Objectives This study aimed to assess the effect of complete coverage and content of available antenatal care (ANC) on the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in 4 countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Methods Measures of complete coverage and content of ANC services included the frequency of ANC visits and the seven service components (blood pressure measurement, iron supplementation, tetanus toxoid immunization, explanations of pregnancy complications, urine sample test, blood sample test, and weight measurement). The complete coverage and content of ANC services were assessed as high if more than 4 ANC visits and all seven components were delivered. Multivariable logistic regression with complex survey designs was conducted using Demographic Health Survey data from the 4 ASEAN countries in question from 2014 to 2017.
Results The proportion of LBW infants was higher in the Philippines (13.8%) than in Indonesia (6.7%), Cambodia (6.7%), or Myanmar (7.5%). Poor ANC services were associated with a 1.30 times higher incidence of LBW than a high level of complete coverage and content of ANC services (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11 to 1.52). In addition, the risk of LBW was higher in the Philippines than in other countries (aOR, 2.25; 95% CI, 2.01 to 2.51) after adjusting for mothers’ demographic/socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and other factors.
Conclusions In sum, complete coverage and content of ANC services were significantly associated with the incidence of LBW in Indonesia, Cambodia, and Myanmar. The Philippines did not show statistically significant results for this relationship, but had a higher risk of LBW with poor ANC.
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OBJECTIVES A hospital-based case-control study was conducted to evaluate the role of obesity in the development of colorectal cancer. METHODS: Three hundred and twenty four histologically confirmed female colorectal cancer cases and 26,998 non-cancer controls were selected from patients invited to the Aichi Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan between 1989 and 1995. Information concerning demographic factors, medical history, family medical history, reproductive factors and dietary factors were obtained from self-administered questionnaires and medical records. The effects of weight and body mass index to colorectal cancer were examined using multiple logistic regression to control for other risk factors. RESULTS: There was no significant association between female colorectal cancer and obesity. Heavier weight adjusted for height or body mass index did not increase the risk of colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there is no associa-tion between colorectal cancer risk and obesity in women.
This study was conducted to estimate incidence rate of female breast cancer in a defined area of Chungchongbuk-do in Korea. The presumptive breast cancer cases were selected from two different sources, i.e., medical utilization database of the National Health Insurance Corporation and the database from the National Cancer Registry. Medical students visited each hospital where the presumptive cases had been treated as a breast cancer patient, and made a dictation of medical record of each patient based on the claims stored in the Insurance Corporation from January to December 1995. The diagnoses in the claims included one of the following diagnostic codes; ICD-9 174-175(malignant neoplasms of the breast), 233(carcinoma in situ of the breast and genito-urinary system)or ICD-10 C50(malignant neoplasms of the breast), D05(carcinoma in situ of the breast and genito-urinary system). Each case has been confirmed as having a breast cancer by a breast surgeon through a medical record review. Age-standardized incidence rate of female breast cancer to the Korean population was estimated to be 10.5(95%confidence interval : 8.1-12.9)per 100,000 persons in 1995. Age-standardized rate to the world population was 9.8 per 100,000 persons, and the truncated rate for ages 35-64 was 27.2 per 100,000 persons. Validity of these estimates is discussing in comparison with previous methods of incidence estimation in Korea.
Visual display terminal(VDT) is popular in majority of office in modern countries. Musculoskeletal pain due to repetitive work with VDT is a serious industrial accident at present. In recent studies, shoulder pain in VDT users is the most common problem in Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of exercises on shoulder dysfunction in VDT-related female office workers. Of the l19 patients with shoulder dysfunction, 32 patients entered into the study. 16 patients(Group I) were not prescribed exercises, other 16 patients (Group II) performed throughout the specific shoulder exercises such as pendular exercises(forward, backward and circumduction) and sidelying external rotation exercises with weights. After 3 months of exercises, the two groups were compared in term of the pain rating scale, disability questionnaire score and range of motion score. The results were summarized as follows ; l. The pain rating scale in Group I before and after 3 months were not differenced significantly(p value=0.784) and in Group II, the scale before and after exercises were differenced significantly(p value=0.0005). 2. The disability, questionnaire scores in Group I before and after 3 months were not differenced significantly(p value=0.437) and in Group II, the scores before and after exercises were differenced significantly(p value=0.0002). 3. The ROM scores of the affected shoulder in Group I before and after 3 months were not differenced significantly(p value=0.876) and in Group II, the scores before and after exercises were differenced significantly(p value=0.0017). In conclusion, that the specific shoulder exercises on shoulder dysfunction in VDT-related female office workers are encouraged.
