Korean Status of Alcoholics and Alcohol-Related Health Problems

Park, Sang Chul; Oh, Se In; Lee, Mee Sook

doi:10.1097/00000374-199803001-00020

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Mortality rates of HCC among Koreans are also higher than those among Japanese (23). These may be related to a higher rate of HBsAg carriers, heavy drinking, and the predominance of genotype C in Korea (23, 28, 37). Furthermore, low clearance of interferon-induced HBeAg loss in genotype C might be an additional factor of poor prognosis in patients with chronic HBV infection (38).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hepatitis B Virus Genotype C Prevails Among Chronic Carriers of the Virus in Korea

et al. 2005

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Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major causative agents of chronic liver diseases in Korea. HBV has been classified into 8 genotypes by a divergence of >8% in the entire genomic sequence, and have distinct geographic distributions. There are limited data on the relevance between HBV genotypes and clinical outcomes in Korea. To investigate the clinical feature relating to HBV genotype in Korea, a total 120 serum samples with HBsAg (65 from Seoul and 55 from the other city in Korea) were obtained from each 30 chronic HBV carriers with asymptomatic carrier (ASC), chronic hepatitis (CH), liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV genotype was determined by either enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using monoclonal antibodies against genotype-specific epitopes in the preS2-region or the direct sequencing of small S gene. HBV genotypes were determined in 105 (87.5%) of 120 samples. HBV genotype C was identified in all HBV carriers with ASC, CH, LC, and HCC. Genotypes A, B, D, E, F and G were not detected in any of them. Genotype C HBV prevails predominantly among chronic carriers of the virus in Korea, irrespective of their clinical stages of liver disease and geographic origin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hepatitis B Virus Genotype C Prevails Among Chronic Carriers of the Virus in Korea

et al. 2005

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“…Although individual differences exist, it takes about 4 to 5 years of "heavy drinking" for women to experience alcohol-use-related problems that are severe enough to cause them to enter treatment facilities, whereas men tend to appear in treatment after 10 or more years of excessive alcohol use (Chung, Kim, Jang, Sohn, & Park, 1997;Kim, 1996;Song, 2003;Sung, Shin, Song, & Lee, 1999). It is interesting to note that women who enter treatment for alcoholism have been drinking a shorter period of time and experience fewer severe withdrawal symptoms and health complications resulting from a long history of alcohol abuse, 1 such as liver cirrhosis or diabetes, than do men entering treatment for alcoholism (Heo, Kim, & Kim, 2001;Park, Oh, & Lee, 1998;Sung, Shin, Song, & Lee, 1999). We speculate that this finding reflects the social attitudes toward women's drinking in that women who drink excessively are looked down on, and their families are likely to force them in to treatment earlier than they would males.…”

Section: Alcoholism In Women and Associated Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women's Alcohol Use and Alcoholism in Korea

Kim¹,

Kim²

2008

Substance Use & Misuse

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Recently South Korean society has experienced an increase in alcohol use related problems, as well as alcohol use among women. The purpose of this paper is to describe the cultural context of and to summarize the current state of knowledge of women's drinking in South Korea. Subscribing to Confucian principles, traditional Korean society has allowed drinking for men, but not for women. However, as society has changed, contemporary women drink at a younger age and consume larger amounts of alcohol than their prior generations. The current trends suggest an urgent need for research on the etiology and trajectory of women's alcohol use among various populations and the need to develop intervention programs tailored to the specific needs of women.Recently, South Korean society has witnessed a rapid increase in women's alcohol use. National statistics show that the rate of drinking among women has increased from 33.0% in 1993 to 59.5% in 2001 (Ministry of Health and Welfare [MOHW], 2002). Contemporary Korean women start drinking at an earlier age and consume more alcohol than did women in earlier generations. Along with the increase in the number of female drinkers, the number of problem female drinkers is also on the rise.The problem has started to receive public attention. In the popular discourse in South Korea, women's alcohol-use-related problems have been framed as a threat to family life. Since 2000, the popular media, including major newspapers and television stations, have created special editions and programs on women's drinking, especially the alcohol-use-related problems of stay-at-home mothers. One popular newspaper title reads, "Housewife alcoholism, 550,000 women alcoholics-Families are reeling" (Hurh, 2005a). Another popular newspaper presented couples struggling with changing expectations and norms for women's drinking at work and offered different sets of "ten commandments" for men and women. The first commandment for men was "do not drink competitively," whereas, for women, it was "do not use alcohol to cope with depressive feelings" (Yu, 2005).Culture provides the context in which we can understand women's drinking in South Korea. Due to social expectations and norms, women and men may present a completely different set of motivations, problems, and help seeking behaviors. This study presents a brief description of the meaning of drinking for South Korean women, provides a discussion on the increasing use of alcohol among women, particularly in comparison to use among men, and reviews the current status of knowledge on women's drinking. Throughout this

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“…However, the prevalence of "heavy alcohol consumption" among women was substantially high (up to almost 8.5%), especially in women under 30 years of age. This finding runs in parallel with increasing alcohol consumption by women worldwide (Allamani et al, 2000;Blume, 1986;Park, Oh, & Lee, 1998). Older cohorts showed relatively lower risk of currently being a "heavy alcohol consumer."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%