• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.483-488
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• 2014

Aim: This study employed public use National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) data to investigate the association between urinary cadmium (UDPSI) and all cause, all cancer and prostate cancer mortalities in men. Patients and Methods: NHANES III household adult, laboratory and mortality data were merged. The sampling weight used was WTPFEX6, with SDPPSU6 applied for the probability sampling unit and SDPSTRA6 to designate the strata for the survey analysis. Results: For prostate cancer death, the significant univariates were UDPSI, age, weight, and drinking. Under multivariate logistic regression, the significant covariates were age and weight. For all cause mortality in men, the significant covariates were UDPSI, age, and poverty income ratio. For all cancer mortality in men, the significant covariates were UDPSI, age, black and Mexican race. Conclusions: UDPSI was a predictor of all cause and all cancer mortalities in men as well as prostate cancer mortality.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.793-796
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• 2014

Background: This study aimed to examine possible effects of implementing a national query program on site-specific cancer mortality rates. Materials and Methods: A total of 2,874 query letters were sent out by the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan between January 2009 and December 2011 to medical certifiers who reported "neoplasm with uncertain nature" on the death certificate asking for more detailed information for coding. Results: Of the 2,571 responses, in 1,398 cases (54%) medical certifiers were still unable to determine the nature of the neoplasm. There were four neoplasm sites for which more than 50% of the responses changed the category to malignant, the gastrointestinal system (73%), urinary system (60%), stomach (55%) and rectum (53%). The liver was the cancer site that showed the largest absolute increase in the number of deaths after the query; however, the brain showed the largest relative increase, at 12%. Conclusions: Different neoplasm sites showed different magnitudes of change in nature after the query. Brain cancer mortality rates exhibited the largest increase.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.554-566
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Urban-rural inequities in health and mortality exist in Korea, a highly centralized developed country. The potential impact of multiple health-related lifestyle behaviors on mortality and difference between urban and rural areas is not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the effect of high-risk health behaviors on all-cause mortality among residents living in urban and rural in Korea. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on 8,298 adults aged 40 yrs and older from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2015. High-risk behaviors were defined as having poor diet quality, current smoking, high-risk drinking, or insufficient physical activity. Mortality status was linked to the Cause of Death data followed up to December 31, 2019. The associations between all-cause mortality and high-risk behaviors were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and survey year. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated, and effect modification analysis was conducted. Participants were stratified by residential area (urban or rural). RESULTS: During the follow-up (median: 5.4 yrs), 313 deaths occurred. A higher proportion of rural residents than urban residents engaged in multiple high-risk behaviors (28.9% vs. 22.6%; P < 0.0001). As individual factors, a greater risk of mortality was associated with poor diet quality, current smoking, and inadequate physical activity, and these tendencies persisted in rural residents, especially for diet quality. Multiple high-risk behaviors were positively associated with a higher risk of mortality in Koreans living in urban and rural areas. PAF (95% confidence interval) was 18.5% (7.35-27.9%) and 29.8% (16.1-40.2%) in urban and rural residents, respectively. No additive or multiplicative effect of the region was observed. CONCLUSION: The higher prevalence of multiple high-risk lifestyle behaviors in rural residents may explain the higher mortality in rural areas compared to urban areas. Comprehensive public health policies to improve health-related behaviors in rural populations may be needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.4307-4309
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• 2014

Purpose: To calculate the probability of one person's life-time death caused by a malignant tumor and provide theoretical basis for cancer prevention. Materials and Methods: The probability of one person's death caused by a tumor was calculated by a probability additive formula and based on an abridged life table. All data for age-specific mortality were from the third retrospective investigation of death cause in China. Results: The probability of one person's death caused by malignant tumor was 18.7% calculated by the probability additive formula. On the same way, the life-time death probability caused by lung cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal and anal cancer were 4.47%, 3.62%, 3.25%, 2.25%, 1.11%, respectively. Conclusions: Malignant tumor is still the main cause of death in one's life time and the most common causes of cancer death were lung, gastric, liver, esophageal, colorectal and anal cancers. Targeted forms of cancer prevention and treatment strategies should be worked out to improve people's health and prolong life in China. The probability additive formula is a more scientific and objective method to calculate the probability of one person's life-time death than cumulative death probability.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.137-146
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• 2006

