• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.595-605
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• 2021

An understanding of the knowledges, attitudes and perceptions of different populations is key for public health policy makers. Here, a survey was performed on knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about malaria diagnosis, prevention, control, and treatment. The 407 survey participants included both uninfected inhabitants and patients from 2 cities (Gimpo- and Paju-si) of Northern Gyeonggi-do, known as high-risk areas for vivax malaria. We used community-based study design and non-probability sampling method using the primary data. Association between variables were tested using χ²-tests. In general, the information on malaria reported by the participants in this study was unsystematic and included inaccurate details. The knowledge of malaria symptoms, identified as headache, chills and fever, was high, but the surveyed community lacks knowledge of the specific medications used for malaria treatment, with a large number of respondents having no knowledge of any form of medication. Survey questions with high correct answer rates included questions about easy treatment of malaria in Korea, the high daytime activity of malaria-borne mosquitoes, and the infection risk posed by outdoor activities. However, a large portion of the respondents was unable to provide simple medical and biological information about the disease. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practical behavior of the surveyed community with respect to malaria and the implications reported here could be applicable to other malaria endemic areas in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.147-165
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• 2004

Injury is a leading cause of death in the children and adolescent populations. In particular, more than 80％ of unintentional injury was related to risk-taking behaviors involved in diverse accidents around school and home. Therefore, educational approaches should be provided for children and adolescent populations, and schools are the essential and appropriate sites to conduct safety education. This study was conducted to identify injury prevalence and safety education at schools among middle and high school students in Korea. About 1,034 middle and high students in 28 schools participated in a self-administered survey. The target schools were selected from the stratified random sampling method throughout schools of seven metropolitan cities in Korea. The questionnaires were delivered to the vice-principals by ground mailing service and the vice-principals administered survey data collection. The questionnaire asked about safety education provided in schools, injury experience in the last year, needs for injury prevention class in school, and demographics. All survey responses were entered into SPSS worksheet. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) were used in statistical analysis with SPSS software 11.1. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted as a preliminary analysis of DDA. According to the result of multivariate analysis of variance, gender (man), grade (poor), living with both parents, and displaying injury prevention messages on school news board were significantly different between the injured student group and the uninjured student group (p＝ .00). These four factors also had significant effects on students' injury experience in DDA, although correlation of the four factors with injury experience was weak overall based on their canonical function coefficients. All structure coefficients of the four factors were greater than .30, which means the four factors have discriminant effects on injury prevalence. The sizes of the discriminant effects, in order, were largly from gender, grade, living with both parents, and safety message display on school news boards.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2017

Purpose: Dyslipidemia was a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and was a leading cause of mortality in worldwide. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with prevalence and medication treatment of dyslipidemia in Korean adult population. Methods: In this study, based on the criteria set by the Korean Society of Lipidology and Atherosclerosis, the factors associated with prevalence and medication treatment of dyslipidemia was evaluated in a population of 12,506 people ($age{\geq}20$), who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2015). The findings were tested by using multivariate logistic regression. Results: Dyslipidemia prevalence rate was 36.5%. Among populations with dyslipidemia, 17.5% were treated with lipid-lowering drugs. In the multivariate logistic regression model, male, increase in age, lower education level, non-drinker, current smoking, less physical activity, increase of body mass index, hypertension, and diabetes were associated with an increased odd of dyslipidemia. Female, increase in age, higher income, excess fat intake, hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and angina were associated with an increased odd of medication treat. Conclusion: The results of this study could be used to screen patients at the high risk for dyslipidemia or to predict medication adherence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6609-6612
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• 2014

Opisthorchis viverrini is an ongoing public health problem in Northeast Thailand. Despite continuous efforts for decades by healthcare organizations to overcome this problem, infection rates remain high. To enable related personnel to identify and address the various issues effectively, a cross-sectional study was performed to investigate prevalence and risk factors for opisthorchiasis. The target group was 3,916 Thai residents of Northeast Thailand who were 15 or over. Participants were recruited using the 30 clusters sampling technique. The data were gathered through questionnaires, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and stool examinations for parasite eggs (using the Modified Kato Katz method). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inference statistics; in order to ascertain the risk factors and test them using the odds ratio and multiple logistic regressions. The prevalence of opisthorchiasis was 22.7% (95%CI: 0.26 to 0.24). The province with the highest prevalence was Nakhorn Phanom (40.9%; female to male ratio =1:1.2). The age group with the highest prevalence was 40-49 year olds. All age groups had a prevalence >20%. Four of seven provinces had a prevalence >20%. The factors related to opisthorchiasis were (a) sex, (b) age (especially > 50), (c) proximity and duration living near a water body, and (d) eating raw and/or fermented fish. In order to reduce the prevalence of opisthorchiasis, the focus in populations living in upper Northeast Thailand should be changing their eating behaviors as appropriate to their tradition and context.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2205-2209
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• 2016

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a serious problem in Thailand, particularly in the northeastern region. Active surveillance in rural communities with an appropriat low-cost screening tool is required to facilitate early detection. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the population at risk of CCA in Bua Yai district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Northeastern Thailand using the Korat-CCA verbal screening test (KCVST) during June to October 2015. Reliability of KCVST demonstrated a Cronbach alpha coefficient=0.75 Stepwise-multiple regression showed that alcohol consumption was important for CCA screened, followed by agriculture and pesticide use, under-cooked cyprinoid fish consumption, praziquantel use, naïve northeastern people, opisthorchiasis, family relatives with CCA, and cholangitis or cholecystitis or gallstones, respectively. Population at risk for CCA was classified to low risk (63.4%), moderate risk (33.7%), and high risk (1.32%) for CCA. When CCA was screened using ultrasonography, 4 of 32 high risk participants had an abnormal biliary tract with dilated bile ducts. This study indicates that KCVST is a potential useful too which decrease the cost of large scale CCA screening.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.399-405
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• 2016

