• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2017

Background: We sought to determine the association between chronic pain and participating in routine health screening in a low socioeconomic-status (SES) rental-flat community in Singapore. In Singapore, ${\geq}85%$ own homes; public rental flats are reserved for those with low-income. Methods: Chronic pain was defined as pain ${\geq}3$ months. From 2009-2014, residents aged 40-60 years in five public rental-flat enclaves were surveyed for chronic pain; participation in health screening was also measured. We compared them to residents staying in adjacent owner-occupied public housing. We also conducted a qualitative study to better understand the relationship between chronic pain and health screening participation amongst residents in these low-SES enclaves. Results: In the rental-flat population, chronic pain was associated with higher participation in screening for diabetes (aOR = 2.11, CI = 1.36-3.27, P < 0.001), dyslipidemia (aOR = 2.06, CI = 1.25-3.39, P = 0.005), colorectal cancer (aOR = 2.28, CI = 1.18-4.40, P = 0.014), cervical cancer (aOR = 2.65, CI = 1.34-5.23, P = 0.005) and breast cancer (aOR = 3.52, CI = 1.94-6.41, P < 0.001); this association was not present in the owner-occupied population. Three main themes emerged from our qualitative analysis of the link between chronic pain and screening participation: pain as an association of "major illness"; screening as a search for answers to pain; and labelling pain as an end in itself. Conclusions: Chronic pain was associated with higher cardiovascular and cancer screening participation in the low-SES population. In low-SES populations with limited access to pain management services, chronic pain issues may surface during routine health screening.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2001

Background : Cervix cancer is the most common form of cancer among Korea women. in spite of proof that cervical cancer screening could reduce death rates substantially, the screening rates reported by previous Korean studies remain stubbornly very low. Behavioral studies to increase the cervix cancer screening rate are essential in order to develop the cancer screening program. Objective : To evaluate the factors which are related to the intention and behavior for cervix cancer screening using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Methods : The survey was conducted from July 21 st to 26th in 1998. Of 3,218 women, 303(12.2%) between 30 and 55 years old, voluntarily participated in the survey in the 3 Myeons in Choongju city. Charge-free cervix cancer screening was provided for the subjects 3 months later. Results : The R-square of both TPB and TRA to the intention (30% and 42%, respectively) was greater than the actual behavior (21% and 13%, respectively. TPB and TRA were found to provide an appropriate framework for the study of cervix cancer screening behavior. However, TRA was more powerful in explaining the intention, not only because the perceived behavioral control component exhibited lower reliability and validity than other components(altitude and subjective norm), but also because there may have been a few limitations in this study design. Consequently, the use of TRA is preferred in attempting to explain intention and actual behavior in this study. Conclusions : This study suggests that a successful intervention program should focus on changing attitudes and reducing psychologic barriers, rather than on just providing information. Physician recommendations, and the support of family members and friends are also very important factors in cervix cancer program participation. Physicians, friends, family members, and opinion leaders in rural areas, all of whom could affect the individual subjective norm, may all have the potential to play great roles as facilitators.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7633-7640
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• 2015

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide and it is responsible for most cases of cervical uterine cancer. Although HPV infections of the cervix do not always progress to cancer, 90% of cervical cancer cases have been found to be associated with high risk HPV (HR-HPV) infection. HPV DNA testing is widely used, along with Papanicolaou (Pap) testing, to screen for cervical abnormalities. However, there are no data on the prevalence of genotype-specific HPV infections assessed by measuring HPV E6/E7 mRNA in women representative of the Chinese population across a broad age range. Materials and Methods: In the present study, we compared the results with the CervicGen HPV RT-qDx assay, which detects 16 HR-HPV genotypes (Alpha-9: HPV 16, 31, 33, 35, 52, and 58; Alpha-7: HPV 18, 39, 45, 51, 59, and 68; and Alpha-5, 6: HPV 53, 56, 66, and 69), and the REBA HPV-ID assay, which detects 32 HPV genotypes based on the reverse blot hybridization assay (REBA) for the detection of oncogenic HPV infection according to cytological diagnosis. We also investigated the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV infection with a total of 324 liquid-based cytology samples collected in western Shandong province, East China. Results: The overall HPV prevalences determined by HPV DNA and HPV E6/E7 mRNA assays in this study were 79.9% (259/324) and 55.6% (180/324), respectively. Although the positivity of HPV E6/E7 mRNA expression was significantly lower than HPV DNA positivity, the HPV E6/E7 mRNA assay showed greater specificity than the HPV DNA assay (88.6% vs. 48.1%) in normal cytology samples. The prevalence of Alpha-9 (HPV 16, 31, 33, 35, 52, and 58) HPV infection among these women accounted for up to 80.3% and 76.1% of the high-grade lesions detected in the HPV mRNA and DNA tests, respectively. The HR-HPV genotype distribution, based on HPV DNA and E6/E7 mRNA expression by age group in patients with cytologically confirmed lesions, was highest in women aged 40 to 49 years (35.9% for cytologically confirmed cases, Pearson correlation r value=0.993, p<0.001) for high-grade lesions. Among the oncogenic HR-HPV genotypes for all age groups, there was little difference in the distribution of HPV genotypes between the HPV DNA (HPV -16, 53, 18, 58, and 33) and HPV E6/E7 mRNA (HPV -16, 53, 33, 58, and 18) assays. HPV 16 was the most common HPV genotype among women with high-grade lesions. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the HPV E6/E7 mRNA assay can be a sensitive and specific tool for the screening and investigation of cervical cancer. Furthermore, it may provide useful information regarding the necessity for early cervical cancer screenings and the development of additional effective HPV vaccines, such as one for HPV 53 and 58. Additionally, gaining knowledge of HPV distribution may also inform us about ecological changes in HPV after the vaccination.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.367-372
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• 2007

