[Awareness and attitude toward suicide in community mental health professionals and hospital workers].

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate community mental health professionals and hospital workers attitude and awareness towards suicide. METHODS: This study investigated 264 community mental health professionals and 228 hospital workers. SOQs (Suicidal Opinion Questionnaires) were used from July 2007 to September 2007. After a factor analysis for the attitude towards suicide, the items on ethics, mental illness, religion, risk, and motivation were included in the subsequent analysis. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the attitude towards suicide according to religion, age, educational background, the marriage status, the economic position, and different professional licenses. Hospital workers' view was different from the community workers'. The hospital workers judged that suicide was due to mental illness, and suicide was high for the people in a special environment and who lacked motivation, which caused them to fall in a dangerous situation. For the lower educational group, they thought that suicide was attributable to mental illness. The awareness for suicide was significantly higher in the group with a postgraduate education, unmarried people, mental health professionals and the persons who had concern and experience with suicide. The factors that had an influence on the awareness of suicide were the items of mental illness, religion, risk and motivational factors. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that the factors to increase the awareness and attitude for suicide were the experience of increased education and case management of suicide. Therefore, education dealing with suicide and reinforcement of crisis management programs should be developed.

[Association of current and past smoking with metabolic syndrome in men].

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between past smoking and the risk factors for metabolic syndrome. METHODS: From January 2007 to December 2007, a total of 3,916 over thirty years old male health screen examinees were divided into the nonsmoking, smoking, ex-smoking groups. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was based on the criteria of the NCEP ATP (Executive Summary of The Third Report of The National Cholesterol Education Program). Metabolic syndrome was defined as the presence of three or more of the following: a blood pressure > or =130/85 mmHg, a fasting glucose level > or = 110 mg/dL, a HDL-C (High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol) level < 40 mg/dL, a triglyceride level > or = 150 mg/dL and, a waist circumference men > or = 102 cm, but a waist to hip ratio > 0.90 was used as a surrogate for the waist circumference. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, alcohol consumption and, exercise in the smokers, for the ex-smokers compared with the nonsmokers, the odds ratio (OR) of a lower HDL cholesterol level (< 40 mg/dL) was 1.29 (95% CI=1.03-1.61) in the smokers, the ORs of a higher triglyceride level were 1.35 (95% CI=1.09-1.66) in the ex-smokers and, 2.12 (95% CI=1.75-2.57) in the smokers, and the OR of a waist to hip ratio was 1.25 (95% CI=1.03-1.52) in the ex-smokers. When there were over three components of metabolic syndrome in the ex-smokers and smokers as compared with the nonsmokers, the odds ratio against the risk of metabolic syndrome were 2.39 (95% CI=1.00-6.63) and 2.37 (95% CI=1.02-6.46), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggested that there is an association of smoking with metabolic syndrome in men.

[The association of cardiovascular risk factors with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in health checkup examinees].

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of nonalcoholic fatty liver and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: This study was conducted to investigate the association of nonalcoholic fatty liver and cardiovascular risk factors for adult men (n=2976) and women (n=2442) who were over 19 years old, after excluding the HBsAg(+) or anti-HCV(+) patients and the men and women with increased alcohol intake (men: 40 g/week, women: 20 g/week). RESULTS: Compared with the normal liver subjects, the nonalcoholic fatty liver subjects showed a significantly increased frequency of abnormal systolic blood pressure (> or =120 mmHg), fasting blood sugar (> or =100 mg/dL), total cholesterol (> or =200 mg/dL), triglyceride (> or =150 mg/dL), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (<40 mg/dL), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (> or =130 g m/dL) and abdominal obesity in men, and all these measures were significantly increased in the women except for abnormal HDL cholesterol. After adjusting for the body mass index, age, smoking, exercise and a nonalcoholic liver, the odds ratios of an abnormal waist hip ratio were 1.35(95% Confidence Interval=1.05-4.72) in the mild fatty liver, 1.61(1.19-2.18) in the moderate fatty liver, 2.77(1.57-4.92) in the severe fatty liver compared with a normal liver. The adjusted odds ratios for abnormal fasting blood sugar were 1.26(1.03-1.53) in the mild fatty liver, 1.62(1.27-2.06) in the moderate fatty liver and 1.77(1.12-2.78) in the severe fatty liver. The adjusted odds ratios for abnormal triglyceride were 1.38(1.11-1.72) in the mild fatty liver, 1.73(0.33-2.24) in the moderate fatty liver and 1.91(1.17-3.10) in the severe fatty liver of men. Adjusted odds ratios for abnormal triglyceride were 1.50(1.04-2.15) in mild, 1.71(1.07-2.68) in moderate, 1.81(0.69-4.38) in severe fatty liver of women. CONCLUSIONS: The nonalcoholic fatty liver subjects had more cardiovascular risk factors compared with the normal liver subjects. Thus, prevention and treatment of the nonalcoholic fatty liver is necessary by lifestyle modifications such as restriction of alcohol intake, no smoking, exercise and adequate eating habits.