• Korean Public Health Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.83-85
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• 2018

As the main aim of infectious disease epidemiology is to prevent a pathogen transmission, traditional epidemiological studies have focused on the evaluation of individual-level risk factors. But group-level factors as well as individual-level are important in understanding and controlling transmission of infectious diseases, especially sex-transmitted infectious diseases. Multi-level analysis (MLA) is known as a powerful analytical tool for investigating both levels simultaneously. While new cases of HIV/AIDS in Korea are increasing annually, it is urgently needed to establish research system for MLA led by Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.116-124
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• 2022

Epidemiological studies typically examine the causal effect of exposure on a health outcome. Standardization is one of the most straightforward methods for estimating causal estimands. However, compared to inverse probability weighting, there is a lack of user-centric explanations for implementing standardization to estimate causal estimands. This paper explains the standardization method using basic R functions only and how it is linked to the R package stdReg, which can be used to implement the same procedure. We provide a step-by-step tutorial for estimating causal risk differences, causal risk ratios, and causal odds ratios based on standardization. We also discuss how to carry out subgroup analysis in detail.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.73-77
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• 2013

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are top priorities for cancer control in Korea. In terms of epidemiological, population-health and economic burden, GI cancers such as stomach, liver and colorectal cancers have been top four cancers in the nation during the past decade and this trend is likely to continue in the near future. In order to reduce the great burden of GI cancer in Korea, the nation might need the following strategies: (1) to put more focus on primary prevention on infection/diet and related research; (2) to improve screening rates for colorectal and stomach cancers, and conduct more cost-effectiveness analysis of these screening programs, e.g., Fecal Occult Blood Test vs. colonoscopy; (3) to establish a more consistent and integrative cost-effectiveness analysis system for new cancer treatments and anticancer drugs; and (4) to place more emphasis on hospice and other palliative care of GI cancer, as well as on the etiology, staging and treatment of pancreas cancer with its poor survival rate.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was to find epidemiological trends in the prevalence of allergic diseases among children and adolescents in Jeju Province, Korea. Methods: Two questionnaire surveys of the same method were conducted, respectively, in 2008 and in 2013 with five years' interval with 1,296 participants in 2008 and 878 in 2013 who were elementary and secondary students sampled at random from the same five schools. 'International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC)' was applied to the parents with their written consent to the survey. Results: The results of analysis showed an increasing trend in the prevalence of lifetime asthma (8.6% in 2008 and 10.4% in 2013) and in the prevalence of lifetime allergic rhinitis (25.3% in 2008 and 31.1% in 2013) (p=.003), and a decreasing trend in the prevalence of lifetime atopic dermatitis (32.0% in 2008 and 26.8% in 2013) (p=.011). Conclusion: This research showed an increasing trend in the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among children and adolescents in Jeju Province compared to that 5 years ago, but represented a declining trend in the prevalence of atopic dermatitis.

• Journal of Korean Dental Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2008

Purpose : This epidemiological research was conducted to investigate the relationship between the groups of TMD and the behavioral, psychological, and physical symptoms through RDC/TMD. Subjects and Methods : The subjects of this research were the 286 patients who had visited Seoul National University Bundang Hospital; their common chief complaint was temporomandibular discomfort. The mean age of the patients was 32.9 from 11 to 85, and the number of men and women was 67 and 219, respectively. The patients were examined through clinical and radiological methods and diagnosed by 1 investigator. They were divided into 3 groups: myogenous group (group 1), arthrogenous group (group 2), and combined group (group 3). The behavioral, psychological, and physical symptoms were evaluated through questionnaires on RDC/TMD. Specific items were selected to calculate the graded chronic pain (characteristic pain intensity, disability points), jaw disability, depression, and non-specific physical symptoms (pain items included/excluded) in the questionnaire. One-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test, and chi-square test were applied as statistical methods. Results : As a result of classifying temporomandibular disorder in this study, the patients were distributed as follows: 9.1% of group 1, 79.7% of group 2, and 11.2% of group 3. In the analysis of graded chronic pain (characteristic pain intensity, disability points), jaw disability, and non-specific physical symptoms (pain items included/excluded), group 3 had the highest score, and the difference was significant (p<0.001). Moreover, the depression score of group 3 was significantly higher than groups 1 and 2 (p<0.05). Note that that the second order of jaw disability score was group 2, on the other hand, those of the other groups were group 1. Conclusion : Myofascial pain could be assumed to be related closely to the behavioral, psychological, and physical symptoms except jaw disability compared to joint pain through RDC/TMD.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.15-25
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• 2011

Objectives: The present study examined whether smoking rate has declined in 1992-2006 and who the high risk groups were on industry classification and employment type. Methods: Data from 91,263 persons aged 25-64 years were analyzed from three rounds of the Social Statistical Surveys of Korea between 1992 and 2006. Industry indicators were divided by the 9th Korean Standard Industrial Classification. Age-adjusted prevalence of smoking was calculated. Prevalence ratios(PR) and differences(PD) were estimated using log-binomial regression analysis. Results: Age-adjusted prevalence of smoking decreased between 1992 and 2006, specially the smoking prevalence of regular employees decreased most. PD in age-adjusted prevalence of smoking were the biggest between regular and daily employees. PR of the temporary employees', daily employees', self-employed persons' in order was wider than that of regular employees. PR increased significantly increased between 1999 and 2006 for those in manufacturing, construction, wholesale & retail trade, service industries. Increases in PR(regular/irregular) for women in service industry were statistically significant. Conclusions: Despite reducing overall cigarette smoking rates in males, the smoking rate was not reduced equally by industry classification and employment type in both genders. More adjustable antismoking policies and consideration of employment type are requested to reduce inequalities in smoking.

