• Toxicological Research
• /
• 제26권2호
• /
• pp.83-93
• /
• 2010

Since it was first observed in late 1970s that human cancers often had decreased manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) protein expression and activity, extensive studies have been conducted to verify the association between MnSOD and cancer. Significance of MnSOD as a primary mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme is unquestionable; results from in vitro, in vivo and epidemiological studies are in harmony. On the contrary, studies regarding roles of MnSOD in cancer often report conflicting results. Although putative mechanisms have been proposed to explain how MnSOD regulates cellular proliferation, these mechanisms are not capitulated in epidemiological studies. This review discusses most recent epidemiological and experimental studies that examined the association between MnSOD and cancer, and describes emerging hypotheses of MnSOD as a mitochondrial redox regulatory enzyme and of how altered mitochondrial redox may affect physiology of normal as well as cancer cells.

• 한국환경보건학회지
• /
• 제48권3호
• /
• pp.138-150
• /
• 2022

Background: Epidemiology is a fundamental study of public health, including environmental health, since the features and causes of diseases discovered through epidemiology provide crucial information for developing successful disease prevention strategies. Objectives: This paper tried to define the role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health, summarize examples of epidemiological studies with regard to selected environmental health events in South Korea, and address important issues that should be considered when conducting epidemiological research in the future. Methods: Epidemiological studies of selected environmental health events were reviewed and summarized in terms of their contribution to environmental health in South Korea. Based on the information, important issues were suggested for future epidemiological studies in environmental health. Results: The role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health includes the systematic description of the health effects caused by environmental exposure, verification of the causal relationship between environmental exposure and health effects, and provision of background data for conducting prevention strategies and developing policies. A number of epidemiological studies have contributed to characterizing and assessing the environmental risks involved in a series of environmental health events in South Korea. Conclusions: Important issues for future epidemiological studies may include health effects from chronic low-level environmental exposure, application of analytical epidemiology to elucidate causal relationships, use of exposure/disease/susceptibility biomarkers, accurate reconstruction of past exposure status, cohort recruitment and long-term follow-up, and in-advance surveillance of diseases with environmental causes.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
• /
• 제24권4호
• /
• pp.253-262
• /
• 2018

Objectives: We reviewed digital epidemiological studies to characterize how researchers are using digital data by topic domain, study purpose, data source, and analytic method. Methods: We reviewed research articles published within the last decade that used digital data to answer epidemiological research questions. Data were abstracted from these articles using a data collection tool that we developed. Finally, we summarized the characteristics of the digital epidemiological studies. Results: We identified six main topic domains: infectious diseases (58.7%), non-communicable diseases (29.4%), mental health and substance use (8.3%), general population behavior (4.6%), environmental, dietary, and lifestyle (4.6%), and vital status (0.9%). We identified four categories for the study purpose: description (22.9%), exploration (34.9%), explanation (27.5%), and prediction and control (14.7%). We identified eight categories for the data sources: web search query (52.3%), social media posts (31.2%), web portal posts (11.9%), webpage access logs (7.3%), images (7.3%), mobile phone network data (1.8%), global positioning system data (1.8%), and others (2.8%). Of these, 50.5% used correlation analyses, 41.3% regression analyses, 25.6% machine learning, and 19.3% descriptive analyses. Conclusions: Digital data collected for non-epidemiological purposes are being used to study health phenomena in a variety of topic domains. Digital epidemiology requires access to large datasets and advanced analytics. Ensuring open access is clearly at odds with the desire to have as little personal data as possible in these large datasets to protect privacy. Establishment of data cooperatives with restricted access may be a solution to this dilemma.

• 한국환경보건학회지
• /
• 제42권2호
• /
• pp.71-84
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Exposure assessment using questionnaires is effective in large-scale epidemiological studies. However, a limited number of studies have evaluated the questionnaires used in epidemiologic studies in terms of occupational and environmental exposure. The purpose of this study was to summarize and evaluate questionnaire items included in major epidemiological studies conducted in Korea with regard to occupational and environmental exposure. Methods: A total of 12 studies (four cohort studies, six large-scale cross-sectional surveys, and two panel studies) were selected for this study. Various questionnaire items related with occupational and environmental items were collected and summarized into tables. Results: Although job type and address were included in almost all of the studies, the information on occupational or environmental exposure to specific risk factors was collected in a limited number of studies. Moreover, questionnaire items were not standardized, warranting a continuous effort to develop questionnaires and evaluate their validity. Conclusion: Our results suggest that validated questionnaire items focusing on occupational and environmental exposure need to be developed in order to enhance the availability of the information collected from questions in epidemiological studies.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• 제41권5호
• /
• pp.339-344
• /
• 2008

Objectives : The objective of this paper is to discuss the importance of obtaining informed consent for conducting epidemiological studies and public health activities, based on the Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent. Methods : The Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent was reviewed and discussed in connection with the ethical considerations of public health activities and epidemiological research. Results : It was at the Nuremberg Trial for the German war criminals of the Second World War that the principle of 'consent' was first stated as a consequence of the medical abuses carried out during the War. As a result of the Trial, the Nuremberg Code came out in 1947. Since then, various international declarations or ethical principles on 'informed consent' have been developed and published. These ethical principles on 'informed consent' have mostly to do with the clinical research that involves human subjects, and not with epidemiological studies and public health activities. However, UNESCO recently issued a comprehensive Report on Informed Consent based on the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights adopted in 2005, and this included detailed guidelines on informed consent in epidemiological studies and public health activities. Conclusions : Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights emphasizes the principle of autonomy to protect the human rights of the human subjects involved in any public health activities and epidemiological research. As a practical guideline, obtaining informed consent is strongly recommended.

