The General Public's Awareness of Early Symptoms of and Emergency Responses to Acute Myocardial Infarction and Related Factors in South Korea: A National Public Telephone Survey.

BACKGROUND: Prompt treatment affects prognosis and survival after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) onset. This study evaluated the awareness of early symptoms of AMI and knowledge of appropriate responses on symptom occurrence, along with related factors. METHODS: Participants' knowledge of the early symptoms of and responses to AMI onset were investigated using a random digit dialing survey. We included 9600 residents of 16 metropolitan cities and provinces in Korea. RESULTS: The proportions of respondents who were aware of early symptoms of AMI ranged from 32.9% (arm or shoulder pain) to 79.1% (chest pain and discomfort). Of the respondents, 67.0% would call an ambulance if someone showed signs of AMI, 88.7% knew ≥1 symptom, 10.9% knew all five symptoms, and 3.1% had excellent knowledge (correct identification of all five AMI symptoms, not answering "Yes" to the trap question, and correctly identifying calling an ambulance as the appropriate response when someone is exhibiting AMI symptoms). The odds ratio (OR) for having excellent knowledge was significantly higher for those who graduated college or higher (OR 3.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-10.76) than for those with less than a primary school education, as well as for subjects with AMI advertisement exposure (OR 1.49; 95% CI, 1.10-2.02) and with knowledge of AMI (OR 1.63; 95% CI, 1.16-2.27). The 60- to 79-year-old group had significantly lower OR for excellent knowledge than the 20- to 39-year-old group (OR 0.53; 95% CI, 0.28-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of AMI symptoms and the appropriate action to take after symptom onset in South Korea was poor. Therefore, educational and promotional strategies to increase the overall awareness in the general public, especially in the elderly and those with low education levels, are needed.

Sleep disturbances and glucoregulation in patients with type 2 diabetes.

We investigated the frequency of sleep disturbances and the association between sleep disturbances and glucoregulation in type 2 diabetic patients. The frequency of sleep disturbances in 614 type 2 diabetic patients was investigated using validated sleep questionnaires. There were 381 male and 233 female patients. The mean age was 59.7 ± 11.1 yr; the mean body mass index was 24.9 ± 4.4 kg/m(2); the mean HbA1c was 7.8% ± 1.5%; and the mean duration of diabetes was 10.3 ± 8.4 yr. The questionnaires revealed insomnia in 48.2% of the patients while 8.5% reported excessive daytime sleepiness. A total of 49% of the patients was poor sleepers, while 28.5% had depression. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that there was no significant association between HbA1c and other sleep disturbances, such as poor sleep, insomnia, and short duration of sleep. Sleep disturbances were very common in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, whereas there was no association between poor or short sleep and glucoregulation. Awareness and identifying sleep complaints in such patients are necessary to improve their quality of daily life.

Market segmentation of health information use on the Internet in Korea.

BACKGROUND: Internet is the common way to access all kind of information, thus it becomes to have highly influential place on the range of health care as well. More and more people have been using Internet to get the latest information on the health-related matters. However, it is very important but not easy to find the correct data and select it efficiently among the enormous amount of information. To identify the information seekers and understand their needs or purposes, they would be very effective for the providers to give high-quality health information for the Internet users. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to reveal the patterns of utilization of health information on the Internet. The subjects of the survey were randomly selected among the local residents by their age and gender. It was conducted in Gangwon, the province and Incheon, the metropolitan city at the same time. To investigate the similar amount of population, 0.5% of Gangwon and 0.3% of Incheon dwellers were chosen. METHODS: 10,325 people were responded to the telephone poll and the investigation had been conducted from July to October 2006. 8656 from 10,325 completed the survey and 1665 (19.2%) of them had used Internet to get health information in last 1-year. The use of health information on the Internet was classified into four categories as follows: general health tips, disease specific information, shopping for health commodities, and selection of hospitals. The questionnaire included articles regarding socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income, education, dwelling area, health status and behaviors such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. RESULTS: Of all 1665 respondents, 726 (17.2%) men (total 4210) and 939 (21.1%) women (total 4446) had used Internet for health information in last 1-year. The health information that people wanted from Internet was as follows: general health tips (64.2%), disease specific information (32.0%), shopping for health commodities (23.7%), and selection of hospitals (19.3%). The people of higher education and higher income level tended to use Internet more often for health information. Metropolitan city dwellers used health information on the Internet more than people from province did. Personal health status appeared to be the most important factor to search the information about general health tips from the Internet. Healthy people (68.3%) used the Internet more than people with diseases (44.4%) who used Internet most frequently for disease specific information (62.6%). Residence area was the most important factor of online shopping for health commodities. While 31.8% of city dwellers used the Internet, only 19.0% of metropolitan or county dwellers used it for the same purpose. Determinant factors for the utilization of the Internet for hospital selection were residence area, age, and health examination. CONCLUSIONS: We found that each section of health information has its own clients concerning their personal interests and status of health and life style. That is why customized market segmentation is strongly recommended for their loyal customers. Depends on the information seekers' health status, it should be decided which information would be more useful for them between general health tips and specific disease. On the other hand, the area where the information seekers live can be more influential on terms of shopping for health commodities. These results will be a great help to start to understand the closer atmosphere of the ideal health information market to provide more valuable services in more various use.