• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2857-2870
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• 2015

Although the incidence of breast cancer in Asia remains lower than in North America, Western Europe, and Oceania, rates have been increasing rapidly during the past few decades, and Asian countries now account for 40% of breast cancer cases diagnosed worldwide. Breast cancer mortality has also increased among Asian women, in contrast to decreased mortality in Northern America, Western Europe, and Oceania. These increased rates are associated with higher prevalence of breast cancer risk factors (e.g., reduced parity, delayed childbirth, increased obesity) that have accompanied economic development throughout the region. However, Asian regions (western, south-central, south-eastern, and eastern) and countries differ in the types and magnitude of changes in breast cancer risk factors, and cannot be viewed as a single homogeneous group. The objective of this paper was to contrast the heterogeneous epidemiology of breast cancer by Asian regions and countries, and to suggest potential avenues for future research.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.18-21
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• 2010

Background: The kidney transplantation is increasing. The kidney donation of a living donor is more common in Korea than in other countries. Underwriters may encounter a case of a kidney donor. So we need to determine medical risk for a living kidney donor. Methods: Comparative mortality figures were calculated from a source article using mortality analysis methods. Results: Mortality Ratio of a living kidney donor was estimated to 106%, and Excess Death Rate was 0.89 per 1000. Discussion: A healthy kidney donor is quite within standard, even better in terms of medical risk.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.679-694
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• 2022

Mortality risk is a significant threat to individual life, and quantifying the risk is necessary for making a national population plan and is a traditionally fundamental task in the insurance and annuity businesses. Like other advanced countries, the sustainability of life pensions and the management of longevity risks are becoming important in Asian countries entering the era of aging society. In this study, mortality and pension value sustainability trends are compared and analyzed based on national population and mortality data, focusing on four Asian countries from 1990 to 2017. The result of analyzing the robustness and accuracy of generalized linear/nonlinear models reveals that the Cairns-Blake-Dowd model, the nonparametric Renshaw-Haberman model, and the Plat model show low stability. The Currie, CBD M5, M7, and M8 models have high stability against data periods. The M7 and M8 models demonstrate high accuracy. The longevity risk is found to be high in the order of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, which is in general inversely related to the population size.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.158-164
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• 2003

Recently, there are much concerns about ginseng as disease therapeutics. There are no epidemiologic study on relationship between ginseng intake and all cause mortality based from general population Cohort. This study sought to examine relationships between ginseng intake and all cause mortality from Kangwha Cohort data. From March 1985 through December 1999, 2696 males and 3595 females who were aged 55 or over as of 1985 were followed up. We calculate the mortality rate, standardized mortality ratio and risk ratios by ginseng intake. Cox proportional hazard model was used to adjust various confounding factors. Ginseng intake group had the lower all cause mortality(Risk ratio(RR)=0.88, 95%Confidence Interval(CI)=0.79-0.97) among males. Increasing ginseng intake, lower all cause mortality(Low ginseng intake: RR=0.88, 95%CI=0.79-0.98; high ginseng intake : RR=0.87, 95%CI=0.75-1.00) among males. There is no statistically significant difference between ginseng intake and mortality among females. The results of this study suggests that ginseng intake may prolong the human life among males.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2643-2648
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• 2016

Background: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels are lower in Japanese compared with Western subjects. Since it is uncertain whether hsCRP is a potent predictor of mortality at low CRP concentrations, the present study examined associations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a large population of Japanese. Materials and Methods: Subjects were 4,737 men and 6,343 women aged 49-76 years participating in the baseline survey of an ongoing cohort study of lifestyle-related diseases between February 2004 and July 2006. Hazard ratios for all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with hsCRP levels were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: A total of 436 all-cause deaths occurred during a median follow-up of 8 years. The main cause of death was cancer. In men, hsCRP levels were positively associated with the risk of all-cause mortality as well as deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD). All-cause mortality hazards for the 2nd (0.34-0.84 mg/L) and the 3rd (${\geq}0.85mg/L$) tertiles of hsCRP were 1.27 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93-1.73) and 1.75 (1.30-2.37), respectively (p for trend=0.001). In women, increased risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with elevated hsCRP levels was observed, but the associations were not statistically significant. Conclusions: HsCRP may be an independent predictor of all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality in apparently healthy Japanese men, but not women. The differential effect of hsCRP in predicting mortality risk by sex warrants further investigation.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.393-406
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• 2015

We examine how to model mortality risk using the adaptation of the mean-reverting processes for the two factor model proposed by Cairns et al. (2006b). Mortality improvements have been recently observed in some countries such as United Kingdom; therefore, we assume long-run mortality converges towards a trend at some unknown time and the mean-reverting processes could therefore be an appropriate stochastic model. We estimate the parameters of the two-factor model incorporated with mean-reverting processes by a Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to fit United Kingdom mortality data from 1991 to 2015. We forecast the evolution of the mortality from 2014 to 2040 based on the estimation results in order to evaluate the issue price of a longevity bond of 25 years maturity. As an application, we propose a method to quantify the speed of mortality improvement by the average mean reverting times of the processes.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-20
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• 2004

