• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1895-1903
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• 2013

Background: It is well established that a healthy lifestyle is of benefit in the prevention of diseases such as cancer and promotion of well-being. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine lifestyle practice and associated factors among university students in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted over six months from November 2011 until May 2012 among the students from the Management and Science University. This study was approved by its ethical committee, the students being explained the objective and invited to participate. A consent form was signed by all study participants. Questionnaire was distributed randomly to the students of the five faculties through their lecturers in different faculty. For univariate analysis t-test and ANOVA test were performed. Multiple linear regression used for multivariate analysis using SPSS 13.0. Results: A total number of 1100 students participated with a mean age of $22.1{\pm}2.21$ (SD) years. The majority were 22 years or younger (56.3%), female (54%), Malay (61.5%), single (92.3%), with family monthly income ${\geq}5000$ Ringgit Malaysia (41.2%). Regarding lifestyle, about were 31.6% smokers, 75.6% never drank alcohol and 53.7% never exercised. Multivariate analysis showed that age, sex, race, parent marital status, participant marital status, type of faculty, living status, smoking status, exercise, residency, brushing teeth, fiber intake and avoid fatty food significantly influenced the practice of drinking alcohol among university students (p=0.006, p=0.042, p<0.001, p=0.003, p=0.002, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.003, p<0.001; respectively). It similarly showed that sex, race, parent marital status, participant marital status, monthly family income, exercise, residency, brushing teeth and fiber intake significantly influenced the practice of sun protection (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.017, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively) and that age, sex, parent marital status, participant marital status, type of faculty, living status, exercise, taking non-prescribed medication, brushing the teeth, coffee consumption and fiber intake were significantly influenced the practice of fruits consumption (p=0.008, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.002, p<0.001, P<0.001; respectively). Conclusions: This study showed a poor practice of healthy lifestyle among university students. Therefore universities should emphasize a healthy lifestyle in all faculties as a required subject. Socio-demographic characteristics significantly influenced practice and thus should be considered when planning preventive measures among university students. Frequent campaigns and educational seminars are to be encouraged.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1747-1753
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• 2013

Background: It is projected that low and middle-income countries will bear a major burden of tobacco related morbidity and mortality, yet, only limited information is available on the determinants of smoking initiation among youth in Africa. This study aimed to assess the determinants of smoking initiation and susceptibility to future smoking among a population of high school school students in Lagos, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Baseline data from an intervention study designed to assess the effect of an anti-smoking awareness program on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescents was analyzed. The survey was carried out in six randomly selected public and private secondary schools in local government areas in Lagos state, Nigeria. A total of 973 students completed self-administered questionnaires on smoking initiation, health related knowledge and attitudes towards smoking, susceptibility to future smoking and other factors associated with smoking. Results: Of the respondents, 9.7% had initiated smoking tobacco products with the predominant form being cigarettes (7.3%). Males (OR: 2.77, 95%CI: 1.65-4.66) and those with more pro-smoking attitudes (OR: 1.44, 95%CI: 1.34-1.54) were more likely to have initiated smoking. Those with parents and friends who are smokers were 3.47 (95%CI: 1.50-8.05) and 2.26 (95%CI: 1.27-4.01) times more likely to have initiated smoking. Non-smoking students, in privately owned schools (OR: 5.08), with friends who smoke (5.09), with lower knowledge (OR: 0.87) and more pro-smoking attitudes (OR 1.13) were more susceptible to future smoking. In addition, respondents who had been sent to purchase cigarettes by an older adult (OR: 3.68) were also more susceptible to future smoking. Conclusions: Being male and having parents who smoke are predictors of smoking initiation among these students. Consistent with findings in other countries, peers not only influence smoking initiation but also influence smoking susceptibility among youth in this African setting. Prevention programs designed to reduce tobacco use among in-school youth should take these factors into consideration. In line with the recommendations of article 16 of the WHO FCTC, efforts to enforce the ban on the sales of cigarettes to minors should be also emphasised.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.7-14
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• 2001

