• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.259-264
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• 2012

Wheezing is one of the most frequent complaints that lead to the use of medical resources in younger children. Generally, wheezing is caused by bronchiolitis and resolves spontaneously without recurrence, but sometimes, wheezing can progress into asthma. Early data on the natural history of childhood wheezing was mostly obtained from retrospective reviews of medical records or from questionnaires, which made it difficult to exclude biases. Now that many cohort studies are available, reviewing the results of birth cohort studies makes it possible to understand the natural course of early childhood wheezing and the risk factors for asthma. In this study, we have reviewed the various phenotypes of early childhood wheezing and their natural courses to help select the most appropriate management modalities for the different types of early childhood wheezing.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2021

Objectives: Life course exposure to passive smoke may predict health, but there are few validated measures. We tested the reliability and validity of a retrospective life course passive smoking questionnaire. Methods: Participants from the third follow-up of the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health study (2014-2019, ages 36-49 years) retrospectively reported mother/father/other household member smoking when living at home during childhood, including duration (years) and smoking location (never/sometimes/always inside house). The severity of exposure index (SEI; sum of mother/father/other years smoked multiplied by smoking location), cumulative years of exposure (CYE; sum of mother/father/other years), and total household smokers (THS) were derived. The reliability of retrospective passive smoking reports was examined with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) using household smoking reported 34 years earlier in 1985 by participants when aged 7-15 years. Construct validity was examined by correlating retrospective passive smoking with participants' smoking in adulthood and lung function in childhood and adulthood. Results: Among 2082 participants (mean±standard deviation [SD], 45.0±2.5 years; 55.2% females), THS ranged from 0 to 5 (mean±SD, 0.9±1.0), CYE ranged from 0 to 106 (mean±SD, 10.5±13.9), and SEI ranged from 0 to 318 (mean±SD, 24.4±36.0). Retrospective measures showed moderate agreement with total household smokers reported in childhood (ICC, 0.58 to 0.62). The retrospective measures were weakly but significantly (p<0.05) correlated with participants' smoking (r=0.13 to 0.15) and lung function (r= -0.05 to -0.06). Conclusions: The retrospective passive smoking questionnaire showed reasonable reliability and validity. This measure may be useful for epidemiological studies.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.390-395
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• 2021

Background: Health-care providers typically undergo shift work and are subjected to increased stress. Night shift work may induce disturbed sleep cycles and circadian rhythm. The objective of this study was to explore if night shift workers (NSWs) show an increased risk of abnormal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 574 employees without thyroid disease and abnormal TSH at baseline who underwent annual check-ups between 2007 and 2016 in a medical center. NSWs were defined as those with working time schedules other than daytime hours. We calculated the incidence rate and estimated the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for incident abnormal TSH and subclinical hypothyroidism compared with non-NSWs using a Cox regression model. Results: A total of 56 incident abnormal TSH cases and 39 subclinical hypothyroidism cases in NSWs were identified during 3000 person-years of follow-up. In models adjusted for age, sex, obesity, and working departments, we found no increased relative risk for incident abnormal TSH (HR: 0.72, 95% confidence interval: 0.33-1.60) or subclinical hypothyroidism (HR: 0.52, 95% confidence interval: 0.19-1.45) when comparing NSWs to non-NSWs; nor were incidence rates significantly different among exclusively medical employees after excluding administrative staff. Conclusion: In this hospital-based nine-year follow-up retrospective cohort study, NSWs were not associated with increased relative risk of incident abnormal TSH and subclinical hypothyroidism, in contrast to previous cross-sectional studies.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.249-256
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• 2018

