• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2020

Objectives: The most important occupational health activity is work environment measurement(WEM) along with the health examination. The preventive function of the WEM system could be achieved on the assumption that all subjected workplaces are performing correctly the WEM. To achieve properly the original purpose of WEM, we suggested a policy for subjected workplaces that they should register whether subjected or not. Methods: We made registration draft through reviewing laws, reports and thesis for WEM. And we conducted Focus Group Interview for industrial health experts using structured questionnaire about the registration. Results: There were 412 occupational deaths from 2013 to 2017. And it was found that only 130(31.6%) workplaces which involved in these occupational deaths had conducted the WEM. In order to operate the WEM system with effect, the subjected workplaces should register the subject status. Such registration must be completed at the stage of industrial accident insurance enrollment. Conclusions: Conducting WEM is the first step to prevent intoxication accident in workpalces. To operate properly WEM we should correctly understand subjected workplaces. So it is needed for all subjected workplaces to register whether they are subjected or not.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.4 s.48
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• pp.735-745
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• 1994

The incidence data (1991. 7. 1$\sim$1992. 6. 30) from the Implementation Study of Seoul Cancer Registry (ISSCR) were evaluated in terms of its completeness and validity. Two indicators for the completeness, Mortality/Incidence ratio (M/I ratio) and Age-specific Incidence Curve, showed fairy good registration throughout the age-sex specific strata, except the strata aged over 75 years old. The strata had very high M/I ratio (over 100%) and decreasing pattern of incidence, which suggested incomplete registration of cancer in this group. The active surveillance by a ISSCR staff improved the registration rate especially among elderlies. From the site specific M/I ratio, we found that liver cancer had oddly high M/I ratio. Since this high M/I ratio of liver cancer appears consistently in other reliable cancer registries, it is more like to be due to the high fatality of it rather than incomplete registration. The validity of the incidence data was assessed by three indicators; Histological Verification (HV%), Primary Site Unknown (PSU%), and Age Unknown (Age UNK%). The average HV% were 77% for men and 85% for women, which were slightly lower than those of other reliable cancer registries. This low HV% might be due to the considerable size of relative frequency of liver cancer in Korea, regarding the fact that the diagnosis of liver cancer is made mostly by non-biopsical radiologic methods (CT, Ultrasono, Angiography, MRI etc.). The level of PSU% and Age UNK% were in acceptable range, but not low enough, especially in terms of Age UNK%. Although ISSCR data had acceptable quality in general, it is needed to have more hospitals participate in the registry surveillance, to make registery data merged with death certificate data regulary, and educate the registration stans to be more competent and dedicated.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2004

Objectives : Previous studies showed that death certification by physicians was an important predictor to improve the quality of death certificate data in South Korea. This study was conducted to examine the proportion of death certificates issued by physicians and associated factors in South Korea from 1990 to 2002. Methods : Data from 3,110,883 death certificates issued between 1990 and 2002, available to the public from the National Statistical Office of Korea, were used to calculate the proportion of death certificates issued by physicians and to examine associated factors with logistic regression analysis. Results : The overall proportion of death certificates issued by physicians increased from 44.6% in 1990 to 77.6% in 2002 (mean: 63.5%). However, the proportion was greatly influenced by the deceased's age. In 2002, more than 90% of the deceased aged 51 or less were certified by physicians. A higher proportion was found among deceased who had tertiary education (college or higher) living in more developed urban areas. Conclusion : The information regarding the cause of death for younger, well-educated deceased in urban areas of South Korea may show a higher level of accuracy. Epidemiologic research using information on causes of death may well benefit from the continually increasing proportion of death certificates issued by physicians in the future in South Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1981-1986
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• 2015

Background: Knowledge of cancer incidences is essential for cancer prevention and control programs. Capture-recapture methods have been recommended for reducing bias and increasing the accuracy of cancer incidence estimations. This study aimed to estimate the completeness of gastric cancer registration by the capture-recapture method based on Ardabil population-based cancer registry data. Materials and Methods: All new cases of gastric cancer reported by three sources, pathology reports, death certificates and medical records that reported to Ardabil population-based cancer registry in 2006 and 2008 were enrolled in the study. The duplicate cases based on the similarity of first name, surname and fathers names were identified between sources. The estimated number of gastric cancers was calculated by the log-linear method using Stata 12 software. Results: A total of 857 new cases of gastric cancer were reported from three sources. After removing duplicates, the reported incidence rates for the years 2006 and 2008 were 35.3 and 32.5 per 100,000 population, respectively. The estimated completeness calculated by log-linear method for these years was 36.7 and 36.0, respectively. Conclusions: These results indicate that none of the sources of pathology reports, death certificates and medical records individually or collectively fully cover the incident cases of gastric cancer. We can obtain more accurate estimates of incidence rates using the capture-recapture method.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.673-677
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• 2013

Introduction: Capture-recapture methods have been suggested for reducing costs of disease registration as well as reducing bias in incidence estimations. This study aimed to estimate the gastric cancer incidence in the Tehran metropolis population during 2002-2006. Materials and Methods: We investigated new cases of gastric cancer reported by three sources; death certificates, pathology reports, and medical records to Tehran population-based cancer registry during 2002-2006. $G^2$ statistics and the two-source capture-recapture method were used to select the best-fitted log-linear model and to estimate incidence, respectively. EXCEL software version 2007 and SPSS software version 16 were used for this research. Results: The number of reported cases was 4,463, with an average age of 68.5 (${\pm}12.9$) years. We found the model that combined two sources of data including pathology reports and medical records and furthermore complemented by death certificates as the best model. The reported and the estimated incidences were 11.0 and 27.1 per 100,000 respectively. Conclusions: The incidence estimated by two-source capture-recapture method is about three times higher than the incidence reported by the sources under investigation. It is recommended to move towards the implementation of population-based cancer registration using various sources of data collection to achieve more accurate data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5681-5685
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• 2012

