• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3309-3315
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• 2016

Helicobacter pylori as the second most common cause of gastric cancer in the world infects approximately half of the developed countries population and 80% of the population living in developing countries. Integrons as genetic reservoirs play major roles in dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report carriage of class 1 and 2 integrons and associated gene cassettes in H. pylori isolates from Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran among 110 patients with H. pylori infection. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for H. pylori strains were assessed by the micro broth dilution method. Class 1 and 2 integrons were detected using PCR. In order to determine gene cassettes, amplified fragments were subjected to DNA sequencing of both amplicon strands. The prevalence of resistance to clarithromycin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, tetracycline, amoxicillin, rifampin, and levofloxacin were 68.2% (n=75), 25.5% (n=28), 24.5% (n=27), 19.1% (n=21), 18.2% (n=20) and 16.4% (n=18), respectively. Frequency of multidrug resistance among H. pylori isolates was 12.7%. Class 2 integron was detected in 50 (45.5%) and class 1 integron in 10 (9.1%) H. pylori isolates. The most predominant gene cassette arrays in class 2 integron-bearing H. pylori were included sat-era-aadA1, dfrA1-sat2-aadA1, blaoxa2 and, aadB whereas common gene cassette arrays in class 1 integron were aadB-aadA1-cmlA6, aacA4, blaoxa2, and catB3. The high frequency of class 2 integron and multidrug resistance in the present study should be considered as a warning for clinicians that continuous surveillance is necessary to prevent the further spread of resistant isolates.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3235-3242
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• 2016

Background: Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) use in children with cancer is widespread. Health-care providers (HCP) need to acknowledge and address this need. This study explored and compared perspectives on CAM of HCP and parents of young patients with cancer in Indonesia. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using semi-structured questionnaires in HCP and parents of childhood cancer patients at an Indonesian academic hospital. Results: A total of 351 respondents participated: 175 HCP (response rate 80%) and 176 parents (response rate 80%). Parents were more likely than HCP to think that chemotherapy can cure cancer (80% compared to 69%, P=0.013). Nearly half of all parents (46%) and HCP (45%) doubted whether CAM can cure cancer. Parents were more likely than HCP to think that CAM can be helpful in childhood cancer treatment (54% compared to 35%, P=0.003). The most recommended CAM by HCP was self-prayer (93%). Reasons for recommending CAM were: hope for improvement of the child's condition (48%), patient wants to stop treatment (42%). Most discouraged CAM by HCP was by old-smart people (70%), the reasons being: lack of evidence for usefulness (77%), lack of CAM knowledge (75%). The proportion thinking that patients were unlikely to raise the CAM topic if they perceived that doctors were skeptical was higher in parents than in HCP (52% versus 1%) (P<0.001). Most HCP (71%) and parents (77%) acknowledged that their knowledge about safety and efficacy of CAM was inadequate (P=ns). The proportion that wanted to learn or read more about CAM was higher among parents than HCP (48% compared to 31%, P=0.002). Conclusions: HCP and parents have different perspectives on CAM use in children with cancer. HCP should enhance their CAM knowledge and encourage open communication about CAM with parents. If doctors' skepticism is perceived, parents are unlikely to raise CAM as a topic.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.126-136
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• 2018

