This study investigated how acculturation varies with demographic variables and is related to dietary habits among Korean Americans. The respondents were 162 Korea Americans aged at least 18 years old residing in the Greater New York metropolitan area. The level of acculturation was measured using a modified Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation(SL-ASIA) scale. Acculturation was operationally defined to be composed of 6 factors, which are language, media use, friendship, food, pride, and ethnic self-identity. Each factor in the level of acculturation was identified by how it is related to demographics and dietary habits in the method of correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regressions analyses. The reliability of the modified SL-ASIA scale was high as measured by Cronbach alpha of .92. The level of acculturation was related to place of birth, age, length of residence in the U.S., and education. The younger, the longer they had lived in the U.S., and the more they were educated, the more acculturated. Acculturation could be predictable for 52% of its variance with all demographic variables. Among the 6 factors in the level of acculturation, five of them, language, media use friendship, food, and ethnic self-identity were correlated with dietary habit changes after immigration and type of meals. All 6 acculturation factors could predict 21% of change in dietary habits. the information from this study can be used to describe usual describe usual dietary habits according to various aspects of acculturation to better understand the dynamics among acculturation, demographics, and dietary habits.
Acculturation ; Adolescent ; Asian Americans ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Demography ; Education ; Emigration and Immigration ; Food Habits ; Friends ; Humans ; Korea ; Meals ; Residence Characteristics

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence married female immigrants' perceived health status. METHODS: This study was a retrospective review of dataset from the 2012 National Multicultural Family Survey in Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, an analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression with the data of 3,014 married female immigrants. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis showed that demographic factors (age, education level, nationality, period of residency in Korea, and residential area), socio-economical factors (monthly family income, employment, support from the government for basic living, and Medicaid), social support factors (marital conflict, satisfaction with family relationships, some one to talk about self or family matters, meeting with homeland friend, and participation in community meeting), and immigration factors (life satisfaction, experience of social discrimination, and difficulties with living and using medical care) were associated with perceived health status. CONCLUSION: It is important to pay closer attention to immigrant women who have low economic status, less social support, experience difficulties with living in Korea and using medical care. An effective support system for this population should be developed in order to help them successfully transition.
Dataset ; Demography ; Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Emigration and Immigration ; Employment ; Ethnic Groups ; Family Relations ; Female ; Friends ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Korea ; Retrospective Studies ; Social Discrimination

BACKGROUND: Immigration to South Korea from neighboring Asian countries has risen dramatically, primarily due to marriage between Korean men and foreign women. Although Filipino women rank fourth among married immigrant women, little is known about the health condition of this population. This manuscript focuses on the design and methods of Filipino women's diet and health study (FiLWHEL). SUBJECTS/METHODS: FiLWHEL is a cohort of Filipino women married to Korean men, aged 19 years old or over. The data collection comprised three parts: questionnaire, physical examination, and biospecimen collection. Questionnaires focused on demographic factors, diet, other health-related behaviors, acculturation and immigration-related factors, medical history, quality of life, and children's health information. Participants visited the recruitment site and answered the structured questionnaires through a face-to-face interview. We also measured their anthropometric features and collected fasting blood samples, toenails, and DNA samples. Recruitment started in 2014. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Collection of data is ongoing, and we plan to prospectively follow our cohort participants. We expect that our study, which is focused on married Filipino women immigrants, can elucidate nutritional/health status and the effects of transitional experiences from several lifestyle factors.
Acculturation ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Child Health ; Cohort Studies ; Data Collection ; Demography ; Diet* ; DNA ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Emigration and Immigration ; Fasting ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Marriage ; Methods* ; Nails ; Physical Examination ; Prospective Studies ; Quality of Life

In order to understand the causal mechanism of disease aggregates peculiar to place and ethnicity, mortality data of Yanji city, China (1993) were collected, examined for validity and analyzed. Age standardized, age specific mortality rates and ten leading causes of death were compared with 1993 Korean mortality statistics. Age standardized mortality rates for both sexes were highest in Korean-Chinese followed by Koreans and Chinese (the lowest). Out of ten leading causes of death (54%-70% of the total deaths), seven for male and six causes of death for female were common in all groups. Korean-Chinese females had more similar patterns to Chinese females than males did. Differences in mortality rates by causes of death among groups suggested that hypertensive diseases and respiratory tuberculosis were associated with ethnicity, homicide/injuries inflicted by others, diabetes mellitus and chronic renal disease with environment, and others with both ethnicity and environment. These results suggest that a few causes of death were attributed to either ethnicity or environment whereas most of the ten leading causes of deaths were attributed to mixed impacts of both ethnicity and environment.
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data ; Adolescence ; Adult ; Age Distribution ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cardiovascular Diseases/mortality* ; Cause of Death* ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China/epidemiology ; Comparative Study ; Diabetes Mellitus/mortality ; Emigration and Immigration ; Female ; Human ; Hypertension/mortality ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea/epidemiology ; Liver Cirrhosis/mortality ; Lung Neoplasms/mortality ; Male ; Middle Age ; Risk Factors ; Sex Distribution ; Stomach Neoplasms/mortality ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/mortality

