2 cities, 8 Eups and 46 Myuns are included Seoul metropolitan region in 1990. If we compare this delineated area in 1990 to that of 1985, we can find the distinctive pattern of expanded axes according to the main transportation routes such as Seoul-Suweon, Seoul-Gwangju, Seoul-Incheon. In 199O, all the Gyunggi province, except a few Myuns located at the north and northwest part of Gyunggi province, are included in Seoul metropolitan region. Furthermore, this study attempts to the analysis of regional structure of Seoul metropolitan region according to the functional characteristics of each city and Gun. Variables included in this analysis are the new residential function, manufacturing function, service function, education and infermation function, public facility function and agricultural function. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are employed in making regionalization. Seoul metropolitan reaion is subdivided into four subregions which reflect different functional specialization. The first group is the specialized region of newly formed residential function. The second group is the specialized reaion of manufacturing function. The third group is the specialized region of service function. And the fourth group has little specialized in terms of manufacturing, service, and residential function. But this region has some potentiality of development when Seoul metropolitan region grow continuously. Seoul metropolitan region accounted for 43% of national population, despite 11.8% of national land size in 1990. Although Seoul metropolitan region enjoys important agglomeration economies, it also has huge social cost in the form of transportation congestion, housing shortage, rapid increase of land value, environment pollution, and etc. Efficient metropolitan plan making is a vital element in promoting Seoul's economic development and providing high quality living environment at low cost. In the light of the result of this study, the outer ring of Seoul metropolitan region, especially northeastern part, are underdeveloped compared to overdeveloped southwestern area. It is needed to develop the guidelines for the implement of the growth control and management plan, inducing more balanced development for whole Seoul metropolitan reaion.

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Dental Hygienists' Awareness of Long-term Senior Care Insurance System (노인장기요양보험제도에 관한 치과위생사의 인지도)

  • Kim, Ji-Hyun;Hwang, Ji-Min;Park, Yong-Duk
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.39-44
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this study is to cover dental hygienists who work for metropolitan dental hospitals or clinics in Seoul city, Incheon city and Gyeonggi province from January to April 2009 and profile their awareness of Long-term Senior Care Insurance System (hereinafter called 'LSCI (System)', so that it may provide material reference data to contribute to expanding and establishing oral health medical services in the framework of LSCI System. As a result, this study could come to the following conclusions: 1. It was found that the highest priority of dental hygienists' visiting oral hygienic services under LSCI System was focused on 'caring and preventive treatment', and their secondary priority was focused upon 'oral health education.' 2. In response to a question item about whether dental hygienists need dentist's prescription in written before performing their visiting oral hygienic services, it was found that 38.2% dental hygienists answered 'Yes (necessary)' and 61.8% answered 'No (unnecessary).' 3. In response to a question item about whether dental hygienists may open up long-term senior care center, it was found that absolute majority of dental hygienists (93.4%) answered 'No' and only 6.6% dental hygienists answered 'Yes.' The standardized professional education are thought to be needed to be developed aiming at the success in oral-hygiene service within a LSCI, by strengthening professionalism in dental hygienists.

A study of teenager's perceptions of health behavior and health status (청소년들의 건강상태와 건강행위 인지에 관한 연구)