Cervical dysplasia induces morphologic changes in the cervical epithelium which involve changes in the nuclear/cytoplasmic (N/C) ratio. Since the nucleus is one of the significant scattering sources, the N/C ratio change reflects the degree of circular polarization (DOCP) with the depth of signals. Therefore, we used the polarization-sensitive OCT (PS-OCT) technique to measure the polarization changes caused by scattering. Cervical tissues were obtained from a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (H-SIL) of one woman and from low normal women. We obtained the mean of the DOCP as a function of depth in the cervix and quantified the change ratio of the DOCP using slopes that were determined by linear fits in the epithelium layer. We found that DOCP of H-SIL decayed faster than that of normal tissue because of the higher scattering in H-SIL as expected. This result indicates that the PS-OCT system might be useful in measurements of change ratio of DOCP with depth for screening of cervical dysplasia.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.119-129
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• 2022

Cervical cytology has been widely used as a screening tool for cervical cancer. However, Human papillomavirus (HPV) detection and subtype testing are suggested to overcome the high false-negative rate associated with cytology. We aimed to investigate the clinical usefulness and infection rate in the HPV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed in hospitals. HPV PCR data from 217 patients were analyzed. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in the infection rate among different age groups (P=0.015). The biopsy results showed that epithelial cell abnormalities and high HPV-positivity rate was observed in 1 (100%) subject aged <29 years, in 4 out of 5 (80%) patients in their 30s, and in 3 out of 4 (75%) patients aged ≥70 years. The prevalence of HPV infection was very high (46.1%). The highest prevalence (87.5%) was observed among patients in their <29, followed by those in their 30s (67.7%) and those in their 40s (31.9%).A high rate of epithelial cell abnormalities (≥ cervical intraepithelial neoplasia type 1, mild dysplasia) was observed in HPV-infected women aged<30 years. Therefore, extensive research and prevention activities are needed in this age group. HPV PCR testing is recommended to complement cervical cytology

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.981-986
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• 2013

Background: The Pap smear has an important value in the early diagnosis of cervical cancer, a serious problem in womens health. This study aimed to determine the status of Turkish women regarding participation in Pap smear testing and affecting factors. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on married women between 18-61 years of age selected from those who applied to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Polyclinic of Atat$\ddot{u}$rk University in Erzurum between June-August 2010 for any reason. Data were collected using a questionnaire determining socio-demographic features and analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean, Sd, range, frequency, percentage) and Chi-square test. A level of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Sixty six of the 301 women (21.9%) indicated that they heard a Pap smear test and 16.6% of women had experienced a test. The number of women participating increased with age, duration of marriage, number of births, knowledge about the Pap smear and perception of risk for cervical cancer. Conclusions: The importance of the Pap smear test needs to be explained to Turkish women by health staff, to increase awareness and participation in regular screening.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 2011

