• Journal of Rhinology
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.292-300
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• 2021

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and chronic otitis media (COM) share pathophysiological mechanisms such as bacterial infection, biofilm, and persistence of the obstruction state of ventilation routes. However, only a few studies have investigated the relationship between these two diseases nationwide and in the general population. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the incidence of COM in patients with CRS differed from that of a matched control from the national health screening cohort. Methods: Data from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Samples were collected from 2002 to 2015. Participants who were treated ≥2 times and underwent head and neck computed tomography evaluation were selected. A 1:4 matched CRS group (n=8,057) and a control group (n=32,228) were selected. The control group included participants who were never treated with the ICD-10 code J32 from 2002 to 2015. The CRS group included CRS patients with/without nasal polyps. Results: The incidence of COM was significantly higher in the CRS group than in the control group. In a subgroup analysis, the incidence of COM in all age groups and in men and women was significantly higher in the CRS group than in the control group. More, CRS increased the risk of COM. Conclusions: A significant association was observed between CRS and COM. This indicates that CRS patients have a high risk of developing COM.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.163-192
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• 2002

Residential overcrowding, also called density, measured as more than one person per room, is a important variable as a principal indicator of inadequate housing. We investigated how immigrants in the US are assimilated to the host society through a lens of housing density. We estimated the probability of living in overcrowded housing of Korean, Chinese and Japanese immigrants armored with the 1980 and 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample(PUMS, A, 5%) in the US. Along with economic effects, we also consider life-cycle effects on the indicator. We applied "double cohort" method that enables duration of immigration effects to be separated from aging effects, which captures family size fluctuations due to life-cycle effects. The study found that cohort trends sharply changed during 10years. The 1970's immigrants are more likely to live in overcrowded housing than the pre-1970 immigrants. The pre-1970 immigrants are more likely to live in overcrowded housing than native-born persons. This may be explained by different assimilation processes driven by the disparities of individual human capitals or cultural differences among the ethnic groups. Especially, Korean experienced a sharp decline in overcrowding between 1980 and 1990. We also found that the major determinants that affect the level of housing density are years since migration, income, and gender. The present study concluded with some future studies related to the Korean immigrants abroad.ts abroad.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.371-383
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• 1999

This report gave analysis of food demand both in Korea and Japan through introducing the concept of cohort analysis to the conventional demand model. This research was done to clarify the factors which determine food demand of the household. The traits of the new model for demand analysis are to consider and quantify those effects on food demand not only of economic factors such as expenditure and price but also of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of the householder. The results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1) The comparison of the item-wise elasticities of food demand demonstrates that the expenditure elasticity is higher in Korea than in Japan and that the expenditure elasticity is -0.1 for cereal and more than 1 for eating-out in both countries. In respect to price elasticity, the absolute values of all the items except alcohol and cooked food are higher in the Korea than in Japan, and especially the price elasticities of beverages, dairy products and fruit are predominantly higher in Japan. In this way, both expenditure and price elasticities of a large number of items are higher in Korea than in Japan, which may be explained from the fact that the level of expenditure is higher in Japan than in Korea. 2) In both of Korea and Japan, as the householder grows older, the expenditure for each item increases and the composition of expenditure changes in such a way that these moves may be regarded as due to the age effect. However, there are both similarities and differences in the details of such moves between Korea and Japan. Those two countries have this trait in common that the young age groups of the householder spend more on dairy products and middle age groups spend more on cake than other age groups. In the Korea, however, there can be seen a certain trend that higher age groups spend more on a large number of items, reflecting the fact that there are more two-generation families in higher age groups. Japan differs from Korea in that expenditure in Japan is diversified, depending upon the age group. For example, in Japan, middle age groups spend more on cake, cereal, high-caloric food like meat and eating-out while older age groups spend more for Japanese-style food like fish/shellfish and vegetable/seaweed, and cooked food. 3) The effect of the birth cohort effect was also demonstrated. The birth cohort effect was introduced under the supposition that the food circumstances under which the householder was born and brought up would determine the current expenditure. Thus, the following was made clear: older generations in both countries placed more emphasis upon stable food in their composition of food consumption; the share of livestock products, oil/fats and externalized food was higher in the food composition of younger generation; differences in food composition among generations were extremely large in Korea while they were relatively small in Japan; and Westernization and externalization of diet made rapid increases simultaneously with generation changes in Korea while they made any gradual increases in Japan during the same time period. 4) The four major factors which impact the long-term change of food demand of the household are expenditure, price, the age of the householder, and the birth cohort of the householder. Investigations were made as to which factor had the largest impact. As a result, it was found that the price effect was the smallest in both countries, and that the relative importance of the factor-by-factor effects differed among the two countries: in Korea the expenditure effect was greater than the effects of age and birth cohort while in Japan the effects of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of householder were greater than those of economic factors such as expenditures.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.67-72
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• 2012