Poor subsistence farmers who live in a semi-arid area of northern Ethiopia build irrigation systems to overcome water shortages. However, there is a high risk of malaria transmission when increased standing water provides more favorable habitats for mosquito breeding. This is a serious problem because there are many barriers to malaria control measures and health care systems in the area. Using a causal loop diagram and computer simulations, the author attempted to visually illustrate positive and negative feedbacks between mosquito and human populations in the context of Simret, which is a small village located in northern Ethiopia and is generally considered a malaria-free area. The simulation results show that the number of infectious mosquitos increases to 17,215 at its peak, accounting for 3.5% of potentially dangerous mosquitos. At the same time, the number of sick people increases to 574 at its peak, accounting for 15% of local population. The malaria outbreak is controlled largely because of a fixed number of vulnerable people or local population that acts as an intermediate host.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2006

Asian Americans is a minority population contributing approximately 4% to the total population of the United States, however it is one of the fastest growing populations. Although Asian Americans as a group have socioeconomic profiles that are similar to white Americans, significant variations exists within and across Asian ethnic groups. The top ten leading causes of death for Asian Americans includes cancer, heart diseases, stroke, unintentional injuries, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, chronic lower respiratory disease, suicide, nephritis, and septicemia. The prevalence of obesity is lower among Asian Americans, however this should be taken with considerations specific to Asians. High salt and low calcium consumption seem to be dietary risk factors for Asian Americans, although dietary patterns are changing with acculturation. Factors affecting dietary patterns are discussed in this paper. A proactive nutrition education approach for Asian Americans should be promoting maintaining 'healthy' aspects of ethnic diets and adopting 'healthy' American diets. Collaboration with nutrition educators in Asian countries would be helpful to overcome limited resources available for researching and developing nutrition education messages and materials for Asian Americans. (J Community Nutrition 8(2): 90-95, 2006)

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.56-63
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• 2015

A small number of viable tuberculosis bacilli can reside in an individual with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) without obvious clinical symptoms or abnormal chest radiographs. Diagnosis and treatment for LTBI are important for tuberculosis (TB) control in public and private health, especially in high-risk populations. The updated 2014 Korean guidelines for TB recommend that tuberculin skin tests, interferon-gamma release assays, or a combination of the two can be used for LTBI diagnosis according to age and immune status of the host as well as TB contact history. The regimens for LTBI treatment include isoniazid, rifampicin, or isoniazid/rifampicin. However, results of drug susceptibility test from the index case must be considered in selecting the appropriate drug for recent contacts. Standardized LTBI diagnosis and treatment based on the new 2014 guidelines will contribute to the effective TB control in Korea as well as to the establishment of updated guidelines.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2021

With this as a momentum of approval Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019), it is changed to the era of vaccine rapidly. Most countries are trying to reserve effective vaccines and inoculate vaccines into high-risk populations for achieving community immunity. I reviewed several vaccine-related issues to be confronted for moving up to the end of COVID-2019: the efficacy and effectiveness of the approved vaccines, the priorities for vaccination into target groups, side effects, and distrust towards COVID-2019 vaccines. Evidence-based decision-making in the policy process and collaboration with professional groups are the most effective strategies for driving successful vaccination policy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5455-5459
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• 2013

Background: The risk of malignancy index (RMI) for the evaluation of adnexal masses is a sensitive tool in certain populations. The best cut off value for RMI 1, 2 and 3 is 200. The cut off value of RMI-4 to differentiate benign from malignant lesions is 450. Our aim was to evaluate the efficiency of four different malignancy indexes (RMI1-4) in a homogeneous population. Materials and Methods: We evaluated a total of 153 non-pregnant women with adnexal masses who did not have a history of malignancy and who were above 18 years of age. Results: A cut-off value of 250 for RMI-1 provided 95.9% inter-observer agreement, yielding 95.9% specificity, 93.5% negative predictive value, 75.0% sensitivity and 82.8% positive predictive value. A cut-off value of 250 for RMI-1 showed high performance in preoperative diagnosis of invasive malignant lesions than cut-off value of 200 in our population. A cut-off value of 350 for RMI-2 provided 94.5% inter-observed agreement, yielding 94.2% specificity, 93.4% negative predictive value, 75.0% sensitivity and 77.4% positive predictive value. RMI-2 showed the higher performance when the cut-off value was set at 350 in our population. A cut-off value of 250 provided 95.2% inter-observer agreement, yielding 95.0% specificity, 93.2% negative predictive value, 75.0% sensitivity, and 88.0% positive predictive value. RMI-3 showed the highest performance to diagnose malignant adnexal masses when the cut-off value was set at 250. In our study, RMI-4 showed similar statistical performance when the cut-off value was set at 400 [(Kappa: 0.684/p=0.000), yielding 93.8% inter-observer agreement, 93.4% specificity, 93.4% negative predictive value, 75.0% sensitivity, and 75.0% negative predictive value]. Conclusions: We showed successful utilization of RMIs in preoperative differentiation of benign from malignant masses. Many studies conducted in Asian and Pacific countries have reported different cut-off values as was the case in our study. We think that it is difficult to determine universally accepted cut-off values for RMIs for common use around the globe.