OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence, risk factors of overactive bladder (OAB) and the factors affecting the severity of OAB symptoms. METHODS: A total 822 interviews with women aged 18–80 years who visited public health centers were conducted between April 2014 and April 2015. The questionnaire was composed of 16 questions about urinary symptoms, 14 questions about self-treatment and the use of complementary and alternative medicine, and 21 questions about socio-demographic characteristics. The diagnostic criterion for OAB is a total OAB symptom score of 3 and more, with an urgency score of 2 or more. To know the risk factors and factors affecting the severity of OAB, the multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-seven participants (19.3%) were diagnosed with OAB, of whom 10.7%, 8.1%, and 0.7% had mild, moderate, and severe OAB symptoms, respectively. In addition, the prevalence of OAB increased with age. Among all the participants, 39.1% had stress incontinence, among them 32.7% had OAB as well. The significant risk factors of OAB were identified as age, current smoking, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular and renal disease, whereas, the factors affecting the severity of OAB were age, current smoking, and hyperlipidemia. CONCLUSION: Those who have risk factors and factors affecting severity of OAB should be educated to increase OAB awareness and act of urinary health promotion.
Complementary Therapies ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Logistic Models ; Prevalence ; Public Health* ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Urinary Bladder, Overactive*

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on synchronous colorectal carcinoma (SCRC) have reported inconsistent results about its clinicopathologic and molecular features and prognostic significance. METHODS: Forty-six patients with multiple advanced tumors (T2 or higher category) who did not receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and who are not associated with familial adenomatous polyposis were selected and 99 tumors from them were subjected to clinicopathologic and molecular analysis. Ninety-two cases of solitary colorectal carcinoma (CRC) were selected as a control considering the distributions of types of surgeries performed on patients with SCRC and T categories of individual tumors from SCRC. RESULTS: SCRC with multiple advanced tumors was significantly associated with more frequent nodal metastasis (p = .003) and distant metastasis (p = .001) than solitary CRC. KRAS mutation, microsatellite instability, and CpG island methylator phenotype statuses were not different between SCRC and solitary CRC groups. In univariate survival analysis, overall and recurrence-free survival were significantly lower in patients with SCRC than in patients with solitary CRC, even after adjusting for the extensiveness of surgical procedure, adjuvant chemotherapy, or staging. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that tumor multiplicity was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (hazard ratio, 4.618; 95% confidence interval, 2.126 to 10.030; p < .001), but not for recurrence-free survival (p = .151). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggested that multiplicity of advanced T category–tumors might be associated with an increased risk of nodal metastasis and a risk factor for poor survival, which raises a concern about the guideline of American Joint Committee on Cancer's tumor-node-metastasis staging that T staging of an index tumor determines T staging of SCRC.
Adenomatous Polyposis Coli ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; CpG Islands ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Joints ; Microsatellite Instability ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Phenotype ; Radiotherapy ; Risk Factors

BACKGROUND: In South Korea, as an aged society, an understanding of dementia and its risk factors is important from clinical and healthcare policy perspectives. Relationship between cognitive impairment and body weight or weight changes have been reported, but these were contradictory. We have evaluated the association between weight changes and cognitive decline using national level longitudinal data. METHODS: Data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2006 to 2012 were used. Association between weight changes and decline in cognitive function as measured by K-MMSE (the Korean version of the Minimental state examination) score was assessed by multivariate logistic regression. Weight changes were calculated from 1st wave and 3rd wave survey data, and classified into five groups as stable, increases, decreases of >10%, or 5%–10%. RESULTS: About 37% of the total participants (n=4,512) were 65 years or older. These participants made up the largest proportion of the groups with weight change exceeding 10%. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that weight changes exceeding 10% (10% increase vs stable, adjusted OR [aOR] 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11–1.95; 10% decrease vs stable, aOR 1.44, 95% CI 1.11–1.88) were significant predictive factors for decline in cognitive function. In subgroup analyses, the association between weight changes and cognitive decline was significant in males aged over 65 years and in normal BMI groups. CONCLUSION Weight changes, both increases and decreases exceeding 10% of baseline, were significantly associated with declines in cognitive function among older adults in South Korea.

Background/Aims: Drugs with anticholinergic properties (DAPs) are associated with adverse health outcomes in older patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the factors that determine the prescribing of more DAPs in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) in Korea. In addition, the current patterns of DAP prescription were explored using a novel platform, which can collect data from LTCHs. Methods: This was a Health-RESPECT (integrated caRE Systems for elderly PatiEnts using iCT) sub-study, which is a pragmatic, cluster-randomized, controlled trial. The Health-RESPECT platform was used to collect prescribed medication data of 466 patients (aged ≥ 65 years) from seven LTCHs. DAPs were identified using the Korean Anticholinergic Burden Scale (KABS). Physical frailty, cognitive function, functional status, and quality of life were evaluated. Results: Among 466 LTCH patients, 88.8% (n = 414) were prescribed DAPs, and the prevalence of high KABS (≥ 3) was 70.4% (n = 328). The drugs that contributed most to the total KABS were quetiapine (20.7%), chlorpheniramine (19.5%), tramadol (9.8%), cimetidine (5.8%), and furosemide (3.6%). Polypharmacy, higher body mass index, less dependence, better communication and cognitive functions, and poorer quality of life were associated with high KABS. Conclusions Although the patients with a high burden of DAPs were less dependent and had better cognitive and communication functions, they had poorer quality of life. DAP use in LTCH patients should be monitored carefully, and the risk/ benefit relationship for their use should be considered.