Purpose: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic multi-systemic disease that causes damage to the bone and connective tissues. This study was conducted in order to accurately measure the correlation between RA and periodontitis, and to obtain an unbiased estimate of the effect of RA on periodontal indices. Methods: In this historical cohort study, which was conducted from February to May 2011 in Hamadan city, Iran, 53 exposed people (with RA) were compared with 53 unexposed people (without RA) in terms of clinical periodontal indices (the outcomes of interest) including 1) plaque index (PI), 2) bleeding on probing (BOP), and 3) clinical attachment loss (CAL). Results: A sample of 106 volunteers were evaluated, 53 rheumatoid versus 53 non-rheumatoid subjects. There was a statistically significant correlation between RA and BOP (P<0.001) and between RA and CAL (P<0.001). However, there was no statistically significant correlation between RA and any of the periodontal indices. No correlation was seen between gender and any of the indices either. There was a strong positive correlation between age and all three periodontal indices (P<0.001). Conclusions: The present study indicated a potential effect of RA on periodontal indices. However, much more evidence based on a prospective cohort study is needed to support the cause and effect relationship between RA and periodontal indices.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.525-534
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• 2019

Background In microtia patients with bilateral hearing impairment, hearing improvement is crucial for language development and performance. External auditory canal reconstruction (EACR) has been performed to improve hearing, but often results in complications. We performed transcutaneous bone conduction implant (TBCI) surgery in these patients. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of TBCI surgery. Methods A retrospective review was performed of five patients who underwent auricular reconstruction and TBCI surgery and 12 patients who underwent EACR between March 2007 and August 2018. Hearing improvement was measured based on the air-bone gap values using pure-tone audiometry over a 6-week postoperative period. We reviewed other studies on hearing improvement using EACR and compared the findings with our results. The surgical techniques for TBCI were reviewed through case analyses. Results Postoperative hearing outcomes showed a significant improvement, with a mean gain of 34.1 dB in the TBCI cohort and 14.1 dB in the EACR cohort. Both gains were statistically significant; however, the TBCI cohort showed much larger gains. Only three of the 12 patients who underwent EACR achieved hearing gains of more than 20 dB, which is consistent with previous studies. All patients who underwent TBCI surgery demonstrated hearing gains of more than 20 dB and experienced no device-related complications. Conclusions TBCI is a safe and effective method of promoting hearing gains in microtia patients with bilateral hearing impairment. TBCI surgery provided better hearing outcomes than EACR and could be performed along with various auricular reconstruction techniques using virgin mastoid skin.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.367-372
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• 2003

Objectives : There are many concerns about ginseng as a cancer chemopreventive substance, but there have been few epidemiological studies on ginseng, This study sought to examine the relationships between ginseng intake and cancer incidence in the Kangwha cohort. Methods ; Between March 1985 and December 1999, 2697 males, aged 55 or over, as of 1985, were followed up for their cancer incidence. The cancer incidence rate, standardized incidence ratio and risk ratios were calculated according to ginseng intake. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to adjust for age at entry, smoking, alcohol intake, hypertension, and body mass index. Results & Conclusions : The ginseng intake group had the same cancer (C00-C97) incidences (Standardized Incidence Ratio: SIR=1.11, 95% Confidence Interval=0.97-1.27) and the same risk ratio (RR=1.09, 95% Confidence Interval=0.85-1.41) as the no-intake group. Analyzing the subjects that had followed up from 1990, however, the ginseng intake group had lower cancer incidences at all sites (RR=0.79, 95% Confidence Interval=0.58-1.09). This was a cohort study to try and evaluate the association between ginseng intake and the incidences of cancer, The results of this study provide no clear conclusions on the cancer preventive effects of ginseng. Therefore, further study is needed in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate air quality in Chungju, Korea, using data obtained with a local air quality monitoring system. We have utilised cohort studies to investigate the relations between environmental pollution and the health of residents near large industrial complexes since 2004. This study analyzes the $O_3,\;NO_2,\;SO_2,\;CO\;and\;PM_{10}$ concentration in Chungju from 2002 to 2006. Air pollutants are closely related to the number of manufacturing facilities and cars, energy utilization and weather conditions. Generally, the diurnal concentration of air pollutants in Chungju reached the highest level in the morning (about$08:00{\sim}$) and early evening (about$19:00{\sim}$). On the other hand, the diurnal concentration of ozone as recorded gives the highest amount in late afternoon (about$16:00{\sim}$) and lowest in early morning (about$08:00{\sim}$). The concentration of air pollutants in Chungju was highest from winter to spring and lowest during the summer season. On the other hand, the monthly variation of ozone concentration was greatest in June and smallest in December. Also the, $PM_{10}$ concentration posted the highest record in April and the lowest during September. In general, this study analyzed air pollution changes in Chungju as well as in large scale industrial complex regions within Korea such as Ulsan, Pohang, Kwangyang, Sihwa Panwol and Gangneung in Korea. We compared the air quality of Chungju with those of these cites and found that air pollutants except for CO in Chungju was generally lower than large industrial complex regions.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2010

