Identification of Related Factors of Female Sexual Function in Family Medicine Outpatients

BACKGROUND: Female sexual function is influenced by much more factors than that of male and has a close relationship with psychosocial factors. A satisfying sex life has a high correlation to a happy married life. A questionnaire provides easy access to private matters and in a multidimensional manner. The objective of this study was to identify the factors related to female sexual function to help sexual adjustment in marriage. METHODS: A hundred married women living with their spouses, who visited an outpatient clinic of family medicine department of a university hospital in Seoul were studied. After filling out the self-administered questionnaire, a face-to-face interview was done on all study subjects. For multivariate analysis of the related factors, the outcome variables were a binary response of the normal female sexual cycle ?drive, lubrication, orgasm, and satisfaction. RESULTS: The multivariate analysis showed that the household income was a significant factor related to Drive (Odds Ratio: OR=0.6, 95% Confidence Interval: CI 0.4~0.9). Age was a significant factor related to Insufficient Lubrication (OR=1.1, 95% CI 1.0~1.3). Insufficient foreplay was a risk factor for Insufficient Lubrication (OR= 2.4, P=0.052). In multivariate analysis of the Orgasm related factors, the perceived health status showed an OR of 7.1 (95% CI 1.5~32.6) and both marital satisfaction and open communication showed an OR of 6.0 (95% CI 1.3~26.8) and an OR of 5.8 (95% CI 1.2~28.2), respectively. The significant related factors to Satisfaction were in order of importance of sex life, education, and open communication, with an OR of 3.6 (95% CI 1.7~7.6), 2.5 (95% CI 1.1~5.9), and 2.0 (95% CI 1.0~3.8), respectively. CONCLUSION: The positively related factors to female sexual function were good perceived health status, high marital satisfaction, placing importance in sex life, and open communication regarding sexual matters. Increasing age and household income were found to be factors adverse to female sexual function.

Association between Type and Amount of Exercise with Bone Mineral Density in Adult Women

BACKGROUND: Although lack of exercise is well known to be a risk factor of osteoporosis, it is unclear whether weight-bearing exercise has different effects on bone mineral density compared to non weight-bearing exercise, and the amount of exercise needed to prevent osteoporosis is not clearly defined. This study was performed to clarify the relations between the type and the amount of exercise with BMD. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 3,661 women who had undertaken health screening including BMD measurement at Health Promotion Center of SNUH between May 1997 and March 1999. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, menarche, childbirth andexercise were gathered by means of self-reported questionnaire, and BMD was measured using DEXA. RESULTS: The number of women with lumbar osteoporosis were 601 (16.4%) and femoral neck osteoporosis 372 (10.2%). Lumbar osteoporosis occurred more frequently with increasing age and age at menarche, and in menopausal women, but less frequently with increasing fat-free mass in multiple logistic regression analysis. When adjusted for age, age at menarche, menopause and fat-free mass, lumbar osteoporosis was less common in women who exercised, but the type and the amount of exercise had no bearing. Especially, lumbar osteoporosis was least common in women engaging in moderate amount of exercise. Femoral neck osteoporosis decreased significantly only in weight-bearing exercise group and in women engaging in high amount of exercise. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that lumbar osteoporosis can be prevented through exercise regardless of its type and amount, and high amount or weight- bearing exercise is most effective to prevent femoral neck osteoporosis.

The Effect of Overweight to Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Korean Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular complications develop over a long time, and childhood and adolescent obesity often do not present clinical diseases. We evaluated the effect of overweight to cardiovascular risk factor profiles to clustering in Korean adolescents. METHODS: Nationwide population based surveys and health examinations were done in 1998. Among the subjects, adolescents aged 10 to 18 were included for this study. Age and gender specific BMI percentile was calculated by Korean reference. Cardiovascular risk factors were defined as values above 95th percentile (specific for age, gender) for the group as a whole. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity over 95th percentile was 5.5% among 1,634 adolescents. Obesity increased with adverse levels of risk factors. Adolescents with a BMI above 95th percentile were 6.3, 4.8, 9.8, 5.1, and 4.9 times more likely to have adverse levels of systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL-cholesterol, respectively, than normal weight subjects. Obese boys had higher prevalence of hypertension than obese girls. The number of risk factor profiles increased with obesity, but not in linear pattern. Sixty percent of overweight above 95th percentile had risk factors, while 23% of normal weight group did. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent obesity in Korea was highly associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors, and clustering. The prevalence of risk factors increased substantially above 75th percentile, and even among overweight above 95th percentile adolescents. The risk of clustering increased BMI above 85th percentile.

Degree of stress and stress-related factors by the Korean version of the BEPSI

BACKGROUND: The BEPSI(Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument) was developed as an instrument for quick assessment of stress in a busy office setting, and well correlated with other stress scales. Bae et al. developed the BEPSI(Korean version)[BEPSI-K] in Korea, which was used broadly in health examination. In this study, we attempted to assess degree of stress and to find stress-related factors among Koreans by the BEPSI-K. METHODS: A household telephone survey of 1,060 responders was carried out using multistage stratifed random sampling technique from April to May, 1997. The data were collected from 947 subjects who answered all the items of the BEPSI-K. RESULTS: The reliability of the BEPSI-K was demonstrated (Cronbachs alpha 0.71). The BEPSI-K score showed left-shifted distribution, and its mean was 1.72. It also was significantly high in the unmarried, those with a low educational level, those with a low income, non-economic group, hypertensive patients, smokers, non-exercisers and drinkers. Among 947 subjects, 7.7 percent was high stress according to tercile of the original BEPSI score. CONCLUSIONS: Stress-related factors were marital status, educational level, income level, occupation, exercise, smoking, drinking, and hypertension in Korea.