Socioeconomic Status and Number of Children Among Korean Women: The Healthy Twin Study

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate whether the birth rate is associated with socioeconomic status in the women of the Republic of Korea, where the birth rate is rapidly decreasing.Methods: This study included 732 females from the Healthy Twin Study, a family-twin cohort. The participants were classified into 3 socioeconomic groups according to their average income, education, and occupation. The association between socioeconomic status and number of children was assessed using gamma regression analysis with a generalized linear mixed model, adjusting for the age group, smoking/alcohol status, and family relationships.Results: The group with the highest education level had significantly fewer children compared with the group with the lowest education level (p=0.004). However, no significant associations were found according to household income level. The non-manual labor group had significantly fewer children compared with those working as homemakers (p=0.008).Conclusions: This study aimed to explain the causal relationship between socioeconomic status and number of children. Associations between some socioeconomic status and number of children were found in Korea.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate whether the birth rate is associated with socioeconomic status in the women of the Republic of Korea, where the birth rate is rapidly decreasing. Methods: This study included 732 females from the Healthy Twin Study, a family-twin cohort. The participants were classified into 3 socioeconomic groups according to their average income, education, and occupation. The association between socioeconomic status and number of children was assessed using gamma regression analysis with a generalized linear mixed model, adjusting for the age group, smoking/alcohol status, and family relationships. Results: The group with the highest education level had significantly fewer children compared with the group with the lowest education level (p=0.004). However, no significant associations were found according to household income level. The non-manual labor group had significantly fewer children compared with those working as homemakers (p=0.008). Conclusions: This study aimed to explain the causal relationship between socioeconomic status and number of children. Associations between some socioeconomic status and number of children were found in Korea.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2013-01/102/0000040632/2SEQ:2PERF_CD:SNU2013-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000040632ADJUST_YN:NEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:902CITE_RATE:0FILENAME:2.SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND NUMBER OF CHILDREN AMONG.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과EMAIL:[email protected]:

Potentially modifiable blood triglyceride levels by the control of conventional risk factors

Backgrounds Triglyceride (TG) is known to be regulated by multiple lifestyle factors rather than genetic factors. This cross-sectional and community-based study (Healthy Twin study in Korea) aimed to estimate the modifiable TG level by identifying non-genetic risk factors of TG. Methods Participants were recruited between 2006 and 2011 who fulfilled health examinations and detail surveys: 3079 Korean adults including 949 monozygotic twins and 222 dizygotic twins. In order to investigate conventional risk factors, a mixed model accounting for family as a random effect was performed. In addition, we conducted a co-twin control analysis for 452 monozygotic twin (MZ) pairs, to examine non-genetic risk factors and potentially modifiable serum triglyceride levels. Results After excluding patients on dyslipidemia or diabetes medication, 2672 individuals (1029 men, with mean age of 43.9; and 1643 women with mean age of 43.3; 949 MZ pairs, 222 dizygotic twin pairs, and 1501sibling pairs) were analyzed. Fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid panel, height, weight, waist (WC) and hip circumference, body mass index (BMI), amount of dietary intake and amount of physical activity was examined after adjusting for age and sex. For conventional analysis, WC, fat %, and BMI were identified as significant factors influencing serum triglyceride levels. Examination of non-genetic factors from the Co-twin control study revealed BMI (beta coefficient 9.94 with C.I. 3.42 to 16.46) and amount of alcohol intake (beta coefficient 0.08 with C.I. 0.02 to 0.14) as significant factors. Conclusion Our findings suggest that controlling body weight and alcohol intake might be effective to control TG; moderate weight control (BMI 1 reduction) and reducing alcohol consumption by 50 g/week (about two glassed of beer) might reduce TG level by 9.94 and 4.0 mg/dL

