A total of 481,414 Korean participants aged 40-79 years at enrollment were examined. The hazard ratios for all-cause, all-cancer, and head and neck cancer mortality were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models, which were adjusted for potential confounding factors. In the overall study population, the highest AST/ALT ratio level was significantly associated with risk of all-cause, all-cancer, and head and neck cancer mortality (p < 0.01). After excluding participants who died of all-cause, all-cancer, and head and neck cancer within five years of enrollment, the main results remained similar to those of the analysis of all deaths in the study population. These findings indicate that serum AST/ALT ratio is positively associated with an increased mortality risk in all-cause, all-cancer, and head and neck cancer.

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the bidirectional association between burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and depression disorders. Methods: A total of 854 pairs of BMS and 58 999 pairs of depression disorders matched 1:1 for age and sex were analyzed using conditional logistic regression models, which were adjusted for potential confounding factors. Results: Bidirectional analysis found that BMS was associated with depression disorders (odds ratio=4.64, P < 0.001) and depression disorders was also significantly associated with BMS (odds ratio=2.97, P < 0.001). Conclusion: These findings indicate a significant bidirectional association between BMS and depression disorders. The odds ratios suggest that BMS is a stronger predictor for incidence of depression disorders than depression disorders predicting incidence of BMS. Given this retrospective cohort design, the mechanisms underlying the association between BMS and depression disorders are not directly analyzed. Therefore, further investigation are needed to analyze the causality between BMS and depression disorders.

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between body mass index and the food habits of college students. For this purpose, 1030 students of Seoul National University were asked to fill out the questionnaires for the food habit and weight control. Actual weights were also measured, on the spot. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Average height and weight were 173.15 cm, 63.83 kg for male, and 160.52 cm, 52.73 kg for females. The prevalence of underweight, normal and overweight was 32.3, 61.7, 5.5%, respectively. 2. Food habit scores of obese females were lower than normal or underweight females. Male subjects did not show significantly different scores among three groups. 3. Female obese subjects have lower scores than the other groups on the balanced intake of five basic food groups and on the regular meal intakes. Male obese subjects have cholesterol-rich food and animal fat more frequently than normal and underweight males. Male underweight subjects have lower food habit scores on the balanced intake of five basic food groups. 4. Males want to gain weight slightly and females want to lose 4.65 kg weight. All females want to lose weights. Obese males and females want to lose 10 kg weights.

An ecological survey of food and nutrition was conducted in April and May, among 278 children, 6 to 12 years old, of the Youido elementary school, which offers no school lunch program, and is situated in Youido delta of Han River side of Seoul, known as the location of one of the socioeconomically high groups; Eighteen percent and 18.3% of subjects were proven to be overweight and obese, respectively. With regard to frequency of skipping breakfast, 28.4% of the subjects skipped breakfast often and 2.5% of subjects skipped breakfast every morning. Obese children showed good appetite and the time consumed for eating was shorter than those of normal or overweight children. Most serious anxiety among the mothers for those children was food habit of `eating rapidly' and `overeating'. Another striking observation was that 14.4% of the subjects ate only one side-dish with boiled rice, and such a pattern was more often found in the normal or slim group. Most of the subjects had their snacks after being back in home from school. Thirty-one percent of the children had snacks when they felt hungry, 69% had snacks for various reasons such as `habitually', `for unwinding', and `mother gives me snacks'. Thirty-eight percent of the boys and 19% of the girls had physical exercise everyday and overweight and obese children got exercise more frequently. But the time consumed for exercise was much more shorter than that of normal subjects. Most of the children liked fruits, meats, and biscuit, in contrast, lowest preferency was for vegetables, fermented fish products, and boiled rice mixed with other grains. Obese children experienced more kinds of food than normal or slim group. The study found that habits of overeating due to good appetite and eating rapidly were recognized as one of dominant reasons causing obesity among children. On the other hand, serious dietary problem of children of normal or slim group was eating less variety of food. Active nutrition education for both children and mothers will be recommended with joint participation of teachers.

In this report, we investigated meal patterns by area, age, profession from the data of the Korean National Nutrition Survey which had been carried out in 1989. The proportion of home prepared meal was about 90% at breakfast and dinner, and 46.3% at lunch. People had meals outside of home mainly at lunch(31.1%), and usually ate restaurant meal(17.7%). The proportion of meal skipped was 7.1% at breakfast, 3.9% at lunch, and 1.2% at dinner. At large city, 10.3% of people skipped breakfast, it was the highest proportion among three areas(large city, small city, and rural area). Also, the proportion of meal outside of homes was the highest among all areas. In rural area, home prepared meal was prevalent for all meals. Among all age groups, people between 20 and 49 ate out most frequently. For people between age 16 and 19, meal skipping was frequent for breakfast and dinner, especially, 20.5% of girl skipped breakfast. At lunch, the proportion of meal skipping was the highest in age higher than 50 groups. Among all professions, people in service job skipped lunch and dinner at the highest proportion. Manager and deskworker skipped breakfast by 12.9% and they ate out at lunch by 82.5%.