Assessment of Functional Food Consumption Among the Working Women in Korea

The aim of this study was to identify the status of health functional food consumption of working women. The 558 subjects of the study were aged between 10-60 years, and had previous experiences of consuming health functional foods. The majority of the subjects lived in Seoul, and some lived in the Gyeonggi Province . The most prevalent goals that the subjects hoped to achieve by consuming health functional foods were improvement of physical health status and reduction of exhaustion. Other goals included supplement of nutrition, and prevention or treatment of diseases. Those who were older or who possessed a high BMI spent more expenses on health functional foods, and showed a higher intake frequency as well as longer periods of consumption. Subjects placed in the older group showed a lower level of knowledge related to functional foods, which turned out to be statistically significant. Most of the respondents answered that their knowledge related to functional foods was picked up from listening to others. In conclusion, we were able to observe that groups with elder working women and high BMI show higher consumption and expense rates of health functional foods, as well as longer periods of consumption. However, they show a minimum level of knowledge related to functional foods. According to our results, these subjects should seek practical help in order to select functional foods that will aid their health, and learn the proper method of consumption. In order to reduce inaccurate consumption of health functional foods, it is imperative that more in-depth study is carried out in this field.

The Relation between Antibiotic Use and Changes of Antimicrobial Resistance of Gram Negative Bacilli Isolated in Chonbuk National University Hospital (1993-1997)

PURPOSE: Antimicrobial resistance has become a major medical and public health problem. This study was performed to evaluate the changes in antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. METHODS: The susceptibility of 8,224 recent clinical isolates during a 5-year period from 1993 to 1997 were tested against 8 antimicrobial agents. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed by disc diffusion method. RESULTS: E. coli was the most common clinical isolate followed by P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, E. cloacae and S. marcescens. Results of susceptibility test were as follows. Most of the microbial isolates were highly resistant (>90%) to ampicillin. E. coli was susceptible to cefotaxime, ceftazidime and amikacin, but was highly resistant to penicillins. Resistance rate of E. coli to ceftazidime was gradually increased from 3% to 14% during the study period. P. aeruginosa was highly resistant to all kinds of antibiotics. K. pneumoniae was relatively sensitive to cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin, but showed high resistance to penicillins. E. cloacae was sensitive to ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol. S. marcescens was also sensitive to ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol and ceftazidime. Resistance to ceftazidime was gradually increased in E. coli, P. aeruginosa, E. cloacae and S. marcescens, while that of cefotaxime was rather decreased during the study period in E. coli, K. pneumoniae and E. colacae. CONCLUSION: Antimicrobial resistance of Gram-negative organisms gradually changed during the study period. Those changes, which were more significant in cephalosporins, generally correlated with the amount of antibiotics used.