• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.77-90
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on the compliance of breast self-examination (BSE) among 205 Christian women living in Pusan and U1san areas. Structured self-administered questionnaires were used. Knowledge levels were measured by the instrument developed by Choi(l996). Self- efficacy and health belief were measured by the instruments developed by Champion (1993) and modified by Choi(1996). Women who did BSE more than once within 6 months were categorised as compliant. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t- test, χ² test and logistic regression analysis using SPSS WIN program. The results of this study were summarized as follows； 1. 15.1％ of women performed the BSE at least once during the last 6 months. 2. Non-complier and compliant women showed statistically significant differences in the level of self efficacy and barriers. 3. Predictors of BSE compliance were ‘history of having breast disease’, ‘experience of receiving recommendation for BSE’, ‘barriers’, and ‘experience of meeting with breast cancer patients’ and explained 14.8％ of variance in compliance of BSE. For future clinical practice, health professionals, including nurses, need to actively suggest to women the importance of BSE, and to distribute the information through posters and pamphlets at clinics and public health centers. Including the opportunity to meet patients in health education centers can be another strategy to increase women's motivation for BSE. For future research, it is necessary to recruit women from broader geographic areas utilizing various sources such as community centers to increase generalizability of the findings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6857-6862
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. All ages are susceptible and more than 90% of the patients can be cured with early diagnosis. Breast self-examination (BSE) and mammography can be useful for this aim. In this study we examined the components of the Champion health belief model to identify if they could predict the intentions of women to perform such screening. Materials and Methods: A total of 380 women aged 30 and above who had referred to health-care centers were assessed for use of breast cancer screening over the past year with a modified health belief model questionnaire. Logistic regression was applied to identify leading independent predictors. Results: In this study 27% of the women performed BSE in the last year but only 6.8% of them used mammography as a way of screening. There were significant differences regarding all components of the model except for perceived severity between women that underwent BSE. over the past year and those that did not. Findings were similar for mammography. Regression analysis revealed that intentions to perform BSE were predicted by perceived self-efficacy and perceived barriers to BSE while intentions to perform mammography were predicted by perceived barriers. Conclusions: This study indicated that self-efficacy can support performance of BSE while perceived barriers are important for not performing both BSE and mammography. Thus we must educate women to increase their self-efficacy and decrease their perceived barriers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2159-2163
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• 2014

Background: Prostate cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer among males in economically developed countries. Among the several risk factors that have been suggested, only age, ethnicity, diabetes, and family history of prostate cancer are well-established and primary prevention of this disease is limited. Prior studies had shown that dietary intake could be modified to reduce cancer risk. We conducted a hospital-based, casecontrol study to examine the association between dietary patterns and prostate cancer risk in Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of fifty patients with prostate cancer and a hundred controls underwent face-to-face interviews. Factor analysis was used to determine the dietary patterns. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: We defined two major dietary patterns in this population: 'western diet'(high in sweets and desserts, organ meat, snacks, tea and coffee, French fries, salt, carbonated drinks, red or processed meat) and 'healthy diet' (high in legumes, fish, dairy products, fruits and fruit juice, vegetables, boiled potatoes, whole cereal and egg). Both Healthy and western pattern scores were divided into two categories (based on medians). Higher scores on Healthy pattern was marginally significantly related to decreased risk of prostate cancer (above median vs below median, OR =0.4, 95%CI=0.2-1.0). An increased risk of prostate cancer was observed with the higher scores on the Western pattern (above median vs below median, OR=4.0, 95%CI=1.5-11.0). Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that diet might be associated with prostate cancer among Iranian males.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.582-585
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• 2004