Cases of green tobacco sickness were described. During the cutting of tobacco plants throughout harvest, four cases of green tobacco sickness occurred in August 2001, Korea. The range of age was 42-55 years. The most frequent symptoms included dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, headache, and difficulty breathing. All affected individuals worked in fields of wet tobacco, where their clothes became wet from moisture on the plants or sweating. They were all healthy, except one with hypertension. They are all non-smokers. They recovered after fluid and antiemetic administrations within two days. Most of doctors misdiagnosed their symptoms as a pesticide poisoning or heat injury. Green tobacco sickness is a condition that has long been known as an occupational health risk among tobacco harvesters. Nicotine poisoning by dermal absorption is reported to be the cause of green tobacco sickness. In Korea, there are many tobacco harvesters, and most of them may be sticken with green tobacco sickness. But, no case of green tobacco sickness has been reported. We report cases of green tobacco sickness occurred to the tobacco harvesters with a review of articles.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2016

Purpose: This research is performed through the analysis of the dental technology students' life-style factors of their daily lives that have a close relation with health, and the self-reported symptoms which are related to psychosomatic diseases, for the production of basic data for the change of life-styles and the development of educational programmes. Methods: This research has been performed through questionnaires from the beginning of October of 2014 till the end of November through the Dental Technology students of G-do, chosen by random sampling method after informed consent, where out of the 270 papers, 258 results were used for the analysis. Results: Firstly, the results of the research was as follows: Non-smokers accounted for 61.2%, student who did not do regular physical activities accounted for 50.4%, students who had sleeping hours of 6 to 7 hours accounted for 35.7%, students who eat snacks accounted for 63.2%, students who eat breakfast once to twice a week accounted for 30.6%, students who had an average number of drinks of once to twice a week accounted for 39.9%, and students with BMI of '$18.5^{\circ}{{\neq}}22.9$' accounted for 56.2%, being the highest. Secondly, in gender, smoking (p<.001), regular physical activity (p<.001), BMI (p<.001), eat snacks (p<.05), average number of drinks (p<.05), and of the health check-up, eat breakfast (p<.05), of the year level, eat snack (p<.01), BMI (p<.01), hours of sleep (p<.05), of major satisfaction, regular physical activity (p<.01), and BMI (p<.05), and there was a significant statistical difference, but there were no significant statistical difference in religion. Thirdly, of the bodily self-reported symptoms of the correlation analysis within the life-style variables and the self-reported symptoms, multiple subjective symptoms (I), respiratory (A), eye and skin (B), and digestive organs (C) were the highest in the correlation analysis with regular physical activity (p<.01), and of mental health, impulsiveness (H), mental instability (J), and depression (K) showed highest results in correlation analysis with regular physical activity (p<.01, p<.05), lie scale (L) and irregular and life (G) with eat breakfast (p<.01), and aggressiveness (F) with BMI (p<.01), showed highest results in correlation analysis. Fourthly of the Dental technology students' bodily self-reported symptoms, life-style factors which had a statistically significant effect appeared to be regular physical activity (p<.001) and BMI (p<.05), and of the mental self-reported symptoms, causes that did not have statistically significant effect appeared to be regular physical activity (p<.05) and eat breakfast (p<.05). Conclusion: This research concludes that in order to develop correct life-style habits for health promotion and reduce self-reported symptoms related to the Dental Technology students' diseases, education for the recognition of the necessity of self health promotion must be conducted, and a education programme scheme for the Dental technology curriculum for practicing the correct life-style habits in daily life is required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7967-7973
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• 2015

Background: The abrupt rise of colorectal cancer in developing countries is raising concern in healthcare settings. Studies on assessing relationships with modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in the Pakistani population have been limited. The present investigation was designed to examine associations of dietary practices, addictive behavior and bowel habits in developing colorectal cancer (CRC) among patients in a low-resource setup. Materials and Methods: An age-gender matched case control study was conducted from October 2011 to July 2015 in Karachi, Pakistan. Cases were from the surgical oncology department of a public sector tertiary care hospital, while their two pair-matched controls were recruited from the general population. A structured questionnaire was used which included questions related to demographic characteristics, family history, dietary patterns, addictive behavior and bowel habits. Results: A family history of cancer was associated with a 2.2 fold higher chance of developing CRC. Weight loss reduced the likelihood 7.6 times. Refraining from a high fat diet and consuming more vegetables showed protective effects for CRC. The risk of CRC was more than twice among smokers and those who consumed Asian specific addictive products as compared to those who avoid using these addictions (ORsmoking: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.08 - 4.17, ORpan: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.6 - 5.33, ORgutka: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.14 - 3.97). Use of NSAID attenuated risk of CRC up to 86% (OR: 0.14, 95% CI: 0.07 - 0.31). Conclusions: Most of the findings showed concordance with the literature elucidating protective effects of consuming vegetables and low fat diet while documenting adverse associations with family history, weight loss, constipation and hematochezia. Moreover, this study highlighted Asian specific indigenous addictive products as important factors. Further studies are needed to validate the findings produced by this research.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.285-292
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the association of smoking cessation attempts and the perceived stress level and to identify the factors affecting the perceived stress level of quit smoking. The study utilized the 2015 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and was applied an Ordinal Logistic Regression to examine the association of smoking cessation attempts and perceived stress level. The current smoker those who experience failure in smoking cessation, were more stressful than those who experience success in smoking cessation (OR=1.72, CI;1.41-2.08). This study identified smoking cessation failure as a major psychiatric factor associated with high perceived stress level, and suggests high stress after smoking cessation failure as one of the reasons why smokers do not reach complete smoking cessation. Also, in order to promote smoking cessation, it is needed to have political approach in reducing the psychiatric hurdle like high stress after smoking cessation failure.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.433-445
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• 2012