This article aims to provide a systematic review of the exposure assessment methods used to assign wafer fabrication (fab) workers in epidemiologic cohort studies of mortality from all causes and various cancers. Epidemiologic and exposure-assessment studies of silicon wafer fab operations in the semiconductor industry were collected through an extensive literature review of articles reported until 2017. The studies found various outcomes possibly linked to fab operations, but a clear association with the chemicals in the process was not found, possibly because of exposure assessment methodology. No study used a tiered assessment approach to identify similar exposure groups that incorporated manufacturing era, facility, fab environment, operation, job and level of exposure to individual hazardous agents. Further epidemiologic studies of fab workers are warranted with more refined exposure assessment methods incorporating both operation and job title and hazardous agents to examine the associations with cancer risk or mortality.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.303-312
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate severe periodontitis with tooth loss as a modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer dementia (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and mixed dementia (MD) using the National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Retrospective Cohort database with long-term follow-up over 14 years. Methods: Multivariate Cox hazards regression analysis was applied to a longitudinal retrospective database, which was updated in 2018, to evaluate the association between severe periodontitis with few remaining teeth and dementia after adjusting for potential risk factors, including sociodemographic factors and comorbid diseases. Results: Among 514,866 individuals in South Korea, 237,940 (46.2%) participants satisfying the inclusion criteria were selected. A total of 10,115 age- and sex-matched participants with severe periodontitis and 10,115 periodontally healthy participants were randomly selected and evenly assigned. The results showed that the risks of AD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08), VaD (HR, 1.24), and MD (HR, 1.16) were significantly higher in patients with severe periodontitis with 1-9 remaining teeth after adjustment for sociodemographic factors, anthropomorphic measurements, lifestyle factors, and comorbidities. Conclusions: Severe periodontitis with few remaining teeth (1-9) may be considered a modifiable risk factor for the development of AD, VaD, and MD in Korean adults.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.277-290
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• 2012

Objectives: Diesel engine exhaust (DE) accounts for a significant percentage of air pollutants that are associated with various health outcomes including mortality, asthma, chronic bronchitis, respiratory tract infection, etc. In June, 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the assessment results that classified DE as "carcinogenic to humans" (Group 1). This review is therefore focused on the lung cancer risks of DE. Methods: Literatures were searched using PubMed with key words of "diesel exhaust", "lung cancer", and other related terms for the period between 1990 and 2012. A total of 295 articles were searched and sixteen epidemiologic studies were identified as potentially relevant. Results: Sixteen epidemiologic studies about the lung cancer risks of workers exposed to DE in various occupations were summarized in two tables, 1) retrospective cohort studies and 2) case-control studies. Increased lung cancer risk, although not always smoking adjusted, was observed in 6 out of 8 retrospective cohort studies and 4 of 8 case-control studies. Conclusions: Diesel fuel is widely used in Korea. Exposure to DE is confirmed to be a human carcinogen by IARC. Noncancer health risks of DE also need careful attention as DE is a major source of fine-particle pollution. Along with the efforts for reducing the DE emission through improvements of diesel engines and fuel, and the use of alternative fuels, comprehensive health risk assessment of DE should be conducted to minimize the adverse health effects.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.88-112
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• 2023

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to analyze the oriental medical treatments of burning mouth syndrome, understand the tendency of treatment, and apply it to clinical settings. Methods : We collected case reports, retrospective cohort studies and RCT studies related to oriental medical treatments of burning mouth syndrome using domestic and Chinese databases(CNKI, KISS, RISS, OASIS, KCI). Search terms include 'Burning Mouth Syndrome', 'BMS', 'Burning Tongue', '灼口综合征', and 'oriental medicine', 'oriental medical treatment', 'Korean medicine' and '中医'. A search was conducted by appropriately combining keywords. Results : A total of 27 papers were included in the analysis. Among them, 9 are case studies, 1 is a retrospective cohort study, 1 is a before and after study and 16 are RCT studies. Treatments for burning mouth syndrome included herbal medicine, acupuncture, electro-acupuncture, acupoint injection, auricular acupuncture treatment, external use herbal medicine and gargling. In all studies, symptoms of burning mouth syndrome were alleviated after oriental medical treatments. In 14 RCT studies comparing western medical treatments, the results of the treatment group that included oriental medical treatments were found to be more significant, except for one. Conclusions : As a result of the study, oriental medical treatments are effective in treating burning mouth syndrome. In the future, we hope that clinical research related to oriental medical treatments of burning mouth syndrome will be actively conducted so that evidence-based treatment can be implemented.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.358-368
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• 2011