The genotypes of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) are important in the carcinogenesis of uterine cervical cancer. Diagnosis of uterine cervical cancer screening has been executed using Papanicolau method (Pap) and HPV DNA Chip method. We researched the interrelation of HPV DNA genotypes in single and multiple infections and analyzed the results of Pap and HPV DNA Chip tests at Gunsan Medical Center (GMC). The correlation analysis was surveyed on collected results from 599 patients who have been tested with both Pap and HPV DNA chip tests from November 2004 to May 2010 at GMC. The inconsistency between Pap and HPV DNA Chip tests was 41.1%. The HPV DNA Chip genotype related with high risk cases were type 16 (13.5%), type 52 (10.5%), type 58 (10.1%), and type 18 (3.4%). Those related with low risk cases were type 70 (8.9%), type 6 (1.7%), type 40 (1.2%), type 11 (1.3%), and other types (14.3%). Among the 195 cases of HPV positive status, 161 cases were associated with single infection; 108 (67.1%) cases were related with high risk genotype; 19 (11.8%) cases were low risk genotype; 31 (21.1%) cases were related with other types. 29 cases were associated with double infections; 23 (79.3%) cases were high risks; 5 (17.2%) cases were mixed high and low risks; 1 (3.5%) case was low risk.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1143-1147
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• 2014

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is considered to play a critical role in the development of cervical carcinoma, which is the third most common cancer among Korean females. Here, we performed a baseline study of HPV infection and genotyping using an HPV DNA chip, which is a type of oligonucleotide microarray. A total of 6,855 cervical swab specimens from 5,494 women attending Dankook University Hospital Health Improvement Center in Cheonan, Korea between 2006 and 2012, originally collected for HPV infection screening, were genotyped for HPV. The extracted DNA from the cervical specimens was investigated by an HPV DNA chip designed to detect 41 different HPV types. HPV was identified as positive in 1,143 (16.7%) of the 6,855 samples. The most frequently detected HPV genotypes were HPV types 16, 53, 56, 58, 39, 52, 70, 84, 68, 62, 35, 54, 81, 18, and 30, in descending order of incidence. The proportions of single and multiple HPV infections in the HPV-positive specimens were 78.1% and 21.9%, respectively. The average age of HPV-positive patients was 39.9 years, with the positive rate of HPV being the highest in the 10-29 age group (20.6%). We report here on the prevalence and distribution of 41 different genotypes of HPV according to age among women in Cheonan, Korea. These data may be of use as baseline data for the assessment of public health-related issues and for the development of area-specific HPV vaccines.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2018

Human papillomavirus (HPV) plays a critical role in the development of cervical carcinoma. This study analyzed the efficiency of multiplex real-time PCR in detecting and identifying HPV genotypes in samples from women who visited a Korean hospital for checkups. Cervical swab specimens were obtained from women who attended a checkup at the Health Improvement Center of Hospital in Dankook University Cheonan, South Korea and were referred for an HPV genotyping test between January and September 2014. A total of 1703 cervical swab specimens were collected consecutively during this period. PCR results were compared with those of the traditional cytological assay for the same population. Among the 1,703 specimens, 19.91% were HPV positive, of which 14.50% indicated a single infection and 5.40% indicated multiple infections. However, cytology identified only 2.52% of positive cases, including 1.23% cases of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, 1% of low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion, and 0.29% of high grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion. The rate of high-risk and low-risk HPV in the abnormal cytology group was 48 and 23, respectively, and 274 and 136 in the normal group, respectively. HPV types 56, 52, 43 were the most prevalent in that order. Our results confirm the efficiency of the HPV DNA assay for the detection of 28 different HPV genotypes with reasonable sensitivity. A screening strategy that comprises the HPV DNA assay and cytology would help overcome the low sensitivity of a cytological diagnosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.2097-2100
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• 2013

Background: To estimate the numbers and trends in cervix cancer cases visiting the Radiotherapy Department at Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal, statistical modelling from retrospective data was applied. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was carried out on data for a total of 159 patients treated for cervix cancer at Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal, between $28^{th}$ September 2000 and $31^{st}$ December 2008. Theoretical statistics were used for statistical modelling and forecasting. Results: Using curve fitting method, Linear, Logarithmic, Inverse, Quadratic, Cubic, Compound, Power and Exponential growth models were validated. Including the constant term, none of the models fit the data well. Excluding the constant term, the cubic model demonstrated the best fit, with $R^2$=0.871 (p=0.004). In 2008, the observed and estimated numbers of cases were same (12). According to our model, 273 patients with cervical cancer are expected to visit the hospital in 2015. Conclusions: Our data predict a significant increase in cervical cancer cases in this region in the near future. This observation suggests the need for more focus and resource allocation on cervical cancer screening and treatment.