• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.106-141
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• 2021

This study was conducted for the purpose of empirically analyzing the effects of adolescents' relationships with major adults as protective factors for smartphone addiction. Specifically, the study compared the discriminatory effects of adolescents' relationships with their parents, school teachers, and educational institute teachers on smartphone addiction among elementary, middle, and high school students in Korea. Analyzing the data of the 2019 Korean Children & Youth Happiness Index (N=7,454), it was found that relationships with adults were significant factors in explaining the level of smartphone addiction even after controlling for the influences of adolescents' demographics, usage time, and friendship factors. For elementary school students, good relationships with their mothers and school teachers decreased the risk of smartphone addiction. On the other hand, in the case of middle school students, only a good relationship with father functioned as a protective factor. Good relationships with their fathers and institute teachers decreased the level of high school students' smartphone addiction. Based on these findings, this study discussed on the development of programs and policies for prevention and intervention of adolescents' smartphone addiction and provided suggestions for follow-up research in the future.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1485-1488
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• 2016

Background: Chile is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of cholelithiasis worldwide, considering the Mapuche ethnicity as a risk factor for developing this pathology. Moreover, cholelithiasis is the main risk factor for developing gallbladder cancer, being the fifth cause of cancer death in Chile. The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of cholelithiasis and biliary pathology among the population belonging to Rapanui ethnicity and non-Rapanui population living on Easter Island. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective case-control study, a total of 609 abdominal ultrasonographs performed consecutively in Hanga Roa Hospital during the period August 2012 to January 2015 were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of cholelithiasis and biliary pathology, adjusting for age, gender and referral diagnostic hypothesis. Results: In the Rapanui population the frequency for cholelithiasis and biliary pathology was 6.4% and 13%, meanwhile for the non-Rapanui population it was 13% and 22% respectively. Compared to the non-Rapanui Chilean population, the Rapanui ethnicity presented an OR of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.29-0.95) for cholelithiasis and OR of 0.52 (95% CI: 0.33-0.82) for biliary pathology. Conclusions: We found statistically significant ethnic differences in the frequency of cholelithiasis and biliary disease among the population of Rapanui and non-Rapanui ethnicity, so that this could be a protective factor for the development of biliary pathology, given the Chilean population context. Other studies including community population to determine the real prevalence of cholelithiasis and analyze the protective role of Rapanui ethnicity on this disease are necessary.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.5125-5135
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• 2015

Background: Total fat intake may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer, and fish oil has been suggested as a protection factor to breast cancer. But the effect of vegetable oils is inconclusive. We aimed to investigate the association with high vegetable oils consumption and breast cancer risk, and evaluated their dose-response relationship. Design: We systematically searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane databases, and CNKI updated to December 2014, and identified all observational studies providing quantitative estimates between breast cancer risk and different vegetable oils consumption. Fixed or random effect models were used to estimate summary odds ratios for the highest vs. lowest intake, and dose-response relationship was assessed by restricted cubic spline model and generalized least-squares trend (GLST) model. Results: Five prospective cohort studies and 11 retrospective case-control studies, involving 11,161 breast cancer events from more than 150,000 females, met the inclusion criteria. Compared with the lowest vegetable oils consumption, higher intake didn't increased the risk of breast cancer with pooled OR of 0.88 (95% CIs:0.77-1.01), and the result from dose-response analyses didn't show a significant positive or negative trend on the breast cancer risk for each 10g vegetable oil/day increment (OR=0.98, 95% CIs: 0.95-1.01). In the subgroup analyses, the oils might impact on females with different strata of BMI. Higher olive oil intake showed a protective effect against breast cancer with OR of 0.74 (95% CIs: 0.60-0.92), which was not significant among the three cohort studies. Conclusions: This meta-analyses suggested that higher intake of vegetable oils is not associated with the higher risk of breast cancer. Olive oil might be a protective factor for the cancer occurrence among case-control studies and from the whole. Recall bias and imbalance in study location and vegetable oils subtypes shouldn't be ignored. More prospective cohort studies are required to confirm the interaction of the impact of vegetable oils on different population and various cancer characteristic, and further investigate the relationship between different subtype oils and breast cancer.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.233-241
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• 2013

