• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4517-4520
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• 2012

Introduction: Northeastern Iran is known as a high risk area of upper gastrointestinal cancers. Recent reports have suggested a declining trend for these cancers as well as an increase in the incidence of other malignancies including breast cancer. Our present aim was to describe the epidemiological pattern of breast cancer in this region during 2004-2009. Methods: All new cancer cases from public and private diagnostic and therapeutic centers of Golestan province were registered. A structured questionnaire was prepared and used based on the standerds of the International Association of Cancer Registries. The international classification of diseases for oncology was considered for coding. Age standardized incidence rates (ASR) of breast cancer were calculated. Results: A total of 11,038 new cancer cases were registered during 2004-2009, of which, 1,101 (10%) were females with breast cancer. The median age of the breast cancer patients was 46 years. The ASR for breast cancer was 28 per 100,000 person-years. We found an unusual rapid increase in breast cancer rate at the age of 25 years. The ASR of breast cancer was significantly lower in females from Turkmen ethnicity and those from rural areas(P value <0.01). Conclusion: Our study showed high rate of breast cancer in Golestan province of Iran. We found an unusual peak of breast cancer in young women. So, the age of starting screening programs may need to be revised in this area. The rate of breast cancer was significantly lower in women from Turkmen ethnicity. Further studies are warranted to clarify the role of important determinants, especially regarding the ethnic disparity, on breast cancer in this region.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2009

Purposes: The objective of this study was to develop a management program for Korean elementary school students suffering from asthma, which would be based on the Australian Asthma-Friendly Schools (AFS) program. Methods: On the basis of the AFS program, we designed a 6-month pilot project for asthmatic students in two elementary schools in a rural area and one elementary school in an urban area of Korea. The pilot project consisted of the following processes: identifying students with asthma in a school, educating school staffs and the parents of an asthmatic child, registering those with asthma, and installing emergency kits for asthma attacks in school health rooms. In order to evaluate these processes, group discussions were held between project team members and school staffs in each area. In addition, we conducted a postal survey of 144 households having an asthmatic child. Results: The screening process adopted in this program resulted in the early diagnosis in asthma; however, it needs to be evaluated economically due to expensive diagnostic test for asthma. For the school nurses, asthma lessons were evaluated as being very helpful for their tasks, while teachers tended to take less interest in the program with only 45% of all teachers attending these lessons. Almost all participating parents reported that such lessons would be beneficial for the care of their child, even though only 24.2% of the survey respondents (122 households) attended the lessons. Installing emergency kits in school health rooms was regarded as a key feature of this project. The introduction of a register card containing more specific health records of asthmatic students was considered necessary to replace the existing list of students with asthma. Conclusion: This study has merit in that a Korean asthma-friendly schools program was developed for the first time, despite the many obstacles to such programs becoming more common.