With increased use of neurotoxic agents in manufacturing industries, hazardous effects of neurotoxic agents pose significant problems in protecting health of workers who work in these industries. A normal range of neurobehavioral performance is required 10 study hazardous effects of neurotoxic agents among workers. However, such reference for Korean population is not available yet. The objective of this study is to estimate a normal range of neurobehuvioral test performance of female workers in Korea. Data for neurobehavioral test performance developed by the world Health organization were obtained from 165 female workers. Study Subjects, 140 production workers and 25 clerks, who voluntarily participated in this study were not occupationally exposed to neurotoxic agents. The mean age and the mean education years of them were 32 years and 10.9 years, respectively. Santa Ana dexterity, pursuit aiming, digit symbol, simple reaction time, and Benton visual retention tests among the Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery(NCTB) were included in the evaluation. Subjects were interviewed by a trained interviewer for their detailed occupational history. Mean(+/-SD) performance of the participants were: 45.7+/-7.1 and 41.9+/-6.4 in the Santa Ana dexterity test of the preferred and non-preferred hands; 191.9+/-38.6 in correct dot of the pursuit aiming test; 57.7+/-16.0 in the digit symbol test; 274.8+/-44.6 msec in the mean simple reaction time and 70.5+/-69.0 msec in the mean standard deviation of it; and 7.8+/-1.7 in the Benton visual retention test. Most neurobehavioral performance scores were correlated significantly with age and educational level. Educational level was found to be a significant independent variable which was associated with all test scores. Age was significantly associated with scores of pursuit aiming and digit symbol tests.
Much of the working population in developing countries are engaged in shift work now and the number of shift workers is not expected to decrease in the future mostly because the need for continuity of production is increasing. Therefore, the possible effects of shift work on health are of particular interest, and in fact, there have been many epidemiological studies on shift work since the first world war. However, no studies on health effects of shift work have been reported in Korea, and the existing studies in western world have arrived at quite different conclusions mainly because the conditions of work other than shift work, such as age and selection of workers, work environment, and labor conditions also influence the health of workers. This study was firstly carried out in Korea to investigate the health risks related to shift work with 2,093 female workers randomly selected from three major manufacturing industries in proportion to total number of female workers in those industries. Differences of work conditions other than shift work in this study were adjusted by multivariate analysis. Major findings obtained from this study are as follows: 1. There were significant differences between shift and day workers in the distribution of age, type of industry, condition of noise and dust, regularity of mealtime, working position, and working duration. Shift workers tended to be younger, to have shorter working duration, to have more irregular mealtime, to work in standing position, and to work under more noisy and dusty environment than day workers. 2. Univariate analysis showed that shift work increased the Todai Health Index (THI) scores of digestive tract, respiratory tract, and mental instability symptom categories. Shift work also increased days of sickness absence and number of industrial accident per 100 workers per month. 3. Multivariate analysis that adjusted the differences of demographic, occupational and non-occupational health-related working conditions showed that digestive tract symptoms and mental instability symptom scores were significantly higher in shift workers than those in day workers. Based on those study results, it is concluded that the shift work has significant effects on some psychophysiological conditions of the workers and the effects are also influenced by several other personal and working conditions.
OBJECTIVES The study was designed to test if alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among adolescent females are related to their parents' level of alcohol problems. METHODS: In 2001, a stratified sample of 2077 adolescent females, grades 10-11, from twelve female-only high schools located in a large metropolitan city in the Republic of Korea completed a questionnaire about alcohol use, parental attention, and parental alcohol consumption, and other risk and protective factors. Data were analyzed with chi-square and regression analyses. RESULTS: Nearly 63% of the student drinkers had experienced at least one to two alcohol-related problems in their lives. Two-thirds of all 2077 students indicated that at least one of their parents had an alcohol-related problem and that approximately 29% had experienced several problems. Results of random effects ordinal logistic regression analyses suggest a dose-response relationship between parental and youth alcohol-related problems. Youth who report having parents with some and many alcohol problems were 30% (Odds Ratios [OR] = 1.30; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.10 - 1.53) and 55% (OR = 1.55; 95%CI = 1.23 - 1.95) more likely to experience alcoholrelated problems than youth whose parents do not have alcohol problems, respectively, after statistically adjusting for important covariates. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents evidence that alcoholrelated problems among adolescent female students is highly prevalent. Also, the study findings reveal a high percentage of parents with alcohol problems, as reported by students. This study presents evidence of what might be a hidden problem among adults and youths in the Republic of Korea that merits serious attention.