Burns ; Humans ; Lactic Acid ; Plasma ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

This randomized controlled trial study aimed to investigate the effects of a lifestyle intervention on metabolic syndrome (MetS) among middle-aged Koreans. A total of 243 middle-aged Koreans with MetS were randomly assigned to either of 2 types of lifestyle intervention for MetS and followed for 12 months. Health examinations and interventions were implemented at 16 regional branch facilities of a Korean medical institution from 2010, following the NCEP-ATP III criteria and recommendations. Lifestyle intervention (LI) group (n = 137) participated in a 12-week multi-component intervention including individual counseling, group sessions, and self-help materials. Basic usual intervention (BI) group (n = 106) was provided with one-page health information sheet on MetS and MetS management at baseline. Prevalence of MetS and each of MetS components, except for low HDL-cholesterol, in both groups were significantly reduced and maintained after the intervention. Notably, prevalence of hypertension and abdominal obesity continued to improve during the follow-up period. Between-group differences in results were not found. Both interventions were effective when they were accompanied with repeated check-ups and notification of MetS status. It is recommended to design clear guidelines for the notification of MetS after MetS screening and to encourage checking MetS status periodically for effective MetS management (KCT 0000446).
Adult ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Directive Counseling/*methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening/*methods ; Metabolic Syndrome X/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*therapy ; Middle Aged ; Patient Education as Topic/methods ; *Risk Reduction Behavior ; *Self-Help Groups ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that the impact of social factors on harmful alcohol use between men and women may be different. We aimed to explore the gender-based difference in temporal trend and social risk factors associated with harmful alcohol use. METHODS: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2014) was used to explore the recent trend of harmful alcohol use in the general population. Among all current alcohol drinkers aged 20–64 years, the frequencies of harmful alcohol use in each age group, year of birth, marriage, income, education, and occupation were analyzed based on gender. RESULTS: A total of 34,478 people (14,544 men and 19,834 women) who reported drinking alcohol in the last month at the time of interview were included in the analysis. The proportion of harmful alcohol use in men decreased (P for trend = 0.002) during the study period, whereas significant change was not observed in women (P for trend = 0.173). The prevalence of harmful alcohol use was highest in men aged 35–49 years and women aged 20–34 years. For both men and women, lower level of education and service occupation were the common risk factors of harmful alcohol use. Additionally, low income was a risk factor of harmful alcohol use in women but not in men. Marriage increased the risk of harmful alcohol use in women but decreased in men. CONCLUSION: Public health interventions in reducing harmful alcohol use should consider the different high-risk groups between men and women.
Drinking ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Marriage ; Nutrition Surveys ; Occupations ; Parturition ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Risk Factors

Objectives: This study aimed to describe the current public programs for community walking in Korea and to discuss their challenges.Method: We identified the literature related to community walking including five laws, 22 white papers from government departments and 84 program reports from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Results: Korean law guarantees legal rights and validity to create safe, convenient and equitable environments for community walking. The government department, which has jurisdiction over legislation relating to community walking, has dominated community walking programs, and the role of public health department has been insufficient. Almost all sectors in the department of Seoul Metropolitan Government were involved in community walking programs. However, inter-sectoral cooperation system for community walking was insufficient. Conclusion It is necessary to revise the condolences of the National Health Promotion Act to establish the role and perspective of public health in community walking promotion. Institutional efforts should be made to expand the network structure between sectors of community walking programs by establishing an organizational, budget, and performance sharing system for inter-sectoral approach.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to assess the priorities of health promotion for older adults in the rural community. The study attempts to display demographic characteristics subjective health status and chronic diseases status of the older adults. METHODS: We surveyed 384 senior residents in a community via face-to-face interviews in their homes, who were selected by proportional random sampling. We analysed the frequency, multiple responses and chi2 by SPSS 12.0K. RESULTS: The mean of subjective health status was 54.04+/-21.69 with a maximum of 100. Our study found that the high priorities in health promotion for older adults were prevention and management of hypertension and diabetes, strengthening of joint and muscles, cancer screening and physical exercise. Prevention of depression and social activities were low priorities. Strengthening of joints and muscles was a high priority among women while smoking cessation and social activities were high priorities of men. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, health promotion priorities of older adults differed by gender and subjective health status. Disease-related priorities received more attention than psycho-social health priorities. This study suggests comparing the priorities regionally and nationally.
Adult* ; Chronic Disease ; Depression ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Exercise ; Female ; Health Priorities ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Joints ; Male ; Muscles ; Rural Population* ; Smoking Cessation