To evaluate the potential association between the GSTP1 genotype and the development of breast cancer, a hospital based case-control study was conducted on Korean women. The study population consisted of 171 histologically confirmed incident breast cancer cases and 171 age-matched controls with no present or previous history of cancer. PCR-RFLP was used for the GSTP1 genotyping and statistical evaluations were performed using an unconditional logistic regression model. Postmenopausal women with the GSTP1 Val allele were found to have a reduced risk of breast cancer (OR = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.10 - 0.74). A significant interaction was observed between the GSTP1 genotype and alcohol consumption (p for interaction = 0.01); compared with never-drinking women with Ile/Ile genotype, ever-drinking women with the GSTP1 Val allele had almost a three-fold risk of breast cancer (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.05-7.85), whereas never-drinking women with Val allele had half this risk (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.27-0.93). Our findings suggest that the GSTP1 polymorphism influences individual susceptibility to breast cancer in the Korean women and this effect may be modified by alcohol consumption.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4173-4176
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• 2015

The aim of this cross-sectional analytic study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for Opisthorchis viverrini (OV) infection in an urban area of Northeastern Thailand. The participants were 254 household representatives aged 15 years or older living in the most urbanised part of Chiang Yuen municipality in Mahasarakham Province. All participants provided stool samples which were examined using the modified Kato-Katz procedure, and a structured interview questionnaire was used to collection demographic information, knowledge about OV infection, and the consumption of unsafely prepared freshwater fish. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The overall prevalence of OV infection was 15.0%, and in the multivariate analysis male gender was found to be significantly and positively associated with OV infection ($OR_{adj}=9.75$, 95%CI: 34.03-23.58) while education to secondary school level or above was a significant protective factor ($OR_{adj}=0.30$, 95%CI: 0.12-0.74). The eating of unsafely prepared fish and knowledge about OV were not significantly related to infection status. The findings were discussed in terms of issues for future research, especially the need to consider the possibility of higher rates of OV infection in urban areas than might be expected and to investigate the sources of infected fish products which may well be different from those in rural villages.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10683-10690
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• 2015

The big gap between efficacy of population level prevention and expectations due to heterogeneity and complexity of cancer etiologic factors calls for selective yet personalized interventions based on effective risk assessment. This paper documents our research protocol aimed at refining and validating a two-stage and web-based cancer risk assessment tool, from a tentative one in use by an ongoing project, capable of identifying individuals at elevated risk for one or more types of the 80% leading cancers in rural China with adequate sensitivity and specificity and featuring low cost, easy application and cultural and technical sensitivity for farmers and village doctors. The protocol adopted a modified population-based case control design using 72, 000 non-patients as controls, 2, 200 cancer patients as cases, and another 600 patients as cases for external validation. Factors taken into account comprised 8 domains including diet and nutrition, risk behaviors, family history, precancerous diseases, related medical procedures, exposure to environment hazards, mood and feelings, physical activities and anthropologic and biologic factors. Modeling stresses explored various methodologies like empirical analysis, logistic regression, neuro-network analysis, decision theory and both internal and external validation using concordance statistics, predictive values, etc..

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5941-5944
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• 2014

Purpose: To highlight the potential factors that could predict the response rate of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with pemetrexed combined chemotherapy after first- or second-line chemotherapy using the FOLFOX regimen. Materials and Methods: Between January 2007 and July 2014, 54 patients diagnosed and pathologically-confirmed with advanced colorectal cancer in Jiangsu Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, were enrolled. They received pemetrexed at a dose of $500mg/m^2$ by 10 minute infusion on day 1, repeated every 3 weeks. Doses were modified depending on nadir counts of blood cells. Combined chemotherapeutic agents included irinotecan, lobaplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin, gemcitabine, cis-platinum or bevacizumab. Multiple variables (age, sex, hemoglobin, platinum drugs combined, metastasis sites, LDH, ALP, CEA>40 ug/ml) reported earlier were selected. We used logistic regression analysis to evaluate relationships between these and tumor response. Results: On multivariable analysis, we found that age was significant in predicting the responsiveness to pemetrexed (p<0.05) combined with oxaliplatin. We did not find any other factors which were significantly associated with the response rate to chemotherapy with pemetrexed and irinotecan. Conclusions: By multivariate analysis, we found that age had significant impact on the responsiveness of pemetrexed when combined with oxaliplatin. Additional research based on genomic properties of host and tumors are needed to clarify markers for better selection of patients who could benefit from pemetrexed combined chemotherapy.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.71-79
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• 2019