  • 조원정;김모임
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.32-45
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    • 1987
  • This research attempted to identify basic data related to the nursing of teenagers that would aid in the establishment of nursing care that would meet their health needs, and further to identify which health related activities, are carried out by teenagers, so that appropriate nursing service and health care can be planned for them. The subjects of the study were students at one seoul boys high school and one seoul girls high school. Data was collected between December 16 and. December 19, 1986. The tool used in the study was a questionnaire about the health needs and concerns of teenagers developed at John's Hopkins University and translated and standardized for Korean students. The date was coded fer analysis using' the SPSS program and percentages, mean scores' with standard deviations, Chi square test, and ANOVA, were used for analysis. The following results were obtained : 1. The health status of teenagers : Looking at the health status of teenagers, it can be seen from this study that over half of the teenagers questioned replied that they do not get enough sleep, further that even though they are feeling sick they go to school. However, when asked what they thought of their health, the majority replied that they were healthy, and although they thought about their bea1th was not a concern when they were planning other activities. With regard to health status, there was a significant difference between male and female students concerning whether they were handicapped with regard to sleep, their opinion about their own health, and the amount of time lost from school for illness over the past month, whether in comparison with those of the same age they had more sickeness of not, and whether they had to think about their health when planning other activities. There was also a significant difference according to the age of the students as to whether they worried more about being sick than other members of their age group. 2. Health Realted Activeties of Teenagers : Most of the students in the study reported that they did not get regular physical examinations of health check ups, nor did they get legular examinations when they were sick. Few students reported that they smoked. Most of the students reported taking part in activities that promoted health but about half also reported that they were involved in activities that they knew were detrimental to their health. Further on statistical analysis, there was a significant difference between male and female students regarding health related activities and problems of teenagers and whether they were examined by a medical person when they were sick. 3. The degree of interest and responsibility of teenagers for their own Health: In the section on responsibility for health, the teenagers replies were highest, 4. 5, for the statements, "My health is dependent how much I pay attention to it" and "My health is responsibility" and lowest, 3. 9, for the statement "I am healthy because I have cared for my health so far." With regard to interest in their own health, the majority of the teenagers in the study were more concerned about their studies, high score of 4. 4, than in matters directly related to health. The use of drugs, birth control and masturbation were low on the interest scale. The more involvement in health related activities, the higher the score was for responsibility and this difference was significant, but this did not apply to interest in health. Similarly there was also a significant difference regarding participation in activities known to be detrimental to health and responsiblity for health, but not for interest in health.

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The Severity and Variables Influencing Depression in Cancer Patients with Pain (통증이 있는 암환자의 우울 정도 및 우울에 영향을 미치는 요인)

  • Kim, Hyun-Sook;Yun, Young-Ho;Lee, So-Woo;Heo, Dae-Seog;Son, Haeng-Mi;Huh, Bong-Yul
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.125-137
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    • 1999
  • Purpose : Surveying the rates, severity, and variables influencing depression and their correlation between pain and depression in Korean cancer patients, we attempted to provide a basic database for the effective depression management program. Methods : The results of survey were colleted from 10 patients who were hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital for cancer treatment from February to June of 1999. Factors of depression and the level of pain were examined by self-reported survey employing Korean version of Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and an abridged version of Brief pain Inventory respectively. The purpose of this study and guidelines for the questionnaires were clearly explained to participating patients by Resgitered Nurses before answering the survey. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were compiled by reviewing their medical records in corporation with a family physician. The difference in the level of depression among patient groups was analyzed with the t-test and ANOVA, and the correlation between variables with Pearson correlation coefficient. Results : 1) 142 subjects comprised 79 male and 63 female, and their mean age was 51.86. 2) The mean scores of the worst pain for last 24-hours was 6.08(SD 2.23), the average pain for last 24-hours 4.44(SD 1.85), and the mean scores of pain at the time of survey 3.48(SD 2.25), while the mean scores of the least pain for last 24-hours 2.25(SD 1.83). 3) The mean BDI scores were 23.73(SD 0.99), and 55.6% of patients were evaluated to be in depression(cutting point 21). Scores of depression for cancer patients were higher than normal population. 4) The correlation between worst pain for last 24-hours and depression(r=0.252, P=0.002), average pain for last 24-hours and depression(r=0.225, P=0.007), present pain and depression(r=0.291, P=0.000) were significant. 5) Significant differences were found among groups of cancer patients with pain with respect to gender(t=3.59, p=0.000), level of education(F=4.063, P=0.009), ECOG(F=3.352, P=0.021). There was significant positive correlation between depression and pain(r=0.171, P=0.042). Conclusions : More than 50% of cancer patients with pain are suffering from depression. We have shown that the variables like the degree of pain, gender, level of education, ECOG, and age are significantly related to the depression in cancer patients. The findings of this study may be used for assessing high-risk patients in need of intervention and for planning effective therapeutic strategies for them after the routine assessment. Further study is necessary to investigate the cultural differences and the variables influencing on depression in Korean cancer patients.