Three kinds of survival rates are generally used depending on the purpose of the investigation: overall, cause-specific, and relative. The differences among these 3 survival rates are derived from their respective formulas; however, reports based on actual cancer registry data are few because of incomplete information and short follow-up duration recorded on cancer registration. The aim of this study was to numerically and visually compare these 3 survival rates on the basis of data from the Nagasaki Prefecture Cancer Registry. Subjects were patients diagnosed with cancer and registered in the registry between 1999 and 2003. We calculated the proportion of cause of death and 5-year survival rates. For lung, liver, or advanced stage cancers, the proportions of cancer-related death were high and the differences in survival rates were small. For prostate or early stage cancers, the proportions of death from other causes were high and the differences in survival rates were large. We concluded that the differences among the 3 survival rates increased when the proportion of death from other causes increased.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.884-892
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• 1997

Currently, there are 100 community emergency centers which expect to provide professional emergency care like Level 1 trauma centers in U.S.A. To evaluate perforance of emergency centers, most studies have been widely adopted death rate based methods such as Trauma and Injury Severity Score(TRISS) and A Severity Characterization of Trauma(ASCOT). However, these methods are only applicable in situation where registration process of trauma patients is well established. Therefore, an alternative method should be applied to evaluate performance of emergency centers in Korea which does not have well-developed registration scheme. This study aims to develop new performance measures which are applicable to Korea and evaluate performance of 35 community emergency centers through new measures. The new measures are included that 'W-statistic' ; death rate calculated on the basis of International Classification based Injury Severity Score(ICISS), and 'the degree of severity' ; rate of severe trauma patients of each emergency medical centers. The study results can be summarized as follows. First, about 34% of sample emergency centers show they provide proper care in terms of their function. Second, tertiary hospitals, university hospitals, and hospitals located in Seoul show higher severity degree of patients and lower severity-adjusted death rate.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2008

Objectives : Period analysis estimates up-to-date survival rates of cancer patients. In this approach, analysis is restricted to recent time period by left-truncating all observations at the beginning of the period and right-censoring at its end. Here, we applied period analysis to examine changes in 5-year relative survival (RS) by age group for 1997 and for 2002. Methods : Using the National Cancer Incidence Database, 5-year RS was estimated for 1997 and 2002 in four age groups (15-54, 55-64, 65-74, and 75 years old and over) using period analysis. After excluding death certificate-only cases, patients with an unknown date of diagnosis or follow-up length, a total of 813,889 patients diagnosed with a first primary invasive cancer during 1992 2002 were included for analysis. Followup for vital status was included until 31 December 2002. Results : Five-year RS increased from 41.7% for 1997 to 46.7% for 2002. Increases in survival occurred in all age groups except in the 75 and over group. Conclusions : The age gradient in cancer prognosis seems to have widened between 1997 and 2002, a finding that requires further study of prognostic factors, including stage at diagnosis. Period analysis accurately estimates survival rates, especially for cancers with better prognosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3617-3619
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• 2012

Background: The completeness of cancer registration is a major validity index of any reported cancer incidence. The present study aimed to evaluate the esophageal cancer incidence registered in the Tehran Metropolitan Area Cancer Registry. Materials and methods: The data on esophageal cancer abstracted from three sources of 1) pathology departments, 2) medical records, and 3) death certificates during 2003 till 2007 were utilized. The completeness of the data sources were evaluated using coverage (defined as the proportion of a community population with esophageal cancer identified by the source) and density (defined as the proportion of non-empty fields of the data by source). Results: A total 1,404 cases of esophageal cancer were reported for the duration of the study. Pathology provided 771, medical records 432, and death certificates 609. The coverage was 0.55 for pathology, 0.31 for medical records, and 0.43 for death certificates. The respective density values were 0.82, 0.96 and 0.98, respectively. Pathology (0.45) was the most complete source followed by medical records (0.42), and death certificates (0.29). Discussion: A low degree of completeness dictates putting more effort into case finding plus abstracting data more thoroughly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2002

Objectives : To evaluate the accuracy of the registered cause of death in a county and its related factors. Methods : The data used in this study was based on 504 cases, in a county of Chonnam province, registered between January and December 1998. Study subjects consisted of 388 of the 504 cases, and their causes of death were established by an interview survey of the next of kin or neighbor and medical record surveys. We compared the registered cause of death with the confirmed cause of death, determined by surveys and medical records, and evaluated the factors associated with the accuracy of the registered cause of death. Results : 62.6% of the deaths were concordant with 19 Chapters classification of cause of death. external causes of mortality, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system showed the good agreement between the registered cause of death and the confirmed cause of death. The factors relating to the accuracy of the registered cause of death were the doctors' diagnosis for the cause of death (adjusted Odds Ratio: 2.67, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.21-5.89) and the grade of the public officials in charge of the death registry (adjusted Odds Ratio: 0.30, 95% CI=0.12-0.78). Conclusions : The accuracy of the registered cause of death was not high. It could be improved by using the doctors' diagnosis for death and improving the job specification for public officials who deal with death registration.