Prevalence of Exclusive and Extended Breastfeeding Among Rural Korean Women

This paper uses the survey findings of rural Korean women from 7 non-representative areas from May 1981 through August 1981 to know the prevalence of exclusive and extended breastfeeding, the frequency of breastfeeding and the pattern of artificial or supplementary feeding. All mothers started out breastfeeding, but many were immediately supplementing from the first month. Thirty percent of mothers who delivered in clinics started to supplement from the time of birth. Exclusive breastfeeding rates fall steeply with age, while general extended breastfeeding rates fall slowly. Feeding rate on demand was 25.5% and more frequent among women with no past experience of breast-feeding and 74.5% of feeding was done on schedule. The most common, reason given for not breastfeeding was "lack of or insufficient milk." About 10 percent of mothers were advised to give cow's milk supplements by health personnel. Monthly supplementary feeding rates were gradually increased until the 12th month, with steep curves from the second through the 7th months. Cumulative frequency of infants having commercial weaning food reaches 20% at ninth months.

Cigarette Smoking Patterns Among Students Attending a Christian University in Seoul, Korea

To get an estimates of the prevalence of cigarette smoking and the attitudes of the students regarding smoking, questionnaire survey was conducted with 856 students from each class out of 4 different years. Overall, 68.5 percent of male students interviewed were current smokers, as opposed to 7.4 percent of the women students. Most students started smoking before age 20 and smoked only filter-tip cigarettes. Even about half of current smokers consumed not more that 10 cigarettes daily, 55 percent of current smokers inhaled smoke into the chest. Cigarette smokers had a greater prevalence of phlegm production, related to their daily cigarette consumption and a higher average number of bed disability days. Most of the exsmokers stated that they had given up smoking because they feel sick when smoking. The decision to smoke seems mainly depends on a desire to follows the peer group attitudes. With regard to diffusion among college students and probably all high school graduates, a more logically designed prospective study would be necessary.

Naeng: A Korean Folk Illness, its Ethnography and its Epidemiology

No abstract available.

An Analysis of All Pregnancy Outcomes in a Rural Korean Community

The purpose of this investigation was to provide an analysis of pregnancy outcomes among all married eligible women in a rural community. The target areas chosen were two townships on Kang Wha island. The study period lasted 24 months from April 1975 through March 1977. This paper presents the results of 1) a retrospective study 2) a prospective pregnancy followup study 3) a life table which provides the probabilities of pregnancy termination and estimated probabilities of fetal mortality. To obtain information on early pregnancies, all married eligible women were interviewed on their LMP at two months intervals. This enabled us to detect more pregnancies and fetal losses in earlier stages than would have been possible through customary reports from hospitals, registers of vital statistics and retrospective studies. All pregnancies reported in this study were identified through regular menstruation followup and subsequent confirmation of pregnancy in all cases where there was an amenorrhea for six weeks and more after the LMP using the pregnosticon test or other methods of pregnancy verification. All pregnancy terminations, losses to follow-up and continuing pregnancies at the end of the study period were then evaluated. Out of 1,106 pregnancies, 3l cases were lost to follow-up, 158 cases were pregnant at the end of the study period and 917 cases ended in deliveries during the study period. The estimates of the probability of normal pregnancy termination (pregnancy termination rates) are based on the number of terminations occurring in pregnancies exposed to termination risk during successive weeks of pregnancy. The pregnancy wastage rate turned out to be 23.6% in the retrospective study, 30.1% in the longitudinal study, and 34.5% in the life table. The estimated induced abortion rates were found to be negatively correlated with gestation period. The highest levels of induced abortion observed were 129 per 1,000 pregnancies under observation during the first 8 weeks of gestation and l47 induced abortions during the 9th-12th week of gestation. It could be shown by life table methodology that 87.1% of pregnancies continued beyond the 8th week and 72.7% beyond the l2th week. There after no remarkable change occured until the 37th-40th week, at the end of which period however, only 21.4% of the pregnancies continued. The life table technique allowed us to estimate that the cumulative rate of 1ive births from LMP to the end of pregnancy was 65.5%, induced abortion rate 29.5%, and stillbirth (including spontaneous abortion) rate was 5.0%. Also it appeared that, pregnancies which had continued throughout 8 weeks from LMP can be expected to continue on the average for 6.8 more months.