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A Preliminary Study for the Application of Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test-Geriatric Version in Korea (한국에서 노인용 미시간주정의존선별검사의 적용을 위한 예비연구)

  • Cheon, Jin-Sook;Oh, Byoung-Hoon;Choi, Young-Tai
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.102-110
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    • 1999
  • Objectives : The alcohol dependence in elderly people has been prevalent because of increase in geriatric population. However, it is difficult to find out alcohol dependence in the aged, because they have less specific clinical features as compared with adult alcoholics. The aims of this study were to screen alcohol dependence among elderly Koreans and to know the clinical characteristics of Korean delerly alcoholics. Methods : The questionnaires translated into Korean such as Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test(MAST-K), the Brief MAST and the MAST-Geriatirc Version (MAST-KG) were used to screen alcohol dependence in the elderly alcoholic inpatients aged over 60(N=43), adult alcoholic inpatients within 20-59 Yrs of age(N=60), which were compared with age matched normal healthy aged(N=18) or adult controls(N=45). The demographic data such as sex, age, education, occupation, socioeconomic status, marital status, numbers of children, dwelling and religion as well as alcohol history such as duration of alcohol drinking, onset age, family history, impulsivity, somatic illness and motivation were also obtained to identify characteristic features of Korean aged alcoholics by structured interviews. Results : 1) The aged alcoholics had the charateristic features of more in males, lower age, low education levels, more in blue-collar workers, lower socioeconomic class, more in single, few babies, more living alone, having no religion without statistical significance. 2) The onset age of alcohol dependence was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics($45.3{\pm}13.6Yrs$) than in the adult alcoholics($27.7{\pm}8.7Yrs$)(p<0.0001). The duration of problematic alcohol drinking was significantly longer in the aged alcoholics($22.0{\pm}15.1Yrs$) than in adult alcoholics($14.2{\pm}8.4Yrs$)(p<0.01). Otherwise, there were no significant difference between aged and adult alcoholics in the family history, imulsivity, somatic illness and motivation. 3) The mean score of the MAST-K was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics($20.6{\pm}5.4$) than in the normal aged($6.7{\pm}4.4$)(p<0.0001), which was significantly lower than in the adult alcoholics($26.2{\pm}8.0$) and in normal adult controls($9.5{\pm}3.2$)(p<0.05). The mean score of the Brief MAST was significantly lower in the aged alcoholics($9.3{\pm}3.5$) than in the adult alcoholics($14.5{\pm}6.6$)(p<0.0001). The mean score of the MAST-KG was significantly higher in the aged alcoholics($10.6{\pm}3.5$) than in the normal aged($4.8{\pm}4.3$)(p<0.0001). The former was significantly lower than in the adult alcoholics($12.9{\pm}4.3$)(p<0.005), and the mean score was $4.5{\pm}2.8$ in normal adult controls. 4) The items which showed statistically significant differences between aged alcoholics and normal aged controls could be found in 10 items of the MAST-K(items 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 14, 17, 21, 22 and 23), 2 items of the Brief MAST(items 2 and 9), and 7 items of the MAST-KG(items 6, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23 and 24)(p<0.01). Conclusions : The scores of the MAST-K, the Brief MAST and the MAST-KG were significantly lower in the aged alcoholics than those in the adult alcoholics (p<0.05). The statistically significant differences between aged alcoholics and normal aged controls could be found in 10 items of the MAST-K, 2 items of the Brief MAST and 7 items of the MAST-KG. Therefore, a briefer rating scales around 10 items are needed to screen alcohol dependence among Korean elderly people.

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