• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.183-188
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer (BC), the most common female cancer in Pakistan, is associated with a very high mortality. However, the roles of individual risk factors for BC among Pakistani women are still controversial. To assess potential risk factors for BC, a matched case-control study was conducted in two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: The study population included 297 pathologically confirmed incident cases of BC patients diagnosed between January 2009 and December 2010. 586 controls without any history of BC were matched on hospital and ${\pm}5$ years of ages. Results: Positive family history of BC (MOR=1.72; 95%CI: 1.10, 2.80 for first degree vs. none), single marital status (MOR=1.55; 95%CI: 1.10, 2.39 for single/divorced/widowed women vs. married women), older age at menopause (MOR=3.92; 95%CI: 2.52, 6.18 for menopausal women aged below 45 years, MOR=6.42; 95%CI: 3.47, 11.98 for menopausal women above 45 years of age compared with premenopausal women) conferred an increased risk of BC for women. Increasing parity decreased the risk of BC (MOR=0.90; 95%CI: 0.85, 0.97 for each live birth). Intake of Vitamin D supplements (MOR=0.30; 95%CI: 0.12, 0.81 for ${\leq}3$ years and MOR=0.27; 95%CI: 0.13, 0.56 for >3 years) was protective compared to non-users of Vitamin D. Conclusions: This study confirmed only few of the recognized risk factors in Pakistani women. The protective effect of Vitamin D is important from public health perspective and needs to be further explored through a randomized controlled trial.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2009

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with the percentage of body fat and bone mineral density (BMD). Methods: 886 students of the 4, 5, 6th grade were sampled from 6 elementary schools in Daejeon city from May to June 2005. Participants completed the questionnaire on socio-demographic factors, eating habits and physical activities, and had the measurements of body composition, BMD, height and weight. T-test, one-way ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to compare body composition and BMD among groups defined by study factors. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the factors related with percentage of fat and BMD in each sex. Results: When adjusting age, height, weight and family income, the amount of food intake and regular exercise including the days of exercise per week and the daily exercise duration were significantly associated with percentage of fat in boys, but not in girls. When adjusting the same variables, regular exercise, the days of exercise per week and the daily exercise duration were positively associated with BMD in both sexes. Conclusion: Regular exercise with one or more days per week were the common factor to decrease percentage of fat and increase BMD in school children. This showed that regular exercise program could improve the body composition of school children.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.195-206
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting quality of health care. Methods: The data were derived from the 2011-2013 Korea health panel survey (beta version 1.0). The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 with descriptive statistics, ${\chi}^2$-test, and multiple logistic regression analysis. In general characteristics, common factors influencing the quality of health care were age, marital status, education level, and subjective health status. In variables related to health care utilization, unmet healthcare needs, and limitation of dental care utilization were the significant factors affecting quality of health care. The results of this study show that various factors influence quality of health care. These findings can be used to develop strategies to improve health care.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.977-991
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to establish common indicators that constitute a "low-carbon green city" and determine their priorities from the perspective of Incheon Metropolitan City with a view to help develop its climate change strategy strategic city. Several major cities, domestic and overseas, were benchmarked to come up with preliminary indicators consisting of six areas, twenty two planning factors, and 74 indicators. In order to evaluate the validity and relevance of preliminary indicators, expert FGI (Focus Group Interview) was conducted that changed the numbers of final indicators to six areas, twenty two planning factors, and 82 indicators. Finally, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) was conducted to assign relative importance (i.e. weights) to each indicator. Through the layering process of AHP, the upper category of "field" and lower category of "planning factors" were set up as policy prerequisites for constructing a low-carbon green city (6 fields, 22 planning factors). The AHP results for the first level (fields), green city space was ranked first, followed by energy and resource circulation, green traffic, ecological preservation, green logistics, and governance. Among all planning factors, land use, energy efficiency, traffic system improvement, location planning, securing of ecological area, efficiency of logistics, and cooperative organization showed the highest priorities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3991-3995
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• 2015

