• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.339-360
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to revitalize library service by examining how public and medical libraries provide health and medical information services. For this purpose, we conducted a survey of the two library types, and the results are as follows. First, more than 50% of the questions public librarians were termed "immediate answer" questions, while more than 80% of the questions medical librarians receive take up to a few days' time to answer. Public librarians were more likely to comment on the limitations of their expertise and information resources as compared to the medical librarians. Second, public librarians use mainly medical journals and websites for answering users' requests. However, medical librarians used, in almost the same ratio, all types of information resources represented in the survey questions. Third, when asking about health/medical-related training contents for performing their tasks, public and medical librarians are highly interested in all information about all health-related issues. However, while medical librarians showed high interest in all subject areas, public librarians most preferred well-being related education topics such as Information on diet and nutrition, Information about exercise and fitness, and information on quitting smoking.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.452-458
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• 1999

Objectives: The authors conducted the study to evaluate bias when potentially diseased subjects were included in cohort members while analyzing risk factors of chronic liver diseases. Methods: Total of 14,529 subjects were followed up for the incidence of liver diseases from January 1993 to June 1997. We have used databases of insurance company with medical records, cancer registry, and death certificate data to identify 102 incident cases. The cohort members were classified into potentially diseased group(n=2,217) when they were HBsAg positive, serum GPT levels higher than 40 units, or had or has liver diseases in baseline surveys. Cox's model were used for potentially diseased group, other members, and total subjects, respectively. Results: The risk factors profiles were similar for total and potentially diseased subjects: HBsAg positivity, history of acute liver disease, and recent quittance of smoking or drinking increased the risk. while intake of pork and coffee decreased it. For the potentially diseased, obesity showed marginally significant protective effect. Analysis of subjects excluding the potentially diseased showed distinct profiles: obesity increased the risk, while quitting smoking or drinking had no association. For these intake of raw liver or processed fish or soybean paste stew increased risk; HBsAg positivity, higher levels of liver enzymes and history of acute liver diseases increased the risk. Conclusions: The results suggested the potential bias in risk ratio estimates when potentially diseased subjects were included in cohort study on chronic liver diseases, especially for lifestyles possibly modified after disease onset. The analytic strategy excluding potentially diseased subjects was considered appropriate for identifying risk factors for chronic liver diseases.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.610-618
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• 2008

Background: There are various treatment modalities for atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease at the lower limbs, for example, conservative physical therapy, medication, operation etc. Yet it has been established that an arterial bypass operation is the most effective treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of arterial bypass operation within our experience and to determine the indicators of treatment. Material and Method: Ninety six patients received arterial bypass operation for atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease from June 2002 to April 2006. We evaluated the feasibility of arterial bypass operation based on the improvement of symptoms and the ankle-brachial index (ABI) and the surgical outcomes, as based on the complications, the amputation rates and the patency rates. We also assessed the possible risk factors such as gender, age, a smoking history, co-morbidities, the anastomotic sites, the graft size and the graft type. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the patients. The total mean follow-up period was $29.4{\pm}13.1$ months. Result: The mean age was $65.95{\pm}9.61$ and there were 88 male patients. The most common clinical manifestation was ischemic resting pain in the lower extremities. The underlying combined diseases were hypertension (61%), diabetes (43%), cardiac problems (35%) and smoking (91.7%). The most frequent site of arterial obstruction was the superficial femoral artery (44 cases, 40%). A femoropopliteal artery bypass operation with a Polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) synthetic graft was done in 44 cases (40%) and the great saphenous vein graft was used in 11 cases. The postoperative ABI increased significantly from $0.30{\pm}0.11$ preoperatively to $0.63{\pm}0.11$ (p<0.001) postoperatively. In 8 cases, amputations above the ankle level were necessary. The graft patency rates were 86.4% and 68.0% after 1 and 3 years, respectively. There were 29 cases (30.21%) of patency failure; the male gender, smokers and hypertension were significantly more frequent in the failure group. Of these, hypertension was the most powerful risk factor (p=0.042). Conclusion: The arterial bypass operation is an effective treatment modality for controlling the symptoms such as pain and claudication, and for preventing major amputations for the patients with atherosclerotic arterial obstructive disease. This study suggests quitting smoking, strict blood pressure control, selection of an appropriate graft, regular outpatient follow up and proper medication would offer higher patency rates and more favorable outcomes.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.1897-1904
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• 2010