Purpose: In order to validate empirically the theoretical model of this study subjects, who were limited in Andong gun, Youngyang gun, Uiseong gun, Bonghwa gun, Chilgok gun, Cheongsong gun according to residence-specified distribution and over aged 65, were focused to the elderly in rural areas with geographical characteristics where they have difficulties in accessibility of dental facilities and dental care. Methods: The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS 19.0 program. First, the frequency analysis was performed for each independent variable and the dependent variable. Second, reliability analysis and correlation analysis were conducted for daily living skills and Biomedical Vigilance. Third, multivariate analysis was performed in terms of and the post-administration management. Fourth, multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting the post-management of dentures and the period of using dentures. Results: By results of the multiple regression analysis, the elder the subjects are(${\beta}$ = 0.03), the lower their income activities are(${\beta}$ = -0.18), the smaller their monthly allowances are(${\beta}$ = -0.16), the worse their daily activity skills are(${\beta}$ = -0.12), the more they were mounted their dentures by an unlicensed contractor(${\beta}$ = 0.07), and the more they cost to their dentures(${\beta}$ = 0.14), the longer the period of use dentures are. And the beneficiaries of Basic Livelihood Security(${\beta}$ = -0.14) who got free denture business are shorten the period of using dentures. According to multiple regression analysis for post management of dentures, the independent variables like the health education(${\beta}$ = 0.24), smoking(${\beta}$ = -0.18), periodic oral examination(${\beta}$ = 0.13), dentures mounted by an unlicensed contractor(${\beta}$ = -0.13) are shown statistically significant results. In that study subjects are taking part in health education and non-smokers, they are likely to have more chances to post management for their dentures like periodic oral examination. However the subjects who were weared their denture by an unlicensed contractor get less chance to post management for their dentures. Conclusion: As the elderly who want to wear denture are increasing due to the denture insurance for the elderly, the need for oral health education for the elderly is an urgent request, especially continuos education for the way of use their dentures and follow-up management for the elderly who were already mounted their dentures. And also, the need for more systematic researches is requested for securing objective data.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.195-211
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• 2004