A steel-plate concrete composite beam is composed of a steel plate, concrete and shear connector to combine inhomogeneous two materials. The steel plate is assembled by welding an existing composite beam. In this study, new steel-plate concrete composite beam, called a SPC Beam, was developed to reduce the shear connector and improve the workability. The SPC Beam was composed of folding steel plates and concrete, without a shear connector. The folding steel plate was assembled using high strength bolt instead of welding. To improve the workability in field construction, a hat-shaped Cap was attached to the junction with a slab. Monotonic load testing under two points was conducted under displacement control mode. The flexural strength of the specimen for positive moment and negative moment was calculated using the plastic stress distribution method. The test results showed that the flexural strength of the new SPC Beam had 80% of the strength of a complete composite beam. In addition, increasing the composite ratio was possible through clearance controls of the cap. In this study, the performance of the SPC Beam was verified through additional experiments and analyses with the cross-sectional shape and cap as variables, because the representative shape in the positive negative moment region is targeted.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.344-353
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the factors that influence the mental health help-seeking behavior in Korean and immigrant married women. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. Participants were 110 Koreans and 91 immigrants in D metropolitan city. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ${\chi}^2$-test, t-test, ANOVA, ANCOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression with SPSS 21.0 program. Mental health help-seeking behavior was significantly correlated with depression, belief toward mental illness, and perceived need for mental health service in Korean women, and with Korean fluency, belief toward mental illness, and social support in immigrant women. In the regression analysis results, the predictors of mental health help-seeking behavior were belief toward mental illness in Korean married women (10.5%), and Korean fluency, nationality, belief toward mental illness, and social support in immigrant women (59.0%). These findings should be considered when developing strategies for enhancing the mental health help-seeking behavior in married women.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.321-329
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence. Methods: The analysis was performed using data from the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a cross-sectional survey of the Korean civilian population conducted from 2010 to 2012. The analyses were restricted to males who were 40 years of age and above. Complex sample multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations of COPD prevalence with 25(OH)D and other factors. Results: $FEV_1/FEV_6$ varied significantly with smoking status, age, household income, education level, occupation, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity (p < 0.05). In univariate analysis, smoking status, BMI, household income, education level, and occupation showed association with COPD (p < 0.05), but vitamin D was not associated with COPD (p = 0.078). However, when adjusted with smoking status, household income, education level, occupation, BMI, age, and smoking index, the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D showed OR 1.643 (95% CI 1.161-2.236) compared to 3rd quartile (p = 0.024). Conclusion: A significant relationship was observed between serum concentration of 25(OH)D and COPD.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.453-462
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The inverse relationships of combined fruits and vegetables intake with blood pressure have been reported. However, whether there are such relationships with salty vegetables has rarely been investigated in epidemiologic studies. We evaluated the relation of combined and separate intake of fruits, vegetable intakes, and salty vegetables, as well as sodium and potassium, with blood pressure among the middle-aged and elderly populations. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The present cross-sectional analysis of a prospective cohort baseline survey was performed with 6,283 subjects (2,443 men and 3,840 women) and free of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Dietary data were collected by trained interviewers using food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: The significantly inverse linear trend of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was found in fruits and non-pickled vegetables (81.2 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 79.0 mmHg in the highest quintile, P for trend = 0.0040) and fruits only (80.9 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 79.4 mmHg in the highest quintile, P for trend = 0.0430) among men. In contrast, sodium and sodium to potassium ratio were positively related with blood pressure among men (DBP, 78.8 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 80.6 mmHg in the highest quintile, P for trend = 0.0079 for sodium; DBP, 79.0 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 80.7 mmHg in the highest quintile, P for trend = 0.0199 and SBP, 123.8 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 125.9 mmHg in the highest quintile for sodium/potassium). Kimchies consumption was positively related to DBP for men (78.2 mmHg in the lowest quintile vs 80.9 mmHg in the highest quintile for DBP, P for trend = 0.0003). Among women, these relations were not found. CONCLUSION: Fruits and/or non-pickled vegetables may be inversely, but sodium, sodium to potassium, and Kimchies may be positively related to blood pressure among men.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.259-269
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• 2007

Recently, dietary pattern analysis was emerged as an approach to examine the relationships between diet and risk of chronic diseases. This study was to identify groups with population who report similar dietary pattern in Korean genome epidemiology study (KoGES) and association with several chronic diseases. The cohort participants living in Ansung and Ansan (Gyeonggi province) were totally 10,038. Among those, 6,873 subjects with no missing values in food frequency questionnaire were included in this analysis. After combining 103 food items into 17 food groups, 4 dietary factors were obtained by factor analysis based on their weights. Factor 1 showed high factor loadings in vegetables, mushrooms, meats, fish, beverages, and oriental-cereals. Factor 2 had high factor loadings in vegetables, fruits, fish, and factor 3 had high factor loadings in cereal-oriental, cerial-western and snacks. Factor 4 showed positive high factor loadings in rice and Kimchi and negative factor loadings in mushrooms and milk and dairy products. Using factor scores of four factors, subjects were classified into 3 clusters by K-means clustering. We named those 'Rice and Kimchi eating' group, 'Contented eating' group, and 'Healthy and light eating' group depending on their eating characteristics. 'Rice and Kimchi eating' group showed high prevalence in men, farmers and 60s. 'Contented eating' group and 'Healthy and light eating' group had high prevalence in women, people living in urban area (Ansan Citizen), with high-school education and above, and a monthly income of one million won and more. 'Contented eating' group appeared lower distribution proportion in the sixties and 'Healthy and light eating' group does higher in the fifties. 'Contented eating' versus 'Rice and Kimchi eating', odds ratio for hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity significantly decreased after adjusting age and sex (OR=0.64, 0.73, and 0.85 respectively, 95% CI). Although our results were from a cross-sectional study, these imply that the dietary patterns were related to diseases.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1018-1025
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• 2002