The administration data of the national health insurance and health insurance bills were utilized in this study. The data of 432,915 patients who were at the age of 30 and up and used the out-patient departments of every medical institution located in some regions involving two southern and northern provinces once or more during a 184-day period from July to December. As a result of analyzing their prescription compliance and factors affecting it, the following findings were given: The average rate of the prescription compliance of the patients stood at 61.5 percent. It denoted that they were prescribed to take medicine for approximately 113 days during the six-month(184 days) period of time, and the rate of the patients who complied with the prescriptions just stood at 13.0 percent. They used out-patient department for 4.3 days on the average due to hypertension and they visited 1.1 medical institutions on the average. 94.9 percent just used a medical institution. The largest group (11.6%) suffered from diabetes as co-morbidity, and 23.3 percent of the hypertensives had co-morbidity. Concerning the relationship between their characteristics and prescription compliance, those who were male, who were beneficiaries of the national health insurance, who mainly used general hospitals and who suffered from co-morbidity complied better with the prescription they got. Their prescription compliance got better at the age of 65 to 74 and got worse afterwards. As for factors affecting their prescription compliance, the patients who were male, who were aged between 55 and 64 and who were beneficiaries of the national health insurance, who mainly used specialized general hospitals, general hospitals and public health centers and who had heart diseases and diabetes as co-morbidity complied better with the prescriptions. The above-mentioned findings of the study suggested that it's needed to make a factor analysis of the poor prescription compliance of patients from diverse angles, and that existing hypertension care plans should carefully be reviewed to improve the prescription compliance of patients and to find a feasible alternative. As hypertensives are easily likely to develop co-morbidity like diabetes, systematic health education should be provided for them to get into the right life habits such as taking low-salt meals or quitting smoking. In addition, the development of health care programs is required.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.918-926
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• 2008

It is well known non-drug therapy for hypertension patients can reduce blood pressure. These types of therapy include maintaining ones ideal body weight, quitting smoking, consuming large amounts of fruits and vegetables consuming low levels of saturated fat and salt and regular exercise. Fermented milk protein derived biologically active peptides such as isoleucine-proline-proline_(IPP) or valine-proline-proline_(VPP) have been shown to lower blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. This study was conducted to investigate the antihypertensive effects of medical nutritional therapy _(MNT) in accordance with the consumption of fermented milk enriched with IPP and VPP. To accomplish this, we conducted a randomized case-controlled study of 43 subjects who had blood pressure levels greater than 120/80 mmHg. The subjects in the study group were randomly allocated into two groups, an MNT + fermented milk (100mL/day) group (n=21) and an MNT+L. helveticus fermented milk with tripeptides (IPP=2.2mg, VPP=2.6mg/100mL) group (n=22). The MNT included weight management, reduction of sodium, total fat and saturated fat intake, increased intake of fruits and vegetables, and increased intake of low fat dairy products. The treatments were administered for 12 weeks during which time no drug interventions were conducted. The daily intakes of total calories, fats, cholesterol and Na decreased significantly after 12 weeks of MNT in the control and the experimental groups. In addition, the systolic blood pressure de creased significantly in the control and experimental groups; however, the diastolic blood pressure only decreased significantly in the experimental group. Overall, the results of this study indicate that the intake of fermented milk containing IPP and VPP in conjunction with MNT exerted positive effects on the blood pressure of pre- and hypertensive subjects.