Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for maintaining skeletal health, yet deficiencies in these nutrients are particularly widespread in regions such as Asia and Africa. Inadequate intake of these nutrients in these areas has been associated with diminished bone integrity and a rising incidence of osteoporosis. This review examines the underlying mechanisms of bone loss driven by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, emphasizing their crucial roles in bone metabolism. It also presents strategies to improve nutrient intake, such as fortification of staple foods and supplementation, along with lifestyle modifications including increased physical activity, sun exposure, and dietary education, to prevent bone loss effectively. Special consideration is given to vulnerable populations, including older adults, individuals with limited sun exposure, and those with dietary restrictions, who are at higher risk of deficiency.The review further evaluates public health strategies, including government-initiated fortification and educational programs, as essential measures for tackling widespread nutrient deficiencies. Lastly, it explores future avenues for addressing calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, including the potential role of digital health tools, personalized nutrition, and innovative public health policies to alleviate the global burden of bone-related diseases.

Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for maintaining skeletal health, yet deficiencies in these nutrients are particularly widespread in regions such as Asia and Africa. Inadequate intake of these nutrients in these areas has been associated with diminished bone integrity and a rising incidence of osteoporosis. This review examines the underlying mechanisms of bone loss driven by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, emphasizing their crucial roles in bone metabolism. It also presents strategies to improve nutrient intake, such as fortification of staple foods and supplementation, along with lifestyle modifications including increased physical activity, sun exposure, and dietary education, to prevent bone loss effectively. Special consideration is given to vulnerable populations, including older adults, individuals with limited sun exposure, and those with dietary restrictions, who are at higher risk of deficiency.The review further evaluates public health strategies, including government-initiated fortification and educational programs, as essential measures for tackling widespread nutrient deficiencies. Lastly, it explores future avenues for addressing calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, including the potential role of digital health tools, personalized nutrition, and innovative public health policies to alleviate the global burden of bone-related diseases.

Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for maintaining skeletal health, yet deficiencies in these nutrients are particularly widespread in regions such as Asia and Africa. Inadequate intake of these nutrients in these areas has been associated with diminished bone integrity and a rising incidence of osteoporosis. This review examines the underlying mechanisms of bone loss driven by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, emphasizing their crucial roles in bone metabolism. It also presents strategies to improve nutrient intake, such as fortification of staple foods and supplementation, along with lifestyle modifications including increased physical activity, sun exposure, and dietary education, to prevent bone loss effectively. Special consideration is given to vulnerable populations, including older adults, individuals with limited sun exposure, and those with dietary restrictions, who are at higher risk of deficiency.The review further evaluates public health strategies, including government-initiated fortification and educational programs, as essential measures for tackling widespread nutrient deficiencies. Lastly, it explores future avenues for addressing calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, including the potential role of digital health tools, personalized nutrition, and innovative public health policies to alleviate the global burden of bone-related diseases.

Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for maintaining skeletal health, yet deficiencies in these nutrients are particularly widespread in regions such as Asia and Africa. Inadequate intake of these nutrients in these areas has been associated with diminished bone integrity and a rising incidence of osteoporosis. This review examines the underlying mechanisms of bone loss driven by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, emphasizing their crucial roles in bone metabolism. It also presents strategies to improve nutrient intake, such as fortification of staple foods and supplementation, along with lifestyle modifications including increased physical activity, sun exposure, and dietary education, to prevent bone loss effectively. Special consideration is given to vulnerable populations, including older adults, individuals with limited sun exposure, and those with dietary restrictions, who are at higher risk of deficiency.The review further evaluates public health strategies, including government-initiated fortification and educational programs, as essential measures for tackling widespread nutrient deficiencies. Lastly, it explores future avenues for addressing calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, including the potential role of digital health tools, personalized nutrition, and innovative public health policies to alleviate the global burden of bone-related diseases.

Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for maintaining skeletal health, yet deficiencies in these nutrients are particularly widespread in regions such as Asia and Africa. Inadequate intake of these nutrients in these areas has been associated with diminished bone integrity and a rising incidence of osteoporosis. This review examines the underlying mechanisms of bone loss driven by calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, emphasizing their crucial roles in bone metabolism. It also presents strategies to improve nutrient intake, such as fortification of staple foods and supplementation, along with lifestyle modifications including increased physical activity, sun exposure, and dietary education, to prevent bone loss effectively. Special consideration is given to vulnerable populations, including older adults, individuals with limited sun exposure, and those with dietary restrictions, who are at higher risk of deficiency.The review further evaluates public health strategies, including government-initiated fortification and educational programs, as essential measures for tackling widespread nutrient deficiencies. Lastly, it explores future avenues for addressing calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, including the potential role of digital health tools, personalized nutrition, and innovative public health policies to alleviate the global burden of bone-related diseases.

Purpose: The female sex is reported to have a higher risk of adverse events (AEs) from cytotoxic chemotherapy. Few studies examined the sex differences in AEs and their impact on the use of medical services during adjuvant chemotherapy. This sub-study aimed to compare the incidence of any grade and grade ≥ 3 AEs, healthcare utilization, chemotherapy completion rate, and dose intensity according to sex. Materials and Methods: This is a sub-study of a multicenter cohort conducted in Korea that evaluated the impact of healthcare reimbursement on AE evaluation in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy between September 2013 and December 2016 at four hospitals in Korea. Results: A total of 1,170 patients with colorectal, gastric, or non–small cell lung cancer were included in the study. Female patients were younger, had fewer comorbidities, and experienced less postoperative weight loss of > 10%. Females had significantly higher rates of any grade AEs including nausea, abdominal pain, stomatitis, vomiting, and neutropenia, and experienced more grade ≥ 3 neutropenia, nausea, and vomiting. The dose intensity of chemotherapy was significantly lower in females, and they also experienced more frequent dose reduction after the first cycle. Moreover, female patients receiving platinum-containing regimens had significantly higher rates of unscheduled outpatient visits. Conclusion Our study found that females experienced a higher incidence of multiple any-grade AEs and severe neutropenia, nausea, and vomiting, across various cancer types, leading to more frequent dose reductions. Physicians should be aware of sex differences in AEs for chemotherapy decisions.