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in Iranian women and fifth in men. The aims of this study were to investigate the relation of dietary factors and public health indicators to its development. Materials and Methods: The required information (2001-2006) about risk factors was obtained from the Non-Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (NCDSC) of Iran. Risk factor data (RFD) from 89,404 individuals (15-64 years old) were gathered by questionnaire and laboratory examinations through a cross sectional study in all provinces by systematic clustering sampling method. CRC incidence segregated by age and gender was obtained from Cancer Registry Ministry of Health (CRMH) of Iran. First, correlation coefficients were used for data analysis and then multiple regression analysis was performed to control for confounding factors. Results: Colorectal cancer incidence showed a positive relationship with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, lacking or low physical activity, high education, high intake of dairy products, and non-consumption of vegetables and fruits. Conclusions: We concluded that many dietary factors and public health indicators have positive relationships with CRC and might therefore be targets of preliminary prevention. However, since this is an ecological study limited by potential ecological fallacy the results must be interpreted with caution.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3927-3930
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• 2015

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal cancer and the incidence is increasing in many developing countries. While it can be detected early and even prevented through screening and removal of premalignant lesions, there are barriers to screening which include low level of knowledge and awareness of CRC. This study assessed the level of knowledge of CRC in Brunei Darussalam. Materials and Methods: A total of 431 (262 male and 161 female) subjects participated in this questionnaire study. Subjects were scored on their knowledge of signs/symptoms (maximum 10 correct answers) and known risk factors for CRC (maximum 10 correct answers) and were categorised into poor (0-2), moderate (3-4) and satisfactory (5-10). Comparisons were made between the various patient factors. Results: Overall, 54.1% could not name any CRC signs/symptoms or associated risk factors. Most were not aware of any screening modalities. The overall scores for CRC signs/symptoms and risk factors were $1.3{\pm}1.39$ (range 0-6) and $0.6{\pm}1.05$ (range 0-5) respectively. Overall, the breakdown of scores was: poor (78.1%), moderate (20.3%) and satisfactory (6.2%) for signs/symptoms and poor (93.2%), moderate (6.2%) and satisfactory (0.7%) for risk factors. Higher level of education, female gender and non-Malay race were associated with higher scores for both signs/symptoms and knowledge of screening modality; however the overall scores were low. Conclusions: Our study showed that the general knowledge of CRC in Brunei Darussalam is poor. Being female, with higher levels of education and non-Malay race were associated with higher scores, but they were still generally poor. More needs to be done to increase the public knowledge and awareness of CRC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1093-1096
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• 2012

Background: Cervical cancer is common among women worldwide. A multitude of risk factors aggravate the disease. This study was conducted to: (1) determine the prevalence and (2) make a comparative analysis of the socio-demographic and behavioural risk factors of cervical cancer and knowledge, attitude and practice between rural and urban women of North Bengal, India. Study Design: Community-based cross-sectional study. Methods: A survey (first in North Bengal) was conducted among 133 women in a rural area (Kawakhali) and 88 women in an urban slum (Shaktigarh) using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires. The respondents were informed of the causes (including HPV), signs and symptoms, prevention of cervical cancer and treatment, and the procedure of the PAP test and HPV vaccination. Results: The prevalence of risk factors like multiparity, early age of marriage, use of cloth during menstruation, use of condom and OCP, early age of first intercourse was 37.2%, 82%, 83.3%, 5.4%, 15.8% and 65.6% respectively. Awareness about the cause, signs and symptoms, prevention of cervical cancer, PAP test and HPV vaccination was 3.6%, 6.3%, 3.6%, 9.5% and 14.5% respectively. Chi-square testing revealed that in the study population, significant differential at 5% exists between rural and urban residents with respect to number of children, use of cloth/sanitary napkins, family history of cancer and awareness regarding causes of cervical cancer. Regarding KAP, again using chi-square tests, surprisingly, level of education is found to be significant for each element of KAP in urban areas in contrast to complete absence of association between education and elements of KAP in rural areas. Conclusions: A large number of risk factors were present in both areas, the prevalence being higher in the rural areas. The level of awareness and role of education appears to be insignificant determinants in rural compared to urban areas. This pilot study needs to be followed up by large scale programmes to re-orient awareness campaigns, especially in rural areas.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.174-180
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• 2018