There are limited data on healthy dietary patterns protective against metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) development. We identified dietary patterns among middle-aged and older adults and investigated the associations with the incidence of MetSyn. A population-based prospective cohort study included 5,251 male and female Koreans aged 40-69 years. At baseline, all individuals were free of MetSyn, other major metabolic diseases, and known cardiovascular disease or cancer. Cases of MetSyn were ascertained over a 6-year of follow-up. Dietary patterns and their factor scores were generated by factor analysis using the data of a food frequency questionnaire. We performed pooled logistic regression analysis to estimate multivariable-adjusted relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for associations between factor scores and MetSyn risk. Two dietary patterns were identified; (1) a healthy dietary pattern, which included a variety of foods such as fish, seafood, vegetables, seaweed, protein foods, fruits, dairy products, and grains; and (2) an unhealthy dietary pattern, which included a limited number of food items. After controlling for confounding factors, factor scores for the healthy dietary pattern were inversely associated with MetSyn risk (P-value for trend < 0.05) while those for the unhealthy dietary pattern had no association. Individuals in the top quintile of the healthy diet scores showed a multivariable-adjusted RR [95% CI] of 0.76 [0.60-0.97] for MetSyn risk compared with those in the bottom quintile. The beneficial effects were derived from inverse associations with abdominal obesity, low HDL-cholesterol levels, and high fasting glucose levels. Our findings suggest that a variety of healthy food choices is recommended to prevent MetSyn.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.280-286
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• 2015

Objectives: Approximately 10% to 15% of lung cancer cases occur in never-smokers. Hormonal factors have been suggested to lead to an elevated risk of lung cancer in women. This systematic review (SR) aimed to investigate the association between hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) and the risk of lung cancer in women using cohort studies. Methods: We first obtained previous SR articles on this topic. Based on these studies we made a list of refereed, cited, and related articles using the PubMed and Scopus databases. All cohort studies that evaluated the relative risk of HRT exposure on lung cancer occurrence in women were selected. Estimate of summary effect size (sES) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: A total of 14 cohort studies were finally selected. A random effect model was applied due to heterogeneity (I-squared, 64.3%). The sES of the 14 articles evaluating the impact of HRT exposure on lung cancer occurrence in women indicated no statistically significant increase in lung cancer risk (sES, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.90 to 1.09). Conclusions: These results showed that HRT history had no effect on the risk of lung cancer in women, even though the sES of case-control studies described in previous SR articles indicated that HRT had a protective effect against lung cancer. It is necessary to conduct a pooled analysis of cohort studies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5861-5865
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• 2013

We investigated the distribution of HPV genotypes in Uyghur women in Xinjiang region of China, and behavioral factors which could predispose them to HPV infection. In this cross-sectional study, women aged 15-59 years were recruited by cluster sampling method in Yutian region in 2009. Liquid-based cytology samples were analyzed centrally for HPV genotype with a linear array detector. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify behavioral risk factors for HPV infection. A total of 883 Uyghur women were recruited successfully. The prevalence of high-risk HPV and low-risk HPV were 7.25% and 1.58%, respectively; the most common HPVs were HPV16, 51, 31, 39 and 58. We found that age of first sexual intercourse was a strong predictor for HPV infection (odds ratio of 4.01 for ${\leq}15$ years versus ${\geq}25$). Having sexual partners ${\geq}3$ was the second predictor (OR 3.69, 95% CI 2.24-7.16). Cleaning the vagina after sex showed an increased risk of HPV infection (OR 2.72; 95% CI 1.98-5.13); Using the condom showed protective factors for HPV infection (OR 0.36; 95%CI0.12-0.53). HPV16, 51, 31, 39 and 58 were the priority types; the age of first sexual intercourse was identified as a major risk factor for HPV infection. Other notable risks were number of sexual partners and cleaning the vagina after sex. Changing these behavioral risk factors could help to reduce the occurrence of cervical cancer in this population.

• Oral Biology Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.208-215
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to identify the risk of dysphagia among patients that visited prosthodontics department, and evaluate the difference in risks arising from oral conditions and disease in order to preliminarily intervene the various influencing factors of dysphagia. A questionnaire was given to patients that were aged 65 years or older who visited the prosthodontics department between September to December 2017. The data was collected and analyzed using the t-test, $x^2-test$ and logistic regression analysis. The mean age of the patients was 75 years. Out of 300 patients, 206 patients (68.7%) had a risk of dysphagia. There were statistically significant differences between the -non-risk and risk groups, which included the number of natural teeth, total number of teeth including prosthesis, denture use, denture discomfort, number of tooth brushing, oral dryness, digestive system diseases, and musculoskeletal diseases. Among these, oral dryness was a risk factor while the total number of teeth, including natural teeth and prostheses, served as a protective factor. More than half of the elderly patients were at risk of dysphagia. Oral dryness is influenced by many factors and it should continuously be managed. Patients should fully recover their masticatory function by preserving the remaining teeth and compensating for the missing teeth. A dental practitioner should be fully aware of the risk of dysphagia in elderly patients and be able to intervene and offer proper patient health care in advance through treatment guidelines and education.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3391-3396
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• 2014