This study is to examine relationships of several socioeconomic position indicators with mortality risk in a nationwide longitudinal study of South Korea. The Korea Labor & Income Panel Study, conducted on a probability sample of urban South Korean households by Korea Labor Institute, contains date of death information for the decedents which were used to estimate relative risks of mortality and their $95\%$ confidence intervals (CI) with Cox regression analysis. A total of 125 men and women among 8,415 subjects died between 1998 and 2002. Socioeconomic differentials in mortality were observed after adjustment for sex and age. Those with less than 12-year education had 1.90 times $(95\%\;CI=1.25-2.91)$ greater mortality risk than those with 12-year education or more. Greater mortality risks were also found among those with low occupational class and manual occupation. The magnitude of differentials in mortality risks between occupational class were similar in two different approaches to measuring women's occupational class: (1) approach 1 where women, married or not, retain their own occupational class, and (2) approach 2 where married women are assigned their husbands' occupational class. Relative risks of dying among those with low household Income were 1.62 $(95\%\; CI=1.08-2.42)$ compared with the counterparts. Those who reported economic hardship at the time of survey in 1998 had greater risk of mortality $(RR=1.83,\;95\%\;CI=1.21-2.78)$ than those who did not. In conclusion, increased social discourse and policy discussions about these health inequalities are needed in Korean society. Future studies should explore the causes and mechanisms of socioeconomic mortality inequalities.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.346-354
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• 2014

Objectives: Although a number of epidemiologic studies have examined the association between air pollution and mortality, data limitations have resulted in fewer studies of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ${\leq}2.5{\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$). We conducted a time-series study of the acute effects of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ${\leq}10{\mu}m$($PM_{10}$) and $PM_{2.5}$ on the increased risk of death for all causes and cardiovascular mortality in Seoul, Korea from 2006 to 2010. Methods: We applied the generalized additive model (GAM) with penalized splines, adjusting for time, day of week, holiday, temperature, and relative humidity in order to investigate the association between risk of mortality and particulate matter. Results: We found that $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ were associated with an increased risk of mortality for all causes and of cardiovascular mortality in Seoul. A $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in the concentration of $PM_{10}$ corresponded to 0.44% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.25-0.63%), and 0.95% (95% CI: 0.16-1.73%) increase of all causes and of cardiovascular mortality. A $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in the concentration of $PM_{2.5}$ corresponded to 0.76% (95% CI: 0.40-1.12%), and 1.63% (95% CI: 0.89-2.37%) increase of all causes and cardiovascular mortality. Conclusion: We conclude that $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ have an adverse effect on population health and that this strengthens the rationale for further limiting levels of $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ in Seoul.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.845-873
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• 2008

This study estimates the VSL(value of a statistical life) as well as the WTP(willingness to pay) for mortality risk reduction using sample selection model with data on liver cancer examination which is associated with little possibility of multi-purpose(i.e. joint production) in averting behavior. The marginal benefits of mortality risk reduction are estimated by applying for household production function model with medical expense and the time required for medical examination of liver cancer. Individuals are more likely to take liver cancer test if they are male, older, higher educated, those with spouse, smoker, more income of household, and more anxious about their health. The costs of liver cancer examination are statistically significantly affected with expected signs by size of mortality risk reduction, sex, period of eduction, those with spouse, and household income. The marginal effect of mortality risk reduction owing to taking liver cancer examination is estimated at 321,097 won. The costs of liver cancer examination are increased by 905 won with more one year of education period and by 1,743 won with more one million won in household income. On liver cancer examination, male spends more 12,310 won than female and those with spouse pay more 7,969 won than those without spouse. Therefore the VSL from mortality risk reduction due to liver cancer examination is 321.10 million won at mean size of mortality risk reduction and mean cost of liver cancer examination. The results of sensitivity tests on costs and effects of liver cancer test shows that the VSLs are estimated in a range from 160.55 million won to 642.19 million won.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.51-65
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• 2003

Objectives： To examine the regional mortality differences in The Republic of Korea according to geographic location. Methods： All 232 administrative districts of the Republic of Korea in 1998 were studied according to their geographic locations by dividing each district into three categories； "metropolis," "urban," and "rural". Crude mortality rates for doth sexes from total deaths as well as the three major causes of death in Korea (cardiovascular disease, cancer, and external causes) were calculated with raw data from the "1998 report on the causes of death statistics" and resident registration data. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated using the indirect standardization method. Poisson regression analyses were performed to examine the effects of geographic locations on the risk of death. To correct for the socioeconomic differences of each region, the percentage of old ($\geq$ 65 years old) population, the number of privately owned cars per 100 population, and per capita manufacturing production industries were included in the model. Results： Most SMRs were the lowest in the metropolis and the highest in the rural areas. These differences were more prominent in men and in deaths from external causes. In deaths from cancer in women, the rural region showed the lowest SMR. In Poisson regression analysis after correcting for regional socioeconomic differences, the risk of death from all causes significantly increased in both urban (OR＝1.111) and rural (OR＝1.100) regions, except for rural women, compared to the metropolis region. In men, the rural region showed higher risk (OR＝1.180) than the urban region (OR＝1.l51). For cardiovascular disease and cancer, significant differences were not found between geographic locations, except in urban women for cardiovascular disease (OR＝1.151) and in rural women for cancer (OR＝0.887), compared to metropolis women. In deaths from external causes, the risk ratios significantly increased in both urban and rural regions and an increasing tendency from the metropolis to the rural region was clearly observed in both sexes. Conclusions： Regional mortality differences according to geographic location exist in The Republic of Korea and further research and policy approaches to reduce these differences are needed. to reduce these differences are needed.