Objective: Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) is one of the common nosocomial infections. As elderly population increases, the proper treatment has been emphasized. We investigated the risk factors associated with CDI unimprovement in elderly patients. Furthermore, we performed drug use evaluation of old CDI patients and oldest-old CDI patients. Methods: It was a retrospective study using electronic medical record at Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center (KBSMC) from January 2016 to December 2017. Seventy three patients aged 65 years or older, diagnosed with CDI by Clostridium difficile Toxin B Gene [Xpert] were screened and they were assessed for risk factors regarding unimprovement status. We also evaluated drug use evaluation in old patients ($65{\leq}age$<80) and oldest-old patients ($80{\leq}age$) by assessing the use of initial therapy, severity, dose, route, treatment course, days of use, total days of use and treatment outcome of initial therapy. Results: Out of 73 patients aged over 65 years, four patients were excluded because they did not receive any treatment. There were 31 improved patients and 38 unimproved patients after initial therapy. We were able to find out patients with surgical comorbidity or endocrine comorbidity (especially, diabetes mellitus) had 2.885 more risk of becoming unimproved than those patients without surgical comorbidity or endocrine comorbidity. Drug use evaluation for CDI was generally fair, but vancomycin as initial therapy is more recommended than metronidazole. Conclusion: Although age, antibiotics exposure, use of antacids are all important risk factors for CDI, our result did not show statistical significance for these risk factors. However, the study is meaningful because the number of elderly population keeps increasing and recently updated guideline suggests the use of vancomycin as drug of choice for CDI.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.29-46
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• 2019

This study analyzed the factors influencing the technology acceptance of the general public in the drones and ARs, one of the key technologies of the industry 4.0. The theoretical basis was the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model(UTAUT2), which uses performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation as factors common to both services. The price value factor was excluded considering that most ARs were free, and the perceived risk factors, including privacy, which were not in UTAUT2, were included because they are important factors for ICT technology acceptance. The hypothesis was tested by structure equation model. Social influence and hedonic motivation had a positive(+) effect on intention to use technology. On the other hand, in the case of effort expectancy, neither the AR nor the drone had a significant influence on intention to use technology. Furthermore, performance expectancy had a positive(+) effect on intention to use in AR, but no significant influence was found out in drones. On the contrary, in the case of the facilitating conditions, the influence of the drones was positive (+), but the relation of AR was not investigated. The perceived risk was tested for the negative (-) influence of use intention of AR, but no significant relationship was found out for the drones. Among the significant influencing factors, hedonic motivation was the most powerful factor in AR and drones. Theoretical and practical implications are presented based on these results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5861-5865
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• 2013

We investigated the distribution of HPV genotypes in Uyghur women in Xinjiang region of China, and behavioral factors which could predispose them to HPV infection. In this cross-sectional study, women aged 15-59 years were recruited by cluster sampling method in Yutian region in 2009. Liquid-based cytology samples were analyzed centrally for HPV genotype with a linear array detector. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify behavioral risk factors for HPV infection. A total of 883 Uyghur women were recruited successfully. The prevalence of high-risk HPV and low-risk HPV were 7.25% and 1.58%, respectively; the most common HPVs were HPV16, 51, 31, 39 and 58. We found that age of first sexual intercourse was a strong predictor for HPV infection (odds ratio of 4.01 for ${\leq}15$ years versus ${\geq}25$). Having sexual partners ${\geq}3$ was the second predictor (OR 3.69, 95% CI 2.24-7.16). Cleaning the vagina after sex showed an increased risk of HPV infection (OR 2.72; 95% CI 1.98-5.13); Using the condom showed protective factors for HPV infection (OR 0.36; 95%CI0.12-0.53). HPV16, 51, 31, 39 and 58 were the priority types; the age of first sexual intercourse was identified as a major risk factor for HPV infection. Other notable risks were number of sexual partners and cleaning the vagina after sex. Changing these behavioral risk factors could help to reduce the occurrence of cervical cancer in this population.