• Title/Summary/Keyword: preventive disease control

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Differences in the Levels of Gastric Cancer Risk Factors Between Nanjing and Minqing Counties, China

  • Xie, Xiang-Quan;Zheng, Kui-Cheng;Wu, Bing-Shan;Chen, Tie-Hui;Lai, Shan-Rong;Lin, Zai-Sheng;Aoki, Kazuo
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.47 no.5
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    • pp.281-287
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    • 2014
  • Objectives: In Fujian Province, China, gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality among all malignant tumors. Nanjing county and Minqing county are located in inland Fujian and have similar general demographics. However, the adjusted mortality rate of gastric cancer in Minqing was found to be much higher than that in Nanjing. We sought to explore factors associated with this increased risk of gastric cancer between the two counties. Methods: We recruited 231 and 224 residents from Nanjing and Minqing, respectively, and analyzed differences between their dietary habits, Helicobacter pylori infection rates, and concentrations of serum pepsinogen I, pepsinogen II, gastrin-17, and ratio of pepsinogen I:II. Results: Subjects in Minqing had more first-degree relatives who had been diagnosed with upper gastrointestinal tumor, more unhealthy dietary habits, a higher Helicobacter pylori positive rate, and greater proportion of abnormal serum gastrin-17 than those in Nanjing did. Conclusions: The factors that differed between these two counties might indicate that residents in Minqing have a higher risk for developing gastric cancer than those in Nanjing do.

Introduction and Evaluation of Communicable Disease Surveillance in the Republic of Korea (전염병 감시 체계 소개 및 평가)

  • Park, Ok;Choi, Bo-Youl
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.259-264
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    • 2007
  • Effective communicable disease surveillance systems are the basis of the national disease prevention and control. Following the increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases since late 1990s, the Korean government has strived to enhance surveillance and response system. Since 2000, sentinel surveillance, such as influenza sentinel surveillance, pediatric sentinel surveillance, school-based sentinel surveillance and ophthalmological sentinel surveillance, was introduced to improve the surveillance activities. Electronic reporting system was developed in 2000, enabling the establishment of national database of reported cases. Disweb, a portal for sharing communicable disease information with the public and health care workers, was developed. In general, the survey results on usefulness and attributes of the system, such as simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, timeliness, and representa-tiveness, received relatively high recognition. Compared to the number of paid cases of national health insurance, reported cases by national notifiable disease surveillance system, and various sentinel surveillance system, the result of the correlation analysis was high. According to the research project conducted by KCDC, the reporting rate of physicians in 2004 has also greatly improved, compared with that in 1990s. However, continuous efforts are needed to further improve the communicable disease surveillance system. Awareness of physicians on communicable disease surveillance system must be improved by conducting education and information campaigns on a continuous basis. We should also devise means for efficient use of various administrative data including cause of death statistics and health insurance. In addition, efficiency of the system must be improved by linking data from various surveillance system.

Current Status of Genomic Epidemiology Reseach (유전체 역학연구의 동향)

  • Lee, Kyoung-Mu;Kang, Dae-Hee
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.36 no.3
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    • pp.213-222
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    • 2003
  • Genomic epidemiology is defined as 'an evoking field of inquiring that uses the systematic application of epidemiologic methods are approaches in population-based studies of the impact of human genetic variation on health and disease (Khoury, 1998)'. Most human diseases are caused by the intricate interaction among environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility factors. Susceptibility genes involved in disease pathogenesis are categorized into two groups: high penetrance genes (i.e., BRAC1, RB, etc.) and lour penetranoe genes (i.e., GSTs, Cyps, XRCC1, ets.), and low penetrance susceptibility genes has the higher priority for epidemiological research due to high population attributable risk. In this paper, the summarized results of the association study between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and breast cancer in Korea were introduced and the international trends of genomic epidemiology research were reviewed with an emphasis on internee-based case-control and cohort consortium.

Community-acquired Legionnaires' Disease in a Newly Constructed Apartment Building

  • Ryu, Sukhyun;Yang, Kyungho;Chun, Byung Chul
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.50 no.4
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    • pp.274-277
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    • 2017
  • Objectives: Legionnaires' disease (LD) is a severe type of pneumonia caused by inhalation of aerosols contaminated with Legionella. On September 22, 2016, a single case of LD was reported from a newly built apartment building in Gyeonggi province. This article describes an epidemiologic investigation of LD and identification of the possible source of infection. Methods: To identify the source of LD, we interviewed the patient's husband using a questionnaire based on the Legionella management guidelines from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Water samples from the site were collected and analyzed. An epidemiological investigation of the residents and visitors in the apartment building was conducted for 14 days before the index patient's symptoms first appeared to 14 days after the implementation of environmental control measures. Results: Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 was isolated from the heated-water samples from the patient's residence and the basement of the apartment complex. Thirty-two suspected cases were reported from the apartment building during the surveillance period, yet all were confirmed negative based on urinary antigen tests. Conclusions: The likely source of infection was the building's potable water, particularly heated water. Further study of effective monitoring systems in heated potable water should be considered.

Factors Influencing Elders Preventive Behavior for Influenza A (H1N1) (노인의 신종 인플루엔자A (H1N1) 예방행위에 미치는 요인)

  • Yoon, Young-Ju;Hyun, Hye-Jin
    • Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.481-488
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: The purposes of this study were to examine the relations among anxiety, knowledge, health locus of control and preventive behavior, and to find factors related with preventive behavior. Methods: The subjects were 269 elderly people of over 65 living in C City. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS. Results: Health promoting behavior was significantly different according to chronic disease, contact with H1N1 patient and perceived health status. The variables that affected the level of preventive behavior were anxiety, knowledge, internal locus of control, external locus of control, chance locus of control and perceived health status. Conclusion: According to this study, promoting preventive behavior for H1N1 on the elderly builds up anxiety, knowledge, and health locus of control.