BACKGROUND: Although incidence of leprosy in Korea has declined steadily over the years, the increase in immigration since the turn of the century-much of it from countries where leprosy is still prevalent-has been linked to an uptick in registered cases. OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiologic trends of incident leprosy cases detected in Spain among Korea-and foreign-born population groups METHODS: Observational, retrospective study of suspected leprosy cases in Korea, as reviewed leprosy records from the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention from 2001 to 2015, with results disaggregated by country of birth. Author collected statistical data on leprosy burden for other countries from WHO(World Health Organization) to estimate the expected number of imported cases. RESULTS: Of the 198 leprosy cases registered during the study period, 172(86.9%) were in Korea patients, while 26(13.1%) were detected in resident immigrants. Author identified a significantly higher number of imported leprosy cases during the 2004~2006, 2007~2009, 2010~2012 and 2013~2015 trienniums compared to the reference triennium 2001~2003 (OR 2.66, 95% CI 0.607–11.65; OR 8.33, 95% CI 2.05–33.94; OR 10.00, 95% CI 2.25–44.49; and OR 10.00, 95% CI 1.99–1.34; respectively). Most imported cases were diagnosed in Indonesia(23%) and Sri Lanka(23.8%). However, registered incidence was lower than expected for each year from 2007 to 2015. For example, in 2007, the expected new cases in immigrants were 8, compared to only one case that were actually detected (a 87.3% difference). Likewise, the author expected to find 24 incident cases among immigrants in 2014 and 2015, but only one new case were reported (95.7% fewer than expected). CONCLUSION: Imported cases of leprosy are low than expected cases in Korea, and the author cannot rule out some under-diagnosis. Clinicians should be made more aware of the potential for leprosy incidence among patients from countries where the disease is endemic.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Emigration and Immigration* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Leprosy* ; Parturition ; Population Groups ; Retrospective Studies ; Spain

PURPOSE: This pioneering study aimed to investigate social disparities in breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) incidence rates among women across Iran's provinces from 2003 to 2009. METHODS: Provincial level population distribution data pertaining to women were obtained from the Statistical Centre of Iran. Age-standardized incidence rates of BC and OC were gathered from the National Cancer Registry. Human Development Index was used as the provinces' social rank (SR), and rate ratio and Kunst and Mackenbach relative index of inequality were used to assess social disparities. Annual percentage change (APC) was calculated using joinpoint regression, and Spearman rank correlation was used to examine the association between APC and SR. RESULTS: It was found that over the study period, annual incidence rates rose by 11.6% and 9.7% for BC and OC, respectively. Social disparities were substantial and stable in favor of provinces with lower SR in Iran, and were more profound for BC than OC. Correlations between APC and SR were small and nonsignificant for both BC and OC. CONCLUSION: The results showed that both BC and OC incidence increased in Iran during 2003 to 2009. There were positive associations between BC and OC incidence rates and the provinces' SR. This study's recommendations provide valuable information for health resource allocation pertaining to BC and OC control programs across provinces in Iran.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Demography ; Female ; Health Resources ; Health Status Disparities ; Human Development ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Iran* ; Longitudinal Studies ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Socioeconomic Factors