Stress is a primary health promotion issue in worksite research because psychological distress is closely related not only to workers' health status but also to their job performance. This study identified the significant health behaviors affecting workers' job-related stress in Korean manufacturing industry with the national survey data conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2003. A total of 7,818 factory workers in 1,562 manufacturing companies participated in the Korean nation-wide occupational health survey and 3,390 workers answered that they had any stressors in their workplace among the 7,818 workers finally participated in the analysis. Participants were selected by the stratified proportional sampling process by manufacturing industry classification, company size, and company locations (8 metropolitan and 8 non-metropolitan regions) in Korea. Trained interviewers visited the target companies and interviewed the factory workers randomly selected in each company. Smoking, drinking, weight control, exercise, sleeping, break time at work, and perceived fatigue were included in the health behavior construct. Stress symptoms was consisted of physical and psychological stress with 8 items. All survey responses were anonymously coded into the SPSS statistical program and testified using stepwise multiple regression analysis. Male workers were 73.5% and the 30s were 40.0% among the age groups. The married and the high school graduate were majority with 52.1% and 61.8% each. Current smokers were 44.7% and More than 50% of the participants drank alcohol sometimes. No exercise group was 59.3% and the participants who dissatisfied with their daily sleeping hours were 43.5%. In t-test and analysis of variance, the significant general characteristics associated with physical and psychological job stress were young age (p<0.001), single marital status (p<0.001), and short working period at the present company (p<0.001). The health behaviors related to physical job stress were current smoking, weight change during the past one year (p<0.001), weight control effort (p<0.001), exercise (p<0.001), daily sleeping dissatisfaction (p<0.001), break time, and perceived fatigue (p<0.001). All 10 health behavior factors were significantly associated with psychological job stress (p<0.05). Weight change, weight control effort, exercise, daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, and high perceived fatigue were significant factors affecting job stress. Daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, little exercise, weight change for the past one year and young age were selected as the significant health behavior and general factors affecting physical job stress symptoms in stepwise multiple regression analysis. The five factors explained 18.9% of the physical stress score variance. Six factors were selected as the significant health behaviors affecting psychological job stress: daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little exercise, frequent drinking alcohol, high perceived fatigue, little break at work, and little weight control effort. The six factors explained 10.6% of the psychological stress score variance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.467-474
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• 2007

Objectives : Gastric cancer is the most common incident cancer in Korea. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is the most important risk factor for the development of gastric cancer, cigarette smoking has also been suggested to play an important role in the development of gastric cancer. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between cigarette smoking and gastric cancer risk in a Korean population. Methods : The study population consisted of 13,785 subjects who had been enrolled in the Korean Multi-Center Career Cohort between 1993 and 2002. As of December 2002, 139 incident gastric cancer cases were ascertained through the Korea Central Cancer Registry and the National Death Certificate Database. Relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for gastric cancer were estimated using Cox#s proportional hazard model adjusted for age, education, alcohol drinking status and history of gastritis or ulcer. Results : Significant dose-response relationships were observed between the duration of smoking and the risk of gastric cancer among the male subjects in comparison to non-smokers: men who smoked for 20-39 years had a 2.09-fold (95% CI 1.00-4.38) increase, and those who smoked for more than 40 years had a 3.13-fold (95% CI 1.59-6.17) increase in the risk of gastric cancer ($P_{trend}<0.01$). Conclusions : This study suggests that a longer duration of cigarette smoking may increase the risk of gastric cancer development in a dose-response manner in Korean men. The association between smoking and gastric cancer risk in women should be verified in future studies with a larger number of cases.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.569-582
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• 2007

The author aims at first securing basic material required for developing and operating proper oral health care education programs though making an investigation into the undergraduates of S College of Education on the actual status of oral health care and perceptions of oral health care education. The obtained results were as follows 1. In the actual status of oral care based on whether or not they have experiences in taking oral health care education, undergraduates with teeth brushing for more than three minutes a time were found to be 25.9% and 15.7% respectively according to the existence and nonexistence of experiences in the education(pM0.020), and undergraduates with teeth brushing in a circular motion was found to be 64.7% and 51.7% respectively, showing statistically significant differences(pM0.015). 2. In the actual status of preventative oral care according to whether or not they have experiences in taking oral care education, degrees of awareness of the usefulness of dental cleansers among the undergraduates were found to be 37.6% and 21.5% respectively according to the existence and nonexistence of experiences in the education(pM0.001), undergraduates with experiences in scaling were found to be 51.8% and 34.9% respectively(pM0.002) and undergraduates with experiences in having dental sealants were found to be 26.5% and 16.9%(pM0.031), showing statistically significant differences. 3. In the survey on perceptions of oral health care according to the existence and nonexistence of experiences in oral health care education, it was revealed that the case that they indicated 'the necessity of oral health care education' was 87.1% and 64.0% respectively according to the existence and nonexistence of the experience(pM0.000), and undergraduates intended to 'participate in oral care education for students(at mid and high schools and so on) after being teachers' were 77.6% and 65.7% respectively, showing statistically significant differences(pM0.011). 4. In general characteristics according to awareness of the necessity of cultivating oral health professionals, groups with awareness of the necessity consisted of 31.8% of freshmen and juniors(pM0.001), 55.69b of female undergraduates(pM0.001), 80.8% of non-smokers(pM0.012), 38.9% of large city residents(pM0.002) and 32.3% of undergraduates living in their own houses (pM0.028), showing statistically significant differences.