Objectives: We evaluated the reliability of the possible covariates of the baseline survey data collected for the Epidemiological Investigation on Cancer Risk Among Residents Who Reside Near the Nuclear Power Plants in Korea. Methods: Follow-up surveys were conducted for 477 participants of the cohort at less than 1 year after the initial survey. The mean interval between the initial and follow-up surveys was 282.5 days. Possible covariates were identified by analyzing the correlations with the exposure variable and associations with the outcome variables for all the variables. Logistic regression analysis with stepwise selection was further conducted among the possible covariates to select variables that have covariance with other variables. We considered that these variables can be representing other variables. Seven variables for the males and 3 variables for the females, which had covariance with other possible covariates, were selected as representative variables. The Kappa index of each variable was calculated. Results: For the males, the Kappa indexes were as follow; family history of cancer was 0.64, family history of liver diseases in parents and siblings was 0.56, family history of hypertension in parents and siblings was 0.51, family history of liver diseases was 0.50, family history of hypertension was 0.44, a history of chronic liver diseases was 0.53 and history of pulmonary tuberculosis was 0.36. For females, the Kappa indexes were as follow; family history of cancer was 0.58, family history of hypertension in parents and siblings was 0.56 and family history of hypertension was 0.47. Conclusions: Most of the possible covariates showed good to moderate agreement.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1994.02a
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• pp.651-657
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• 1994

To assess quantitatively the association between benzene exposure and leukemia, we examined the mortality rate of a cohort with occupational exposure to benzene. Cumulative exposure for each cohort member was estimated from historical air-sampling data and, when no sampling data existed, from interpolation on the basis of existing data. The overall standardized mortality ratio (a measure of relative risk multiplied by 100) for leukemia was 337 (95 percent confidence interval, 154 to 641), and that for multiple myeloma was 409 (95 percent confidence interval, 110 to 1047). With stratification according to levels of cumulative exposure, the standardized mortality ratios for leukemia increased from 109 to 322, 1186, and 6637 with increases in cumulative benzene exposure from less than 40 parts per million-years (ppm-years), to 40 to 199, 200 to 399, and 400 or more. respectively. A cumulative benzene exposure of 400 ppm years is equivalent to a mean annual exposure of 10 ppm over a 40-year working lifetime; 10 ppm is the currently enforceable standard in the United States for occupational exposure to benzene. To examine the shape of the exposure-response relation, we performed a conditional logistic-regression analysis, in which 10 controls were matched to each cohort member with leukemia. From this model, it can be calculated that protection from benzene induced leukemia would increase exponentially with any reduction in the permissible exposure limit.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.358-368
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• 2011

Objectives: In order to evaluate the association between occupational exposure to chloroethylene (TCE) and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), we conducted a meta-analysis of retrospective cohort studies and casecontrol studies and attempted to summarize the evidence of the association from molecular-epidemiological studies and experiments with human cells. Methods: In the meta-analysis, we restricted the analysis to those studies with data for chlorinated solvents, degreasers, or TCE. Studies involving dry cleaners or launderers were excluded from the analysis because use of TCE as a dry cleaning fluid has been rare since the 1960s. The data were combined using a random-effects model to estimate the summary risks (OR and RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Molecular evidence of the effect of TCE on human immune system were also reviewed and summarized. Results: Occupational exposure to TCE was strongly associated with NHL among cohort studies (number of studies=13, summary RR=1.33, 95% CI=1.04-1.70) whereas the association was not statistically significant among case-control studies (number of studies=15, summary OR=1.10, 0.98-1.23). When exposure level was considered, it became statistically significant for the highest exposure level (number of studies=5, summary OR=1.70, 1.25-2.32). Molecular evidences showed that TCE exposure in human or cultured human cells may cause a significant decrease immune cell subsets and changes in hormone levels related to immune response. Conclusions: Our results from meta-analysis and additional molecular evidence suggest that occupational exposure to TCE may cause NHL. However, unmeasured potential confounding and unclear dose-response relationships warrant further study on the role of TCE exposure in NHL carcinogenesis.