Background: Hematocrit is usually measured from venous blood collected by invasive venipuncture. This study was performed to determine hematocrit accurately and precisely using minimally invasive volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) technique.Such technique is to be applied to determining hematocrit in various clinical settings for the care, including therapeutic drug monitoring, of neonatal or epileptic patients, or patients with high risk of infection or bleeding. Methods: The study was performed using 31 VAMS samples obtained from 21 pancreatic cancer patients. Hematocrit was determined using the values of potassium concentrations obtained from blood in VAMS tips (HctVAMS ). HctVAMS was compared with hematocrit measured from blood collected by venipuncture (HctVP ). The accuracy and precision of HctVAMS in comparison to HctVP were evaluated using BlandAltman plot, Deming regression and mountain plot. Results: Bland-Altman plot displayed a random scattering pattern of the differences between HctVAMS and HctVP with the mean bias of −0.010 and the 95% limit of agreement ranging from −0.063 to 0.044.Deming regression for HctVAMS and HctVP line demonstrated very small proportional and constant biases of 1.04 and −0.003, respectively. Mountain plot exhibited a narrow and symmetrical distribution of the differences with their median of −0.011 and central 95% range from −0.049 to 0.033. Conclusion Hematocrit was accurately and precisely determined using less invasive VAMS technique. Such technique appears to be applicable to determining hematocrit in situations that venipuncture is not favorable or possible.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cryoablation has been recognized as a potential tool in the treatment of cancer. Beside its ability to cause local destruction of the primary tumor, cryoablation has been claimed to induce a systemic anti-tumor immune response. We compared cryoimmunologic responses between cryoablation and surgical excision in a murine model of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). MATERIALS AND METHOD: Six-to 8-weeks-old female mice (total n=30) were used for this study. Tumors were established at the flank of C3H mice with the SCCVII cell line, which is an immunogenic murine SCC of spontaneous origin in the C3H/HeJ mice. The mice underwent surgical excision or cryoablation, when the tumors were between 0.3 and 0.6 cm in the largest dimension. Successfully treated mice were re-challenged with the murine bladder cancer cells, namely, SCCVII cell line or MBT-2 cells at the contralateral flank. One week later, secondary tumor growth was estimated. Spleens were harvested from the mice that had no tumor after re-challenge. Effector splenocytes were added to the target SCCVII cells prelabeled with 3H thymidine. Cytotoxicity was investigated by measuring 3H thymidine releases from target cells. RESULTS: After re-challenging the SCCVII cell line, tumors were developed in 33% (1/3) of the mice treated by surgical excision, compared to 0% (0/4) of mice treated by cryoablation. In the cytotoxicity assay, there were no significant differences between the excision and cryoablation group. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the anti-tumor immunologic effect of cryoablation in the murine SCC model is not better than that of surgical excision.
Animals ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Line ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cryosurgery ; Female ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C3H ; Spleen ; Thymidine ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms

Purpose: Renal tumors account for approximately 7% of all childhood cancers. These include Wilms tumor (WT), clear cell sarcoma of the kidney (CCSK), malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney (MRTK), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), congenital mesoblastic nephroma (CMN) and other rare tumors. We investigated the epidemiology of pediatric renal tumors in Korea. Materials and Methods: From January 2001 to December 2015, data of pediatric patients (0–18 years) newly-diagnosed with renal tumors at 26 hospitals were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Among 439 patients (male, 240), the most common tumor was WT (n=342, 77.9%), followed by RCC (n=36, 8.2%), CCSK (n=24, 5.5%), MRTK (n=16, 3.6%), CMN (n=12, 2.7%), and others (n=9, 2.1%). Median age at diagnosis was 27.1 months (range 0-225.5) and median follow-up duration was 88.5 months (range 0-211.6). Overall, 32 patients died, of whom 17, 11, 1, and 3 died of relapse, progressive disease, second malignant neoplasm, and treatment-related mortality. Five-year overall survival and event free survival were 97.2% and 84.8% in WT, 90.6% and 82.1% in RCC, 81.1% and 63.6% in CCSK, 60.3% and 56.2% in MRTK, and 100% and 91.7% in CMN, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusion The pediatric renal tumor types in Korea are similar to those previously reported in other countries. WT accounted for a large proportion and survival was excellent. Non-Wilms renal tumors included a variety of tumors and showed inferior outcome, especially MRTK. Further efforts are necessary to optimize the treatment and analyze the genetic characteristics of pediatric renal tumors in Korea.