Pediatric surgery could establish a definitive position in the medical field on the basis of a stable patient population. Neonatal surgery, the core of pediatric surgery, requires highly skilled surgeons. However, recent advancement of prenatal diagnosis followed by intervention and decreased birth rate has resulted in a significant decrease in the neonatal surgical population and the number of surgical operations. The purpose of this study is to examine the outcome of neonatal surgeries and to propose a guide for the future surgeries. A total of 359 neonatal surgical patients operated upon at the Department of Surgery, Ewha Medical Center, during past 21 years were studied. The study period hasbeen divided into two time periods: from 1983 to 1993 and from 1994 to 2004. Analysis was based on the Clinical Classification System and mortality pattern, frequency of disorders, occurrence and cause of death, and other changes. Neonatal surgery was 6.4 % of all pediatric surgery during the total 21 year period, 9.9 % in the first period and 4.8 % in the second. Male to female ratio increased from 2.7:1 to 2.1:1. The overall mortality was 6.7 %, and there was significant decrease from 7.4 % in the first period to 6.0 % in the second. The clinical classification system (CCS) for death cases included class II 2, III 4, and IV 7 during the first period and class III 3, and IV 8 during the second, respectively. According to the mortality pattern by Hazebroek, there were 6 preventable death cases during the first period, and only one in the second, and 2 non-preventable death cases during the first period and 8 in second, respectively. Although the patients in the second period had more serious diseases, surgical mortality has been decreased in the second period, which may be the result of improved surgery methods for newborns and advanced patient care.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.96-100
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• 2007

Purpose: Trauma is the 5th most common leading cause of death in Korea, but there has been no appropriate management system for patients until now. We analyzed the main causes of death in trauma patients by comparing the characteristics of those patients with the characteristics of patients who survived. We feel this analysis should have a positive effect on the development of an appropriate trauma management system in Korea. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed trauma patients who had been admitted to the Department of General Surgery from February 2002 to February 2007. We compared several expected risk factors between the mortality and the survival group. Data on the transportation, arrival time at the emergency center, amount of transfusion, initial shock index, cause of death, and initial physical condition according to RTS (Revised trauma score), ISS (Injury severity score) and TRISS (Trauma and Injury Severity Score) were collected. Patients with ISS lower than 12 were excluded. Results: Three hundred sixty-six(366) patients with multiple injuries were included. There were 40 patients in the mortality group and 326 patients in the survival group. The mean arrival time (minutes) to emergency center was longer in the mortality group (137.6 vs 93.6 p 0.04). The total amount of transfusion (ml) was larger in the mortality group (7139 vs 2470 p 0.01). The initial shock index was higher in the mortality group (1.45 vs 1.17 p<0.01). The RTS, ISS, and TRISS were not statistically different between the groups. In the multivariate analysis, mean arrival time and initial shock index were important factors for survival. Conclusion: If the mortality rate of trauma patients is to be reduced, the arrival time at the emergency center should be minimized. Improvement of the emergency medical transfer service system is very important for achieving that.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.100-113
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• 2021

Background: This study aims to figure out the gaps in health status by estimating amenable mortality rate by region, reflecting the characteristics of Korea, and estimating the years of life lost (YLL) per capita by disease. Methods: People who died from amenable diseases between 2008 and 2018 were extracted from the cause of death statistics provided by Statistics Korea. The age-standardized amenable mortality rates were estimated to compare the health status of 229 regions. YLL per capita was calculated to compute the burden of diseases caused by treatable deaths by region. The YLL per capita by region was calculated to identify the burden of disease caused by amenable deaths. Results: First, while the annual amenable mortality rate in Korea is on a steady decline, but there is still a considerable gap between urban and rural areas when comparing the mortality rates of 229 areas. Second, YLL per capita due to the amenable deaths is approximately 14 person-years during the analysis period (2008-2018). Conclusion: Although the health status of Koreans has continuously improved, there is still a gap in health status region by region in terms of amenable mortality rates. Amenable death accounts for a loss of life equivalent to 14 person-years per year. Since the amenable mortality rate is an indicator that can measure the performance of the health care system, efforts at each local area are required to lower it.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.167-173
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• 1980