Objectives: In order to evaluate the association between occupational exposure to chloroethylene (TCE) and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), we conducted a meta-analysis of retrospective cohort studies and casecontrol studies and attempted to summarize the evidence of the association from molecular-epidemiological studies and experiments with human cells. Methods: In the meta-analysis, we restricted the analysis to those studies with data for chlorinated solvents, degreasers, or TCE. Studies involving dry cleaners or launderers were excluded from the analysis because use of TCE as a dry cleaning fluid has been rare since the 1960s. The data were combined using a random-effects model to estimate the summary risks (OR and RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Molecular evidence of the effect of TCE on human immune system were also reviewed and summarized. Results: Occupational exposure to TCE was strongly associated with NHL among cohort studies (number of studies=13, summary RR=1.33, 95% CI=1.04-1.70) whereas the association was not statistically significant among case-control studies (number of studies=15, summary OR=1.10, 0.98-1.23). When exposure level was considered, it became statistically significant for the highest exposure level (number of studies=5, summary OR=1.70, 1.25-2.32). Molecular evidences showed that TCE exposure in human or cultured human cells may cause a significant decrease immune cell subsets and changes in hormone levels related to immune response. Conclusions: Our results from meta-analysis and additional molecular evidence suggest that occupational exposure to TCE may cause NHL. However, unmeasured potential confounding and unclear dose-response relationships warrant further study on the role of TCE exposure in NHL carcinogenesis.

• The Journal of Health Technology Assessment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.133-141
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• 2018

Objectives: In the past, the pharmaceutical drug heparin was mostly used as the anticoagulant for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), but the duration time is long to have the risk of a bleeding adverse effect, and in that case the drug therapy Nafamostat mesilate was utilized instead, as it is more safe in this case, with a short half-life and is increasing in use to permit lower concerns for bleeding incidents. However, there are insufficient number of large-scale studies on the comparison of Nafamostat mesilate and heparin. Methods: In this study, a systematic review are used to compare the bleeding risk of Nafamostat mesilate and Heparin, as subjected to patients and procedures for measuring risks performed with a CRRT, and the filter life span is to be evaluated as well in this patients. Results: As a result of literature review search, a total of 6 studies were included in systematic review. The reducing risk of bleeding and filter life span was analyzed. The retrospective cohort studies confirm that Nafamostat mesilate is less at risk of bleeding than heparin. And a cohort study confirms that Nafamostat mesilate is longer filter lifespan than heparin and randomized controlled trial studies show that Nafamostat mesilate is longer filter lifespan than not using the anticoagulants. Conclusion: Nafamostat mesilate is considered to be a good therapeutic option because it has a longer filter life span as well as the advantage of reducing bleeding.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.96-105
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• 2017

Purpose: The National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort and medical checkup data from 2002 to 2013 were used to evaluate the association between periodontal surgery for the treatment of periodontitis (PSTP) and vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (VED). Methods: Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to a longitudinal retrospective database to assess the association between PSTP and VED while adjusting for the potential confounding effects of sociodemographic factors (age, household income, insurance status, health status, residence area, and smoking status) and comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, angina pectoris, cerebral infarction, and myocardial infarction). Results: Among the 7,148 PSTP within the 268,296 recruited subjects, the overall prevalence of VED in PSTP was 1.43% (n=102). The bivariate analysis showed that VED was significantly related to PSTP (odds ratio [OR], 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38-2.06; P<0.001), and this was confirmed in the multivariate analysis after adjusting for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities (OR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.06-1.58; P=0.002). Conclusions: Subjects with a history of periodontal flap surgery had a significantly higher risk of VED, after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Further studies are required to identify the key mechanisms underlying the association between severe periodontal disease and VED.