Purpose : Several studies suggest that smoking and vitamin D level is a risk factor of metabolic syndrome. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between smoking status, vitamin D levels and the Korean adult male and female metabolic syndrome. Methods : We assessed 3796 participants aged 19 years and older from the Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2013, 2014. Smoking statuses were collected from self-reported questionnaires. Subjects were divided into three categories: non-smokers, former smokers, and current smokers. Vitamin D was tested by Radioimmunoassay method and the value of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is an index of vitamin D status in the body, was used. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was made using criteria modified NCEP-ATP III. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios between smoking status, vitamin D levels, and metabolic syndrome. Results : The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 23.0 % in men and 15.4 % in women. After adjusting for smoking, the odds ratio for men's metabolic syndrome in current smokers was 1.77 (95 % CI, 1.30~2.41), while for former smokers OR was 1.63 (95 % CI, 1.15~2.31) compared with nonsmokers. After adjustment vitamin D, the odds ratio for women's metabolic syndrome in vitamin D deficiency was 1.44 (95 % CI, 1.11~1.87) compared with normal. Conclusion : Smoking status was associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adult males and decreased vitamin D level was associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adult females.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.129-144
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• 2012

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of emotional labor and to identify affecting factors on emotional labor among one university hospital employees. Material and Method : This study was based on cross-sectional, self-administered, and Internet-based survey. The survey was conducted from Mar. 2 to Mar. 28. 2011. Total subjects were 812 employees working in one university hospital. Total response rate was 61.5%. Modified evaluation tool was used, which was originally developed by Morris and Feldman, to measure the level of emotional labor among hospital personnel. In order to identify the affecting factors on high level of emotional labor, we conducted logistic regression. The SPSS statistical software package was used to perform the statistical analysis. All statistical tests were 2-sided and a p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results : Average score of emotional labor was 3.06. Employees(3.39) who are working at the emergency department and hemodialysis room indicated the highest level of emotional labor, followed by wards(3.14), department of administration(3.14), department of ambulatory cares(3.06). The factors affecting on the high level of emotional labor were the highest level of schooling, types of department, and types of personality(p<0.05). Conclusion : The survey results showed that there was significant level of emotional labors among hospital employees. Therefore, the efforts to reduce the level of emotional labors are needed.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2012

This study calculated kinetic parameters of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and developed a probabilistic model to estimate growth probabilities of E. coli O157:H7 on polyethylene cutting boards as a function of temperature and time. The surfaces of polyethylene coupons ($3{\times}5$ cm) were inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 NCCP11142 at 4 Log $CFU/cm^2$. The coupons were stored at 13 to $35^{\circ}C$ for 12 h, and cell counts of E. coli O157:H7 were enumerated on McConkey II with sorbitol agar every 2 h. Kinetic parameters (maximum specific growth rate, Log $CFU/cm^2/h$; lag phase duration, h; lower asymptote, Log $CFU/cm^2$; upper asymptote, Log $CFU/cm^2$) were calculated with the modified Gompertz model. Of 56 combinations (temperature${\times}$time), the combinations that had ${\geq}$0.5 Log $CFU/cm^2$ of bacterial growth were designated with the value of 1, and the combinations that had increases of <0.5 Log $CFU/cm^2$ were given the value 0. These growth response data were fitted to the logistic regression to develop the model predicting probabilities of E. coli O157:H7 growth. Specific growth rate and growth data showed that E. coli O157:H7 cells were grown at $28-35^{\circ}C$, but there were no obvious growth of the pathogen below $25^{\circ}C$. Moreover, the developed probabilistic model showed acceptable performance to calculate growth probability of E. coli O157:H7. Therefore, the results should be useful in determining upper limits of working temperature and time, inhibiting E. coli O157:H7 growth on polyethylene cutting board.