Improving capability of local public hospital and health center against newly emerging infectious diseases after Middle East respiratory syndrome epidemic in Korea

Healthcare system in Korea was found to be very vulnerable to public health emergency preparedness and response as demonstrated in the recent outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. We need to redefine the function of and improve the capability of local district public hospital and local health center to cope with potential threats by newly emerging infectious disease in the nearer future. While central government may be responsible for early detection of newly emerging infectious disease transmitted from outside of the country, local government and its district-level public healthcare agencies need to primarily control over spread of the disease among the local residents. Governance setting for rapid response required in public health crisis situation appears to be possible based on strong local public health infrastructure for health promotion and disease prevention at si-gun-gu district level. Proper and sustainable investment is also needed for local public hospital with high standard facilities and skilled healthcare manpower since there seems little economic incentives to maintain such facilities in private hospitals. In conclusion, it would be urgent task to improve prevention activities for infectious disease of local health centers and clinical activities of local public hospital. Especially, role and competencies of public health physicians working at the public health center need to be specified as an essential component of public health infrastructure.

A Comparative Study on Food Habits and Nutrient Intakes with Body Mass Index of Hypertensive Patients commuting to a Local Health Center

The purpose of this study was to compare food habits and nutrient intakes with body mass index of hypertensive patients commuting to a Local Health Center. A total of 85 patients were divided into two groups according to BMI. The non-obese group comprised 43 subjects with BMI below 25kg/m2, while the obese group comprised 42 subjects with BMI above 25kg/m2. All Subjects were interviewed for general characteristics, food habits, clinical characteristics, effort for health maintenance and the knowledge of hypertension and nutrition. Anthropometric assessments such as weight, height, waist-hip ratio and biochemical measurement of blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and fasting blood glucose(FBG) were obtained from subjects. In general characteristics, smoking, drinking, exercise, and hypertension status were not significantly different between the two groups. Food habits and the means of daily energy and nutrients were not significantly different between the two groups. An analysis of the percentage of RDA(Recommended Dietary Allowances of Korea, 2000) consumed by patients showed that but for ascorbic acid and phosphorus, all nutrients were below the RDA. And intakes of vitamin B1(P<0.001), vitamin B2(P<0.01), niacin(P<0.001) of the obese group were significantly lower than that of the non-obese group. Blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and fasting blood glucose were in the normal range and there was not a significant difference in the two groups. Therefore, more effective nutrition education programs about exercise, smoking, caloric intake, vitamins and minerals are required for hypertensive patients commuting to Local Health Center.