Purpose: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections affecting both males and females but there is an apparent lack of knowledge and apprehension towards male HPV vaccination South Korea. The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations between knowledge and perceptions of male HPV vaccination and vaccination intent among Korean mothers of adolescent sons. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a nationwide online survey. The independent variables were mothers’ sociodemographic characteristics, history of HPV diagnosis, general HPV knowledge, HPV vaccine knowledge, and attitudes and beliefs towards male HPV vaccination. The outcome variable was mothers’ intent to vaccinate their sons, which was classified into three categories: non-intent, undecided and intend to vaccinate. We performed univariate analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 906 eligible mothers completed the survey. Mothers received low scores on the HPV-related knowledge scales with low ratings on the scale measuring perceived risk of HPV. Approximately 10% of the mothers intended to vaccinate their sons against HPV, 61.0% were undecided and 1.5% already had their sons vaccinated. According to the multinominal logistic regression analysis, having a daughter in the family, mothers’ previous diagnosis with HPV, general HPV knowledge, influence, harm, and risk were significantly associated with being undecided and having intentions to vaccinate their sons (p<0.05). Conclusions Our study revealed that Korean mothers are generally less aware of male HPV vaccination, have low perceived risk of HPV, and remain highly hesitant on vaccinating their sons against HPV. It is therefore important to raise public awareness about male HPV vaccination and alleviate vaccine hesitancy. Such efforts will contribute to improving parents’ vaccination intent, increasing vaccine uptake among male adolescents and prevention of HPV-associated diseases.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the importance and performance of food/nutrition labeling. The aim was to determine how important students consider food nutritional labeling, utilization of nutrition labels in daily life, and consumer satisfaction of current nutritional labeling. METHODS: This study was conducted using a primary survey of students at one high school in Seoul. A total of 300 of 382 questionnaires were analyzed. RESULTS: Regarding difference analysis of the importanceperformance of food/nutrition labeling, importance showed higher scores than performance in all 10 attributes. According to the results of Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA), ‘health, weight control and maintenance, proper dietary habits, and personal satisfaction’ displayed both high importance and performance in the first quadrant. Importance of two factors (health and nutritional factor and effects of media and education) of the 10 attributes positively influenced overall satisfaction in the multiple regression analysis. CONCLUSION: To develop healthier food choices, it is necessary to educate adolescents about food/nutrition labeling and improve the food/nutrition labeling system.
Adolescent* ; Consumer Behavior ; Food Habits ; Food Labeling* ; Humans ; Seoul*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an eco-friendly foodservice program at a high school on dietary behaviors of students, awareness of importance of eco-friendly activities, and foodservice satisfaction. METHODS: The survey was conducted with students at two schools in Gyeonggi, Korea. A total of 576 of 650 students were used for this study. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, independent t-test, and factor analysis to test the two group's differences. RESULTS: The practices of ‘eat balanced meals’ or ‘finish all food on the plate’ scored high (p < 0.001) in students that participated in the eco-friendly foodservice program than those who did not. Regarding awareness of the importance of eco-friendly activities, all attributes scored higher in students that participated in the eco-friendly foodservice program. All attributes for satisfaction except two scored higher (p < 0.05) in students that participated in the eco-friendly foodservice program. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of the correlation showed that high subjective income status was positively associated with foodservice satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Students that participated in the eco-friendly foodservice program are highly aware of the importance of eco-friendly activities. They demonstrate more positive dietary behaviors and higher awareness of the importance of eco-friendly programs with greater foodservice satisfaction.
Adolescent ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Korea

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Sustainable practices in foodservice organizations including commercial and noncommercial ones are critical to ensure the protection of the environment for the future. With the rapid growth of the foodservice industry, wiser usage of input sources such as food, utilities, and single use packaging should be reconsidered for future generations. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the customer's perceptions on sustainable practices and to identify the relationship among sustainable practices, social contribution and purchase intention. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The study was conducted using content analyses by reviewing articles on sustainable food service practices published domestically and abroad. Thereafter, data were collected with a face-to-face survey using a questionnaire and analyzed with factor analyses and multiple regressions. RESULTS: Sustainable practices classified with factor analysis consisted of 6 dimensions of green food material procurement, sustainable food preparation, green packaging, preservation of energy, waste management, and public relations on green activity, with a total of 25 green activities in foodservice operations. Consumers were not very familiar with the green activities implemented in the foodservice unit, with the lowest awareness of "green food material procurement (2.46 out of 5 points)", and the highest awareness of "green packaging (3.74)" and "waste management (3.28). The factors influencing the perception of social contribution by foodservice organizations among 6 sustainable practice dimensions were found to be public relations on green activity (beta = 0.154), waste management (beta = 0.204) and sustainable food preparation (beta = 0.183). Green packaging (beta = 0.107) and the social contribution of the foodservice organization (beta = 0.761) had strong relationships with the image of the organization. The purchase intentions of customers was affected only by the foodservice image (beta = 0.775). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that sustainable practices by foodservice organization present a good image to customers and increase the awareness of valuable contributions that benefit the customer as well as the community.
Food Services ; Intention ; Korea* ; Product Packaging ; Public Relations ; Social Responsibility ; Waste Management