Background
: 　Antibiotics are often indiscriminately prescribed for respiratory tract infections. This study was conducted to describe the prescription pattern of family physicians for respiratory tract infections.

Methods : In each clinic of 50 representative family practitioners, about 20 consecutive patients with diagnosis of respiratory tract infection were enrolled into the study. The data were collected by questionnaire to physicians just after patient interview.

Results : The number of study subjects was 1020, of which 55.7% was less than 15 year old. Antibiotics were prescribed to 73.9% of total subjects. According to diagnosis, the antibiotic prescription rate was 51.5% in common cold, 86.0% in pharyngitis, 88.6% in bronchitis, 98.9% in sinusitis, and 100% in otitis media. In common cold, the factors which significantly increased the antibiotic prescription were 1)patient age less than 15 year old (OR=1.70, CI= 1.06-2.73), 2)more than two visits during the same episode(OR=1.95, CI=1.27-2.99), 3)yellow and thick rhinorrhea(OR=2.22, CI=1.16-4.25), 4)yellow and thick sputum(OR=3.31, CI=1.34-8.19), and 5)throat injection(OR=2.50, CI=1.42-4.39). Among patients to whom antibiotics were prescribed, 48.7% of patients were given the antibiotics by intramuscular injection. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were penicillin and macroride among per-oral medicine and ribostamycin and lincomycin among intramuscular medicine. The reason for antibiotic prescription were 1)possibility of bacterial infection(43.4%), 2)prevention of bacterial complication(23.7%), and 3)definite evidence of bacterial infection(22.5%).

Conclusion : Family practitioners prescribe antibiotics indiscriminately for the respiratory tract infection. The prescription was influenced by patient's age, number of clinic-visit, and clinical symptoms and signs.

Background
: Falling in elderly persons can lead to disability, hospitalizations, and premature death. It may also result in a psychological trauma termed fear of falling. Although it has been reported in developed countries that such fear may lead to staying home or other self-restriction of activities with debilitating physical consequences, it has not been studied yet in Korea. So we conducted this study to examine relative frequency of fear of falling and its association with measures of falling, activities of daily-living, depression, frailty in elderly persons living in a home for the aged.

Methods : We conducted a cross-sectional study of a sample of 152 subjects among 163 elders living in a home for the aged in Seoul. Data on demographic and medical characteristics, and cognitive(MMSE-K), functional(ADL, Instrumental ADL), and psychological(GDS-K) functioning, and measures of fall and frailty were obtained during assessments. We asked the subjects whether they had fear of falling in a dichotomous manner.

Results : The incidence of falls in the prior year was 29.6%, and the relative frequency of fear of falling was 57.2%. The variables associated with fear of falling with a statistical significance were as follow; old age(≥80 years), no education, no alcohol drinking, no smoking, use of assistive device, experience with falls and fall with injury in the prior 12 months, any disability in ADL, 3 or more disability in IADL. In a stepwise logistic regression analysis, experience with falls(OR 2.80, 95% CI 1.12-6.97), 3 or more disability in IADL(OR 2.99, 95% CI 1.33-8.78), and no alcohol drinking(OR 3.23, 95% CI 1.36-7.95) were still associated independently with fear of falling.

Conclusion : Fear of falling is common in the institutionalized elderly persons in Korea, and is associated with decreased instrumental activities, recent experience with falls, and no alcohol drinking. Therefore it represents the need for effective intervention to prevent and limit the consequences of falls and fear of falling in elderly persons.

Background
: The medical research is important to physicians. It is difficult for family physicians to set up research subject because family practice disciplines are wide. I thought that citation analysis of The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine was important to search for the family practice disciplines.

Methods : The citation analysis of the research articles, published in The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine over the 11 years, from November 1980(the first number of journal) through December 1991.

Results : A total of 5,316 citation count of references was found over the 11 year period publication of The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family medicine from 245 different journal source.
The average number of the citations per research article is 21.7. The average number of domestic citations per research article is 7.4. The average number of foreign citations per research article is 14.4. The average number of monograph and textbook citations per research article is 4.7. The average number of journal citations per research article is 16.8. The average number of rest citations per research article is 0.1. The most frequent cited journal was The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine(321). The average of The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine per research article is 1.3. The next frequently cited journals were as follows. The Journal of Family Practice(297), The journal of the American Medical Association(152), The Koreaan Journal of Internal Medicine(140), The New England Journal of Medicine(121), Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association(114), The Lancet(84), British Medical Journal(81), Jurnal Korean Medical Association(80), Journal of Korean Pediatric Association(73), Korean Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology(62).
The cumulative proportion of all citation from the most 10 frequently cited journal were 27%.

Conclusion : The results from citation analysis of The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family medicine as follows : Domestic citations are more frequently cited than foregin citations, Journal citations are more cited than monograph and textbook citations. The most frequently cited reference journal is The Journal of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine. But the proportion of the average number of the Journal of the Korean Academy of Family medicine per reserch article(1.3) to the average number of cited journal per reserch article(16.8) is low. When we can classify the major disciplines in family medicine. They can be classified into Family practice, General multidisplinary, Internal medicine, Neuropsychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Surgery, Medical education, Epidemiology, Public health and preventive medicine. The disciplines in family medicine has not been determined yet. The major disciplines in family medicine are in process of research so that the disciplines in family medicine can develope by active research in fresh disciplines.