Background: Vitamin D has been suggested as one of the critical factors for female reproductive health with protective activities against different cancers but there are conflicting facts regarding its role on breast cancer without any clear data on premenopausal cases. This study aimed to evaluate the role of vitamin D from dietary sources and sunlight exposure on the incidence of premenopausal breast cancer. Materials and Methods: We conducted a case control study on 60 newly diagnosed premenopausal breast cancer patients and 116 normal women who lived in Sabzevar and surrounding villages in Razavi, Khorasan, a rural and conservative area of Iran. Results: The mean concentrations of 25-OH vitamin D in cases and controls were $15.2{\pm}8.15$ vs $15.5{\pm}7/45ng/ml$, both well below normal values elsewhere. In fact 50% of analyzed individuals showed very severe or severe vitamin D deficiency and the rest (25%) were detected in suboptimal levels. Although the lack of vitamin D and calcium supplementation increased slightly the risk of premenopausal breast cancer (p=0.009, OR=1.115, CI 95%=1.049-1.187), higher prevalence of weekly egg consumption (86.66% vs 96.55%, p=0.023, OR=0.232, CI 95% 0.065-0.806) showed a slight protective role. The last but the most important risk factor was lack of sunlight exposure because the breast cancer patients had total body coverage from sun (p=0.007, OR=10.131, CI 98% 0.314-78.102). Conclusion: This study pointed out the role of vitamin D and other possible risk factors on the development and growth of breast tumors in this special geographical region. Although this study has revealed the interactions between hormonal and environmental factors in this province of Iran, understanding the deficiency pattern and its contribution to other lifestyle factors elsewhere is also necessary.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2022

Objectives : Suicide is a global social problem. Social burden caused by suicide is gradually increasing. Various efforts have been made to prevent suicide. Lifestyle changes to western style, especially diet changes, have increased the risk for suicide. Therefore, in this study, we discussed diet as an adjuvant treatment for suicide. Methods : In this review, we summarized the biochemical mechanism of suicide, and diet as a risk factor for suicide and diet as a protective factor through a web search. Results : In this study, biochemical mechanisms for suicide were reviewed and diet as a risk factor and diet as a protective factor for suicide were investigated. It was confirmed that neurotoxic effects such as oxidative stress and inflammation in the neural system could increase the risk of suicide. Based on results of previous studies on the relationship between suicide and diet, it was found that heavy use of alcohol, coffee, carbonated soft drink, and fast food were risk factors for suicide. Protective factors for suicide included antioxidants such as vitamin C, carotene, and anti-inflammatory agents such as omega-3 fatty acids found in seafood in large amounts. Conclusions : The only treatment for suicide is prevention. In this context, effectiveness, accessibility, and safety are important for preventing for suicide. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents that are relatively safe and readily available to the public could be effective adjuvant treatments to decrease the risk of suicide. In addition, it is necessary to educate the public on reducing diets that could increase the risk of suicide

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7663-7668
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• 2013

Background: Skin cancer is a global health problem that can be prevented by protective behavior promoted by nurses. In Turkey, only few studies have examined current knowledge of nurses related to skin cancer and to reveal their attitudes towards sun exposure and current protective behavior. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed from March 11 to May 30, 2013 with a study sample of 310 nurses working in two state hospitals located in Karab$\ddot{u}$k and Safranbolu. Results: Mean age of the nurses was $30.3{\pm}6.89$ years and 96.1% of them had graduated with a Bachelor degree. The participants were predominantly female (n=284). Knowledge level about skin cancer was significantly higher for females compared to males. Conclusions: Nurses do not have sufficient knowledge about skin cancer and are not adequately protecting themselves from ultraviolet light, the primary risk factor for skin cancer. While they demonstrated a responsible attitude towards avoiding sunburn and the need for adequate sun protection, they do not fully appreciate the extent to which the sun can cause skin cancer and that they lack full understanding about the need to protect the skin from burning and to avoid long term sun exposure in Turkey.