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of weight control behaviors and their association with food and nutrient intake among Korean adults. Study subjects were 7,340 Koreans aged 20 years and older in the 1998 Korean Health and Nutrient Survey. Cross-sectional data were collected on weight control behavior and diet using structured questionnaire by interview. Analysis of variance following after Duncan's multiple range test was used to test the differences in food and nutrient intake among three different weight control behavior groups(weight reducing attempt, weight gaining attempt, none). Current weight control behaviors were reported by 32% of the study subjects. There were significant differences in weight control behaviors between male and female subjects; weight reducing practices were 7 times greater than weight gaining practices among female subjects while it was only 1.5 times among male subjects. Weight control behaviors were not consistently associated with food and nutrient intake among male and female subjects. Moreover, greater food and nutrient intake were observed among those who trying to reducing weight than those who did not try. Therefore, it Is necessary to educate the Korean adults that balanced food and nutrient intake with sustaind weight control effort is the ideal way to achieve healthy weight.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.619-628
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge level of pressure ulcer among hospital nurses through a cross-sectional survey by using the pressure ulcer knowledge assessment tool of Beitz et al.(1998). The total of subjects was 160 voluntary participants (60 were from Hospital A and 100 were from Hospital B) working at adult patients' units in two university hospitals located in the same city. None of the hospitals had expert nurses of pressure ulcer nor provided a regular pressure ulcer education program during the past one year. The survey tool consisted of 32 true-false items which were grouped into the risk factors knowledge category(13 items), the wound assessment knowledge category(4 items), and the treatment methods knowledge category(15 items). An internal consistency reliability test of the tool yielded an overall coefficient of 0.72; the coefficient for the risk factors knowledge category was 0.40, that for the wound assessment knowledge category was 0.33; that for the treatment knowledge category was 0.54. The main findings of the study are as follows. 1) Demographic characteristics of the two hospital nurses were similar except for the educational level(p=0.029) and the work units(p=0.001). These observations were maintained even if Hospital A and B were separately compared. 2) The knowledge level of the subjects about pressure ulcer in general was low as indicated by 53.3 points(of 100 possible points) on average. The knowledge level about treatment methods of pressure ulcer was the lowest as indicated by 47.0 points on average. 3) No correlation between the knowledge level of the pressure ulcer and the demographic characteristics of nurses was found except that the knowledge level of I.C.U. nurses was significantly higher(p=0.0003) than that of nurses in other units(p=0.2926) in the case of Hospital A. 4) The knowledge level of nurses in Hospital B was higher than for nurses in Hospital A. The reason was not identified, but it seems that it is related to the role of the I.C.U. or some other factors. The study results confirmed the existing literature that knowledge level of nurses about pressure ulcer is low regardless of age, educational level, or work experience. However, the working place(unit) affected the knowledge level. Further research on the exact reason for the differences in the knowledge level is needed in the future.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5927-5936
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• 2014

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Jordanians. Breast cancer patients suffer from several negative consequences after treatment and these include pain, fatigue, sexual problems, appearance and body image concerns, with psychological dysfunction. This could affect the patient quality of life and psychological well-being. To the best of our knowledge, there is no published quantitative data on the quality of life and psychological well-being of breast cancer patients in Jordan. The objective of this study was to obtain such data and assess predictors with calculated scores. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted among breast cancer patients in Jordan diagnosed in 2009 and 2010, assessment was performed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), the Breast Module (QLQ-BR23) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Clinical, demographic and psychosocial indicators that could predict patient quality of life scores were collected. Results: The number of patients interviewed was 236 (mean age=$50.7{\pm}10.7$ years). The mean Global Health score for the QLQ-C30 was $63.7{\pm}20.2$ SD. Among functional scales, "social functioning" scored the highest ($mean=78.1{\pm}28.6$ SD), whereas "emotional functioning" scored the lowest ($mean=59.0{\pm}SD\;33.5$). For the QLQ-BR23, the worst scores within the functional scales were for "body image" ($mean=52.1{\pm}36.8$ SD) and "future perspective" ($mean=52.9{\pm}38.5$ SD). The worst symptom was "upset by hair loss" ($mean=69.8{\pm}43.0$). The mean HADS scores was $18.{\pm}9.0$ SD. Out of study participants, 53% scored abnormal on the anxiety scale and 45% on the depression scale. Severe depression and severe anxiety were detected among 8% and 14% of study participants, respectively. Statistically significant predictors for individual scores were similar to those reported in published studies, such as the presence of recurrence since baseline, family history of cancer, low educational status, current social problems, extent of the disease, presence of financial difficulties, and employment status. Conclusions and Recommendations: Breast cancer survivors in Jordan have overall good quality of life scores when compared with patients from Western countries. However, their psychological wellbeing is more impaired. There is an urgent need for psychosocial support programs and psychological screening and consultation for breast cancer patients at hospitals of the Ministry of Health in Jordan.