Reproducible Research in Public Health

In this study, we aimed to construct pipelinesof reproducible statistical analysis in healthresearch. The development of pipelines in thisstudy consists of? Automatic suggestions of a summary tabledescribing the general characteristics of thestudy? Univariate analysis of both explanatory andoutcome variables of a study? Graphical presentations of summary andunivariate analyses? Automatic analysis and tabulations of mainresultsbased on frequently used analytical methodsin the health research area (e.g., multiple regression,logistic regression, survival analysis,multilevel analysis, genome-wide associationstudy(GWAS)OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2014-01/104/0000040632/3SEQ:3PERF_CD:SNU2014-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:104USER_ID:0000040632ADJUST_YN:NEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:902CITE_RATE:0FILENAME:the r user - 표지 abstracts.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과CONFIRM:

Dietary Restraint Is Non-Genetically Associated with Change in Body Mass Index: The Healthy Twin Study

Purpose: We aimed to examine if past and more recent body mass index (BMI) changes are associated with eating behavior (EB) traits and whether these associations are due to non-genetic factors. Materials and Methods: In 1321 Korean twins and family members, recent and past BMI change groups were defined using quartiles of BMI change between first and second visits over 2.4±0.9 years and BMI change between 20 years old and second visit, respectively. We applied linear mixed analysis for relationships of past or recent BMI change groups and each EB (restrained, external, and emotional EB using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire) assessed at second visit after adjusting for household effect and covariates (age, gender, education, medical history of diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, alcohol use, physical activity, smoking habit, and calorie intake). In monozygotic twin pairs, paired t-test for within-pair comparison and conditional logistic regression analysis were conducted regarding EB. Results: Greater past BMI change was associated with higher restrained eating scores (P for trend=0.031), whereas greater recent BMI change was associated with higher external eating scores (P for trend=0.046). In co-twin-control analysis, twins with greater past BMI change were more likely to have higher restrained eating scores as compared with their co-twins with lower past BMI change (odds ratio 1.80; 95% confidence interval 1.13--2.87), whereas there were no associations between recent BMI change and external eating scores. Conclusion: Greater BMI change since 20 years old is associated with higher dietary restraint, and non-genetic factors explain this relationship.Key Words: Dietary restraint, non-genetic factor, BMI change, twinINTRODUCTIONOAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2014-01/102/0000040632/4SEQ:4PERF_CD:SNU2014-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000040632ADJUST_YN:NEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:902CITE_RATE:1.263FILENAME:4.dietary restraint is non-genetically associated with change_0.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과SCOPUS_YN:YCONFIRM:

A genome-wide Asian genetic map and ethnic comparison: The GENDISCAN study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic maps provide specific positions of genetic markers, which are required for performing genetic studies. Linkage analyses of Asian families have been performed with Caucasian genetic maps, since appropriate genetic maps of Asians were not available. Different ethnic groups may have different recombination rates as a result of genomic variations, which would generate misspecification of the genetic map and reduce the power of linkage analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed the genetic map of a Mongolian population in Asia with CRIMAP software. This new map, called the GENDISCAN map, is based on genotype data collected from 1026 individuals of 73 large Mongolian families, and includes 1790 total and 1500 observable meioses. The GENDISCAN map provides sex-averaged and sex-specific genetic positions of 1039 microsatellite markers in Kosambi centimorgans (cM) with physical positions. We also determined 95% confidence intervals of genetic distances of the adjacent marker intervals.</p> <p>Genetic lengths of the whole genome, chromosomes and adjacent marker intervals are compared with those of Rutgers Map v.2, which was constructed based on Caucasian populations (Centre d'Etudes du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH) and Icelandic families) by mapping methods identical to those of the GENDISCAN map, CRIMAP software and the Kosambi map function. Mongolians showed approximately 1.9 fewer recombinations per meiosis than Caucasians. As a result, genetic lengths of the whole genome and chromosomes of the GENDISCAN map are shorter than those of Rutgers Map v.2. Thirty-eight marker intervals differed significantly between the Mongolian and Caucasian genetic maps.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The new GENDISCAN map is applicable to the genetic study of Asian populations. Differences in the genetic distances between the GENDISCAN and Caucasian maps could facilitate elucidation of genomic variations between different ethnic groups.</p

