OBJECTIVE: The present study has examined whether subjective age would be associated with cognitive functioning in older adults. METHODS: Data from the third wave of Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project were used. This study was conducted with 152 older adults aged 60–89 years (mean=72.26, standard deviation=6.41) who completed measures of subjective age, Mini-Mental State Examination for Dementia Screening, Elderly Verbal Learning Test, Digit Span Test, Korean-Color Word Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Korean Boston Naming Test-Short form. The association of subjective age and cognitive functioning was analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. Sex, depression, and chronological age were included as control variables. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that a younger subjective age was associated with better processing speed, immediate memory, and executive function respectively. Even after controlling for chronological age, depression, and sex, the subjective age was associated with cognitive functioning in old age. CONCLUSION: Beyond chronological age, the subjective experience of age was associated with cognitive aging.
Adult ; Aged ; Aging ; Cognition ; Cognitive Aging ; Dementia ; Depression ; Executive Function ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Memory, Short-Term ; Stroop Test ; Trail Making Test ; Verbal Learning

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the effect of drink containing sodium benzoate on the change of urinary hippuric acid (UHA) and methyl hippuric acid (UMHA) excretion among workers coexposed to low toluene and xylene. METHODS: Study subjects were 55 male shipbuilders who were divided into 3 groups; nonexposed group (n=10, who were not exposed to organic solvent and had drunk sodium benzoate), exposed A group (n=24, who were coexposed to toluene and xylene, and had drunk sodium benzoate), and exposed B group (n=21, who were coexposed to toluene and xylene, and had not drunk sodium benzoate). The study methodology consisted of questionnaire survey, urinary analysis for metabolites of toluene and xylene before and after drinking with or without sodium benzoate, and personal air sampling of toluene and xylene. RESULTS: Before drinking, there was no significant difference in UHA or UMHA between the exposed A and B groups. After 1.5 hour of drinking, UHA of the exposed A group was significantly higher than that of the exposed B group. After 3 hours, however, UHA of the exposed A group was decreased to the level of the exposed B group, regardless of the ambient toluene level. UMHA exhibited no significant difference between the exposed A and B groups regardless of time and ambient toluene level. The regression model showed that drinking of sodium benzoate was positively correlated with UHA after 1.5 hours of drinking, but not after 3 hours. In addition, sodium benzoate didn't affect UMHA. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that sodium benzoate initially increased UHA temporally but that its effect disappeared after 3 hours. In the medical examination of toluene exposure workers, the ingestion of drink containing sodium benzoate should be forbidden during the 3 hours prior to urinary sampling.
Drinking ; Eating ; Humans ; Male ; Questionnaires ; Sodium Benzoate* ; Sodium* ; Toluene* ; Xylenes*

OBJECTIVES: Since Korea has been known to be one of the endemic area for hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection, vaccination for HBV has been recommended for all neonates in Korea. After starting vaccination in 1983, the change of sero-positivity of HBsAg and HBsAb is expected. This study was carried out to investigate the seropositive rate of hepatitis B virus surface antigen and antibody in high school freshmen students in Chungju-city. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From 1998 to 2001, a total of 11,735 who were born in 1982 to 1986, were enrolled in this study. HBsAg and anti-HBs were tested by reversed passive hemagglutination and passive hemagglutination, respectively. PESULTS: The study population was 11,735 students who were composed of 5,813 males (49.6%) and 5,914 females (50.4%). The HBsAg sero-positivity of male and female students was 3.25% (n=381) and 2.59% (n=153) respectively. The anti-HBs sero-positivity of male and female students was 62.2% (n=3,154) and 64.1% (n=2,969) respectively. There are significant difference observed in comparison of HBsAg and anti-HBs seropositivity according to sex (p<0.05). From 1982 to 1986 on birth year, anti-HBs sero-positivity has been increased significantly from 63.3% to 73.3%. But the change of HBsAg sero-positivity has not been changed significantly. CONCLUSIONS: As compared with previous studies of HBsAg and anti-HBs, the sero-positive rate of HBsAg has not been changed but that of HBsAb has been increased significantly. This result revealed that the effect of HBV vaccination program was successful.
Antigens, Surface ; Female ; Hemagglutination ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Male ; Parturition ; Vaccination