• 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.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1211-1217
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• 2014

Background: Cancer in infants younger than one year of age represents a unique problem with distinct epidemiological, clinical and genetic characteristics compared with older age groups. No report is yet available from Iran regarding epidemiological and survival rate of cancers diagnosed in this age group. Materials and Methods: The population under study comprised of patients which were diagnosed and admitted to Ali-Asghar hospital between years 1996-2005. In total, 287 infants were included in the retrospective descriptive survey. Patient files were evaluated for age of patient at the time of diagnosis, sex, geographical residence, consanguinity of parents, histological diagnosis, site of cancer involvement, type of therapy, date of last follow-up and cause of death (if applicable). Results: The average age at the time of diagnosis was 7.2 months old. The most frequent malignancy was retinoblastoma (44%), followed by leukemia (19%) and neuroblastoma (10%), with five-year overall survival rates of 77.7%, 41% and 90%, respectively Parents of 40 infants (13.9%) had consanguinity relationships. Conclusions: Although we cannot make any conclusions regarding the incidence of infant cancer subtypes based on this study, survival rates for major types were similar to the developed countries, which signifies strict adherence to standards of care in Ali-Asghar hospital, the main infant cancer care centre in Iran. A Childhood Cancer Registry with high-resolution data collection and also advanced genetic testing is advocated for in-depth analysis of variation in incidence and survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1201-1206
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• 2015

Background: Tobacco is consumed in both smoking and smokeless forms in India. About 35-40% of tobacco consumption in India is in the latter. The study objective was to describe the association between chewing tobacco and adult mortality. Materials and Methods: A case-control study was conducted in urban (Chennai city) and rural (Villupuram district) areas in Tamil Nadu state in South India. Interviewed in 1998-2000 about 80,000 families (48,000 urban and 32,000 rural) with members who had died during 1995-1998. These were the cases and their probable underlying cause of death was arrived at by verbal autopsy. Controls were 600,000 (500,000 urban, 100,000 rural) individuals from a survey conducted during 1998-2001 in the same two study areas from where cases were included. Results: Mortality analyses were restricted to non-smoking non-drinkers aged 35-69. The age, sex, education and study area adjusted mortality odds ratio was 30% higher (RR:1.3, 95%CI:1.2-1.4) in ever tobacco chewers compared to never chewers and was significant for deaths from respiratory diseases combined (RR:1.5, 95%CI:1.4-1.7), respiratory tuberculosis (RR:1.7, 95%CI:1.5-1.9), cancers all sites combined (RR:1.5, 95%CI:1.4-1.7) and stroke (RR:1.4, 95%CI:1.2-1.6). Of the cancers, the adjusted mortality odds ratio was significant for upper aero-digestive, stomach and cervical cancers. Chewing tobacco caused 7.1% of deaths from all medical causes. Conclusions: The present study is the first large study in India analysing non-smoking non-drinkers. Statistically significant excess risks were found among ever tobacco chewers for respiratory diseases combined, respiratory tuberculosis, stroke and cancer (all sites combined) compared to never tobacco chewers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5701-5707
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• 2014

Background: Salivary gland tumours, which account for approximately 3% of head-neck cancers, are a heterogeneous group and thus it is difficult to identify their epidemiological characteristics. The aim of this study is to determine demographic features and histopathologic distribution of parotid neoplasms in a large sample from Turkey. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively on 136 parotidectomy materials from operations between May 2009-May 2013. Age, gender, tumor diameter, histopathological diagnosis and surgical margin status were recorded. Results: The benign cases were 112 (82.4%), while the malignancies were 24 (17.6%). The accuracy rate of FNAC was 91%. There were 46 (33.8%) male and 90 (66.2%) female patients. Female/male ratio (M/F=0.5) was two, the Warthin (WT) tumor being more apparent in males (p<0.05). Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) was detected most frequently among benign pathologies at 61.6% (69/112), while the Warthin Tumor (WT) was detected as the second most frequent tumor at 20.5% (23/112). Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (Ca ex PA) were detected at equal frequency at 20.8% (5/24) among malign tumors. These were followed by acinic cell carcinoma at 16.7% (4/24). While the surgical margin was positive in ten patients with malignant tumors (41.7%), all of the benign tumors were negative (p<0.01). No significant difference was detected in the age-gender of patients, tumor size and distribution of sites among benign and malignant groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: Pleomorphic adenoma is the most frequently reported benign tumor almost in all global literature. Yet, the distribution of malignant tumors displays geographical differences. Based on these data, we believe that our findings will provide a significant contribution to future epidemiological studies. We think that it will be beneficial to generate awareness on parotid tumors and ensure a fight against smoking as with all head-neck cancers.