• 응용통계연구
• /
• 제28권2호
• /
• pp.295-308
• /
• 2015

지난 수십 년 동안 유전형 기술(genotyping technology)의 발달로 개인별 유전자 정보를 얻기 위해 필요한 비용이 감소함에 따라, 다양한 인간 질병의 원인 유전자를 규명하기 위한 많은 유전역학 연구들이 진행되어 왔다. 예를 들어 전장유전체관련분석(genome-wide association studies)은 수백 개에 이르는 표현형(phenotypes)에 대하여 수천 개에 이르는 원인유전자를 규명하였다. 유전체 자료의 홍수로 인하여 대규모 유전체 자료를 분석할 수 있는 다양한 분석 알고리즘에 개발되었으며, 특별히 선형혼합모형은 유전율의 추정부터 관련분석(association studies)에 이르기까지 유전역학 연구에서 광범위하게 활용되고 방법론이었다. 본 논문에서는 유전역학 연구에 있어 빈번하게 활용되는 선형혼합모형의 활용 사례를 나열하고, 각 분석 모형 별 추정치들의 생물학적 의미를 논하고자 한다.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제14권4호
• /
• pp.2643-2647
• /
• 2013

Background: Despite anti-smoking campaigns, smoking prevalence among Thai males aged 30 or older is high, at around 50%. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between smoking and mortality in a rural Thai community. Materials and Methods: Subjects enrolled into the Khon Kaen cohort study between 1990 and 2001 were followed up for their vital status until $16^{th}$ March 2012. The death resource was from the Bureau of Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Interior, Thailand. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyse the association between smoking and death, controlling for age, education level and alcohol drinking, and confidence intervals were calculated using the floating risk method. Results: The study recruited 5,962 male subjects, of whom 1,396 died during a median 13.5 years of follow-up. Current smokers were more likely to die than never smokers after controlling for age, education level and alcohol drinking (HR, 95%CI: 1.41, 1.32-1.51), and the excess mortality was greatest for lung cancer (HR, 95%CI: 3.51, 2.65-4.66). However, there was no increased risk with increasing dose of tobacco, and no difference in risk between smokers of yamuan (hand-rolled cigarettes) and manufactured tobacco. Conclusion: Mortality from cancer, particularly lung cancer, and from all causes combined is dependent on smoking status among men in rural Thailand, but the relative risks are lower than have been reported from studies in high income countries, where the tobacco epidemic is more established.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제16권3호
• /
• pp.1303-1306
• /
• 2015

Studies of epidemiological and prognostic factors are very important for oncology practice. There is a rapidly increasing amount of research and resultant knowledge in the scientific literature. This means that health professionals have major challenges in accessing relevant information and they increasingly require best available evidence to make their clinical decisions. Meta-analyses of prognostic and other epidemiological factors are very practical statistical approaches to define clinically important parameters. However, they also feature many obstacles in terms of data collection, standardization of results from multiple centers, bias, and commentary for intepretation. In this paper, the obstacles of meta-analysis are briefly reviewed, and potential problems with this statistical method are discussed.

• 한방안이비인후피부과학회지
• /
• 제24권3호
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 2011

Objective : We investigated relationship between tinnitus and temporomandibular disorder(TMD) and tried to find approach possibility in oriental medicine. Method : We searched Pubmed, Scopus, The Cocharane library and additional sources for published and unpublished trials. Search word was "Tinnitus and TMD" Result : We investigated 18 studies. We divided these studies into three parts, epidemiological studies, mechanical studies and treatment studies. In many epidemiological studies. there was significant relationship between tinnitus and TMD. The mechanism was not clear but in recently several studies proposed neurological approach. TMD treatment showed significant improvement in tinnitus accompanied by TMD. Conclusion : In tinnitus accompanied by TMD, TMD treatment can be available to resolve or reduce tinnitus. Especially in oriental medicine acupuncture can be applied to treat this.

• 한국식품영양과학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국식품영양과학회 2004년도 Annual Meeting and International Symposium
• /
• pp.24-36
• /
• 2004

Polyphenolic flavonoids are among a wide variety of phytochemicals present in the human diet. Basic research, animal model, and human studies suggest flavonoid intake may reduce the risk of several age-related chronic diseases. The vast number of flavonoids and mixtures of their subclasses, including flavonols, flavones and flavanones, and the variety of agricultural practices that affect their concentration in foods have presented a challenge to the development of adequate food composition databases for these com-pounds. Nonetheless, dietary assessments have been applied to cohort and case-control epidemiological studies and several reveal an inverse association with risk of some forms of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions. Those observational studies that have examined these relationships with regard to flavonols, flavones, and flavanones are reviewed. The requirement for caution in interpreting these studies is discussed with regard to the limited information available on the bioavailability and biotransformation of these flavonoids. As the totality of the available evidence on these flavonoids suggests a role in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease, further research is warranted, particularly in controlled clinical trials.