Genetic associations and shared environmental effects on the skin microbiome of Korean twins

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Abstract Background The skin is the outermost layer of the human body and one of the key sites for host-microbe interactions. Both environmental and host genetic factors influence microbial communities in distinct anatomical niches, but little is known about their interplay in shaping the skin microbiome. Here, we investigate the heritable components of the skin microbiome and their association with host genetic factors. Results Based on our analysis of the microbiota from 45 individuals including monozygotic and dizygotic twins aged 26–55 years and their mothers, we found that skin microbial diversity was significantly influenced by age and skin pigmentation. Heritability analysis revealed genetic and shared environmental impacts on the skin microbiome. Furthermore, we observed a strong association between the abundance of Corynebacterium jeikeium and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the host FLG gene related to epidermal barrier function. Conclusion This study reveals an intimate association of the human skin microbiome and host genes, and increases our understanding of the role of human genetic factors in establishing a microbial ecosystem on the body surface

High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and Cancer

Background: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a commonly used inflammatory marker. The association between hs-CRP and cancer is less consistent than that between hs-CRP and cardiovascular diseases. This study explored the association between hs-CRP and cancer, using a large database of Korean health examination records.Methods: A total of 80 781 Koreans who visited the health promotion center of a general hospital were included. There were 729 cases of cancer of any primary site during a 3-year period. Subjects with a known cancer or a condition capable of affecting hs-CRP were excluded.Results: Serum hs-CRP was significantly higher in cancer cases (2.9 mg/L) than in non-cases (1.4 mg/L; P 3 mg/L), and the adjusted ORs for cancer were 1.16 (95% CI = 0.95-1.42) for the second highest category and 1.94 (95% CI = 1.51-2.51) for the highest category. After excluding cancer cases detected within I year after the check-up, the associations remained, although the reduced number of cancer cases (n = 88) attenuated the significance of the associations.Conclusions: Serum hs-CRP was positively associated with the risk of cancer, although causality cannot be inferred in this cross-sectional study. The results support the hypothesis that chronic inflammation plays a role in cancer.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2011-01/102/0000040632/2SEQ:2PERF_CD:SNU2011-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000040632ADJUST_YN:YEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:902CITE_RATE:1.858FILENAME:high-sensitivity c-reactive protein and cancer.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과SCOPUS_YN:YCONFIRM:

Reproductive factors associated with mammographic density: a Korean co-twin control study

To determine the mechanism by which menstrual and reproductive factors are associated with the risk of breast cancer, we examined the relationships between mammographic density and known menstrual and reproductive risk factors for breast cancer. A co-twin control study was conducted with 122 pairs of monozygotic Korean female twins selected from the Healthy Twin study. Mammographic density was measured from digital mammograms using a computer-assisted method. Information on selected menstrual and reproductive factors was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Within-pair differences for each mammographic measure were regressed against within-pair differences for each menstrual and reproductive risk factor with an adjustment for body mass index and other menstrual and reproductive factors. The percent dense area was inversely associated with the age at the first full-term childbirth (FFTB) and the number of live births, although the associations were marginally significant with an adjustment for BMI and other reproductive factors. The non-dense area was positively associated with the age at the FFTB and the number of live births. The absolute dense area was positively associated with the duration of breast feeding. The age at menarche was not associated with any component of the mammographic measures. This finding suggests that mammographic density can mediate the protective effect of greater parity against breast cancer, at least in part while age at menarche, age at the FFTB, and breast feeding do not exert their effects through mammographic density.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2011-01/102/0000040632/4SEQ:4PERF_CD:SNU2011-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:0000040632ADJUST_YN:YEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:902CITE_RATE:4.431FILENAME:reproductive factors associated with mammographic density a korean co-twin control study.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과SCOPUS_YN:YCONFIRM: