• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-107
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• 2024

Gastric cancer has been consistently decreasing worldwide, whereas cardia gastric cancer is on the rise. This indicates that the exposure rates to epidemiological causes are changing. In this study, we aim to review the risk factors for gastric cancer with respect to cardia and non-cardia types. One of the most significant risk factors for gastric cancer is Helicobacter pylori infection. H. pylori infection is known as a risk factor for non-cardia gastric cancer, and there have been results indicating that H. pylori infection is not associated with cardia gastric cancer. However, in the East Asian region, there is epidemiological evidence suggesting that H. pylori infection might be a risk factor for cardia gastric cancer. Smoking and alcohol consumption are known risk factors for gastric cancer, regardless of anatomical location. Obesity is considered a factor in the development of cardia gastric cancer. However, further research is needed to understand the specific relationship with non-cardia gastric cancer. The consumption of high-salt and processed meat is more distinctly associated with noncardia gastric cancer than in cardia gastric cancer. In addition to these factors, exposure to chemicals and radiation are considered risk factors for gastric cancer. Primary prevention of gastric cancer involves eliminating or avoiding risk factors such as H. pylori eradication and adopting a healthy lifestyle, including quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy weight, and having a low-salt diet.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5829-5834
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• 2015

Objective: To describe and analyze the epidemiological characteristics of lung cancer mortality in China from 1991 to 2013, forecast the future five-year trend and provide scientific evidence for prevention and management of lung cancer. Materials and Methods: Mortality data for lung cancer in China from 1991 to 2013 were used to describe epidemiological characteristics. Trend surface analysis was applied to analyze the geographical distribution of lung cancer. Four models, curve estimation, time series modeling, gray modeling (GM) and joinpoint regression, were performed to forecast the trend for the future. Results: Since 1991 the mortality rate of lung cancer increased yearly. The rate for males was higher than that for females and rates in urban areas were higher than in rural areas. In addition, our results showed that the trend will continue to increase in the ensuing 5 years. The mortality rate increased from age 45-50 and peaked in the group of 85 years old. Geographical analysis indicated that people living in northeast China provinces and the coastal provinces in eastern China had a higher mortality rate for lung cancer than those living in the centre or western Chinese provinces. Conclusions: The standardized mortality rate of lung cancer has constantly increased from 1991 to 2013, and been predicted to continue in the ensuing 5 years. Further efforts should be concentrated on education of the general public to increase prevention and early detection. Much better prevention and management is needed in high mortality areas (northeastern and eastern parts of China) and high risk populations (45-50-year-olds).

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3061-3064
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• 2012

Aim: An epidemiological shift has resulted in increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD). Unlike other NCDs which are easily and definitely preventable, the knowledge of cancer prevention is still limited at present. Various aetiological factors are difficult to control since those are habit forming. Hence an available remedy remains its secondary and tertiary prevention for which appropriate planning is of paramount importance. Evidence based planning requires careful analysis of data with a view to prioritize various cancers. Keeping in view the fact that the adaptation of smoking free status in Chandigarh city might have a far reaching positive effect on the cancer related morbidity of the people, the following study was undertaken to provide base line data to be used for future comparisons. Methods: The registers maintained in the Department of Radiotherapy were checked and those belonging to the years 1999 to 2009 were utilized to analyze the cancer morbidity in respect to age, sex, and year of presentation to health care facility. Results: A total of 4,600 cancer patients (males=2276, females=2324) demonstrated a gradual increase in the number of cancer cases from 150 in the year 1999 to 783 in the year 2009. The most common cancers amongst males were cancer of gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) and lung (including larynx) constituting 37.3% and 27.1% of the total, respectively. In females these were cancers of breast and cervix representing 33.3% & 17.6% of total cancer cases, respectively, and lung cancer constituted 5.3%. The maximum cases of bone cancer (53.8% of all bone cancers) were observed amongst children aged less than 20 years and lung cancer (48.2% of all lung cancers) among the elderly aged 60-69 years. The.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.45-59
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• 2023

Objectives: This study investigated the role of Korean medicine doctors in the national quarantine system and the status of their duties through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with Korean medicine staff who participated in COVID-19 work. Methods: We developed a questionnaire survey to investigate the status and perception of Korean medicine doctors' participation in responding to infectious diseases, and the results were derived by conducting frequency analysis and T-test using SPSS program. The measurement variables of this study were the status of COVID-19 related work participation and perception of Korean medicine doctors' role in infectious diseases, and the maximum significance level was 0.05. Results: There were 300 respondents to the survey, and as for the COVID-19 related work, Korean medicine treatment for COVID-19 patients accounted for the most(52.7%), and various preventive and treatment tasks such as epidemiological investigations and specimen collection were conducted. Conclusion: According to this study, it was confirmed that there are sufficient legal and administrative grounds for Korean medicine doctors to perform specimen collection and epidemiological investigations. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a policy framework to solidify the status of Korean medicine doctors in national infectious diseases in the future.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.387-396
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• 2020

Objectives: The lack of advance planning in a public health emergency can lead to wasted resources and inadvertent loss of lives. This study is aimed at forecasting the needs for healthcare resources following the expansion of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the Republic of Kazakhstan, focusing on hospital beds, equipment, and the professional workforce in light of the developing epidemiological situation and the data on resources currently available. Methods: We constructed a forecast model of the epidemiological scenario via the classic susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) approach. The World Health Organization's COVID-19 Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool was used to evaluate the healthcare resources needed for the next 12 weeks. Results: Over the forecast period, there will be 104 713.7 hospital admissions due to severe disease and 34 904.5 hospital admissions due to critical disease. This will require 47 247.7 beds for severe disease and 1929.9 beds for critical disease at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. There will also be high needs for all categories of healthcare workers and for both diagnostic and treatment equipment. Thus, Republic of Kazakhstan faces the need for a rapid increase in available healthcare resources and/or for finding ways to redistribute resources effectively. Conclusions: Republic of Kazakhstan will be able to reduce the rates of infections and deaths among its population by developing and following a consistent strategy targeting COVID-19 in a number of inter-related directions.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2016

The evidence for the existence of a common pathway for health issues in men is presented in this review. Several epidemiological studies have shown that conditions like cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes, lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS), erectile dysfunction (ED), prostate cancer, hypogonadism, depression and suicide can be associated as risk factors for each other. Thus, the risk of CVD is significantly increased in men with metabolic syndrome, ED, hypogonadism, prostate cancer and/or LUTS. In addition, the above mentioned conditions are more prevalent in atherosclerotic patients. In addition, growing evidence indicates that low androgen levels can cause metabolic syndrome. In addition, obesity, dyslipidaemia and diabetes can further reduce androgen levels potentiating their adverse effect. Low testosterone levels are also associated with a higher incidence of aggressive prostate cancer on biopsy and on definitive pathology, and lower probability of abiraterone response in the metastatic setting. Several recent studies point towards diffuse endothelial dysfunction and dysregulated pro-inflammatory state as the biological link between all these disorders. Our current hypothesis is that oxidative stress caused by these dysfunctions explains the pathogenesis of each of these conditions.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4733-4737
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• 2013

Purpose: Numerous observational epidemiological studies have evaluated associations between breastfeeding and the risk of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma; however, the existing results are inconsistent. We therefore conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Medical literature was searched in the Pubmed and Embase databases to identify all English-language relevant studies up to April 10, 2013. Reference lists were thereafter hand-searched for additional articles. Studies that reported relative risk ratios (RRs) or odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were included. This meta-analysis was conducted in accordance with the guidelines for the meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology. Results: We finally included 10 case-control studies in our meta-analysis, involving 1,618 childhood Hodgkin lymphoma cases and 8,181 controls. Overall, we did found a borderline significant association between breastfeeding and reduced risk of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma comparing ever breastfed children to never breastfed children (pooled OR =0.79; 95%CI, 0.58-1.08; P=0.13), with limited evidence for between-study heterogeneity (P =0.12, $I^2$ = 35.70%). Conclusion: There is limited evidence for an inverse association between breastfeeding and risk of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.501-516
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• 2014

Background: Our aim was to identify gaps and limitations in the current literature and to make recommendations for future research required to address these. Materials and Methods: We reviewed occupational exposures and related factors associated with the risk of prostate cancer between 2000 and 2012. These included chemical, ergonomic, physical or environmental, and psychosocial factors which have been reported by epidemiological studies across a range of industries. Results: The results are inconsistent from study to study and generally this is due to the reliance upon the retrospectivity of case-control studies and prevalence (ecological) studies. Exposure assessment bias is a recurring limitation of many of the studies in this review. Conclusions: We consider there is insufficient evidence to implicate prostate cancer risk for ergonomic, physical, environmental or psychosocial factors, but there is sufficient evidence to implicate toxic metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). More research is required to identify specific pesticides that may be associated with risk of prostate cancer.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.279-283
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• 2001

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) is a progressive neurologic disorder resulting from the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons, and is inherited in 10% of cases. About 20% of familial ALS, clinically indistinguishable from sporadic ALS, is caused by mutations of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase on chromosome 21q22.21 inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. We now report a new locus in the non-SOD1 dominantly inherited ALS. We screened a large ALS family with 11 affected individuals and one obligate gene carrier with genome-wide ABI polymorphic markers using the ABI 377 automated system. No evidence of linkage was obtained with the autosomal markers. We next screened this family with X chromosome markers as there was no evidence of male-to-male tran-smission of the disease. Linkage was established with several X chromosome markers with a lod score up to 3.8; almost the maximum possible score in this family. Our finding imply that a gene for the dominant expression of a neuronal degeneration is coded on X chromosome and raise the question of the role of X-linked genes that escape inactivation in this pathogenesis. More importantly, our finding that a gene causing ALS is localized on X-chromosome has direct investigational relevance to sporadic ALS, where epidemiological studies show male gender predominance(1.3:1) and earlier onset in men by 5-10 years.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.103-117
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• 2009

Objectives: There have been no specific as well as evidence-based physical activity guidelines issued on the governmental level. There just have been physical activity recommendations and guidelines released from governmental agencies or organizations as well as individual researchers and these are not consistent, thereby giving the public and even some professionals quite a confusion. As such, this study was aimed to suggest key factors to include when issuing national physical activity recommendations for Koreans. Methods: Since chronological evolution of modern physical activity recommendations reflects key factors to consider when establishing those recommendations and guidelines, that released for several decades was reviewed. Results: The evolution was found to be based on the basis of strong evidence from both epidemiological and exercise physiology studies and the key concepts of such evolution were feasibility, efficacy, and safety. Conclusion: On the basis of three key factors found in the review process, this study concluded that the upcoming national physical activity guidelines should include the following to maximize the outcomes of the efforts which have long been put by the division of physical activity under the 'New Health Plan 2010'. First, guidelines for achieving health benefits (ie, preventing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancers or weight management) as well as improving cardiorespiratory fitness should be included to enhance efficacy. Second, safety measures should be included to enhance safety. Third, various alternative forms of physical activity should be included to enhance feasibility.