From 1976 through June 1980, 75 patients underwent Open heart operation at Korea University Hospital.Of the 75 patients, 39 were congenital heart cases and 36 were acquired heart disease cases. 39 cases of congenital heart disease were consisting of 16 T.O.F.,4 A.S.D., 10 V.S.D., 3 P.S., 1 P.D.A., 1 V.S.D. + Mi, 1 Truncus arteriosus, 1 Ebstein, 1 D.C.R.V., 1 Single ventricle. Among 36 valvular replacement cases, 18 cases of MVR, 3 cases of AVR, 6 cases of Double valve replacement, and 10 cases of Open Mitral commissurotomy, were performed. Postoperative mortality rate of congenital heart disease was 25.6% and that of acquired heart disease was 8.3%. Overall mortality rate of open heart surgery was 17.3%. Among 16 cases of postoperative death cases, 5 cases of autopsy were performed. Postoperative cause of death of our series were intracranial bleeding, pacemaker failure, low output syndrome, protamine anaphylaxis, bleeding, prosthetic valve embolism, C V A, miliary tuberculosis, hypothermia due to pump failure.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.361-368
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• 2008

Objective to assess whether exposure to air pollutants is associated with postneonatal infant death, using a timeseries methodology, between 1999 and 2003 in Seoul, Korea.. Methods We investigated the short-term effects of air pollution for 548,725 live births during the study period. The daily count of postneonatal infant deaths from all causes and from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by birth order was analyzed by a Generalized Additive Poisson model, with controlling for the effects of seasonal trends, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and day of the week as covariates. Results During the study period, we observed 699 deaths from all causes and 47 deaths from SIDS. We did not find any significant associations between daily mortality and ambient levels of air pollutants except for CO and $NO_2$. The estimated relative risk of postneonatal infant death from all causes was 1.17 (95% CI=1.04-1.32) and 1.16 (95% CI=1.03-1.29) by IQR (interquartile range) for CO and $NO_2$ respectively. Also, we observed no clear trend of the mortality effects of air pollution by birth orders. Conclusion In conclusion, our findings suggest that air pollution, in general, influenced adversely postneonatal infant death from all-cause and SIDS although it was not statistically significant. This study may support that the rationale.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.48 no.12
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• pp.1148-1156
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• 2018

Background and Objectives: It is controversial that decreased left ventricular function could predict poststroke outcomes. The purpose of this study is to elucidate whether left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) can predict cardiovascular events and mortality in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) without atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: Transthoracic echocardiography was conducted consecutively in patients with AIS or transient ischemic attack at Soonchunhyang University Hospital between January 2008 and July 2016. The clinical data and echocardiographic LVEF of 1,465 patients were reviewed after excluding AF and CHD. Poststroke disability, major adverse cardiac events (MACE; nonfatal stroke, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular death) and all-cause mortality during 1 year after index stroke were prospectively captured. Cox proportional hazards regressions analysis were applied adjusting traditional risk factors and potential determinants. Results: The mean follow-up time was $259.9{\pm}148.8days$ with a total of 29 non-fatal strokes, 3 myocardial infarctions, 33 cardiovascular deaths, and 53 all-cause mortality. The cumulative incidence of MACE and all-cause mortality were significantly higher in the lowest LVEF (<55) group compared with the others (p=0.022 and 0.009). In prediction models, LVEF (per 10%) had hazards ratios of 0.54 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.36-0.80, p=0.002) for MACE and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.39-0.97, p=0.037) for all-cause mortality. Conclusions: LVEF could be an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and mortality after AIS in the absence of AF and CHD.