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia according to gender, age and Helicobacter pylori infection in a rural population in Korea. METHODS: Between April 2003 and January 2007, 713 subjects (298 men and 415 women, age range: 18-85) among the 2,161 adults who participated in a populationbased survey received gastrointestinal endoscopy. All the subjects provided informed consent. Multiple biopsy specimens were evaluated for the presence of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia. The presence of Helicobacter pylori was determined using CLO and histology testing. RESULTS: The age-adjusted prevalence of atrophic gastritis was 42.7% for men and 38.1% for women and the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia was 42.5% for men and 32.7% for women. The prevalence of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia increased significantly with age for both men and women (p for trend<0.001). The ageadjusted prevalence of Helicobacter pylori was similar for men (59.0%) and women (56.7%). The subjects with Helicobacter pylori infection showed a significantly higher prevalence of intestinal metaplasia (44.3%) compared with that (26.8%) of the noninfected subjects (p<0.001). However, the prevalence of atrophic gastritis was not statistically different between the Helicobacter pyloriinfected subjects and the noninfected individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the prevalence of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia is higher for a Korean rural population than that for a Western population; this may be related to the high incidence of gastric cancer in Koreans. Especially, the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia was high for the subjects with Helicobacter pylori infection. The multistep process of gastric carcinogenesis and the various factors contributing to each step of this process need to be determined by conducting future follow-up studies.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Demography ; Female ; Gastritis, Atrophic/*epidemiology/pathology ; Helicobacter Infections/*epidemiology/pathology ; *Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Intestine, Small/*pathology ; Male ; Metaplasia/epidemiology/pathology ; Middle Aged ; Rural Population ; Sex Factors ; Socioeconomic Factors

OBJECTIVES: This study presents a scientific basis for the establishment of an environmental health contingency plan for dealing with accidental coastal oil spills and suggests some strategies for use in an environmental health emergency. METHODS: We reviewed the existing literature, and analyzed the various fundamental factors involved in response strategies for oil spill. Our analysis included data derived from Hebei Spirit oil spill and used air dispersion modeling. RESULTS: Spill amounts of more than 1,000 kl can affect the health of residents along the coast, especially those who belong to vulnerable groups. Almost 30% of South Korean population lives in the vicinity of the coast. The area that is at the highest risk for a spill and that has the greatest number of people at risk is the stretch of coastline from Busan to Tongyeong. The most prevalent types of oil spilt in Korean waters have been crude oil and bunker-C oil, both of which have relatively high specific gravity and contain volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals. In the case of a spill of more than 1,000 kl, it may be necessary to evacuate vulnerable and sensitive groups. CONCLUSIONS: The government should establish environmental health planning that considers the spill amount, the types of oil, and the distance between the spot of the accident and the coast, and should assemble a response team that includes environmental health specialists to prepare for the future oil spill.
*Accidents ; Decision Support Techniques ; *Disaster Planning ; *Environmental Health ; Environmental Monitoring ; Environmental Pollution/*prevention & control ; *Petroleum ; Population Dynamics ; Risk Assessment

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A similar gender-associated trend in obesity is observed worldwide. Nevertheless, systematic analyses of gender-specific characteristics in the general Korean population are rare. METHODS: We analyzed the prevalence of obesity in Korean adults aged > or = 19 years based on data collected from the Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys I to IV, and verified the obesity prevalence characteristics by gender. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity in Korean males increased during the past 12 years from 25.1% to 35.7%, and the trend for an increase in obesity was significant in all age groups (p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant trend over the past 12 years was identified for females, but the prevalence of obesity in the 30- to 39-year, 40- to 49-year, and 50- to 59-year subgroups decreased significantly (p < 0.05). However, the obesity prevalence in the 60- to 69-year and > 70-year female subgroups increased significantly (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We observed a gradually widening gender disparity due to an increase in the prevalence of male obesity and a decrease in the obesity prevalence among young and middle-aged women.
Adult ; Age Distribution ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Female ; *Health Status Disparities ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nutrition Surveys ; Obesity/*epidemiology ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Sex Distribution ; Sex Factors ; Time Factors ; Young Adult

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors related to eating breakfast for middle and high school students in Seoul using the Theory of Planned Behavior. Out of 2,280 questionnaires distributed to 22 schools, 2,060 were returned (90.4% response rate) and 1,899 were analyzed (83.3% analysis rate). Gender, self-perceived household income level and mother's working status were examined as demographic factors. "Attitude", "Subjective norm", "Perceived difficulty in access to breakfast", "Perceived time restriction" and "Self restriction to breakfast" were extracted as psychosocial factors as the results of factor analysis and reliability test using 17 items. In case of middle school students, boys were more likely to skip breakfast than girls. The students perceiving their household income level "low or middle low" were more likely to skip breakfast than those who perceived their household income level "high or middle high". The students whose mother had a job tended to skip breakfast than those whose mother had no job. In case of high school students, the students perceiving their household income level "low or middle low" tended to skip breakfast than those perceiving their household income level "high or middle high". The results of analysis of variance, all the psychosocial factors examined in this study-"Attitude", "Subjective norm", "Perceived difficulty in access to breakfast", "Perceived time restriction" and "Self restriction to breakfast"- were related to the frequencies of eating breakfast during weekdays in both the middle and high school students.
Breakfast ; Demography ; Eating ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Mothers ; Surveys and Questionnaires