Publications by authors named "Chao Hsiung"
Misconceptions of and cultural differences in aging influence older adults' medical decision-making self-efficacy and engagement in advance care planning (ACP). This study aims to investigate the association between current medical decision-making participation self-efficacy and ACP engagement among older individuals receiving home-based medical care (HBMC) in Taiwan. Baseline data analysis of a nationwide cohort study.
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- * Results showed that a higher PRS was more strongly related to EGFR-positive LUAD cases (OR=8.63) than to EGFR-negative cases (OR=3.50), indicating a significant association based on mutation status.
- * These findings imply that genetic susceptibility to LUAD differs in never-smoking East Asian women depending on whether the cancer has specific mutations, which could affect public health strategies and clinical practices.*
The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) was developed for identifying, in a timely manner, patients who may benefit from supportive and palliative care for better treatment review, care-plan discussion, and end-of-life care. Although the SPICT has been validated in different languages and for patients living in different settings, it has not been validated for patients receiving home-based medical care (HBMC), or in the context of using traditional Chinese characters. The present study aimed to validate the Taiwanese version of the SPICT (SPICT-TW) and to measure its ability to predict six-month mortality in patients who received HBMC in Taiwan.
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- * Among 704 yeast isolates, the most common pathogenic species from farmers were Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis, while C. tropicalis was prevalent in environmental samples, with a notable fluconazole resistance rate.
- * The resistance of C. tropicalis to fluconazole was linked to resistance to certain agricultural azole fungicides, and gene mutations were identified as a contributing factor; reducing agricultural azole use could help mitigate this issue in human infections.
Dietary patterns related to inflammation have garnered great interest in disease prevention. The aims of this study were to evaluate whether a proinflammatory diet affects the incidence of frailty and its reversal in a prospective follow-up study. Data were taken from 5663 community-dwelling individuals ≥ 55 years old in Taiwan.
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- The study investigated the relationship between magnesium intake and cognitive function over time in adults aged 55 and older in Taiwan.
- Higher magnesium intake was linked to better performance on cognitive tests like the MMSE and DSST, particularly in men, indicating a protective effect against cognitive decline.
- The results suggest that increasing magnesium intake may help reduce the risk of cognitive impairment, especially for men, over a 6-year period.
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- Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) occurs when genetically identical blood cells expand, often influenced by genetic mutations linked to blood cancers; however, many cases happen without known driver mutations.
- Researchers analyzed 51,399 genomes to study a specific type of CH (CH-LPMneg) without detectable leukemia-related mutations, developing a new method (GEM rate) to estimate mutation burden without paired samples.
- Through their study, they identified seven genes linked to CH-LPMneg and found that alterations in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) behavior may drive this mutation burden, while a broader analysis revealed relationships between GEM and the expression of 404 genes.
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- * The newly developed multi-ancestry PRS showed a strong correlation with LUAD risk, indicating that individuals in the highest PRS percentile had significantly increased risk compared to those in the lowest.
- * Findings suggest that those in the highest risk category have a lifetime risk of about 6.69%, and they reach the average population's 10-year risk for LUAD by age 41, highlighting the importance of multi-ancestry PRS for better risk assessment in this group.
Background And Objectives: This study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the 10-item Awareness of Age-Related Change Short Form (AARC-SF) questionnaire in a Chinese-speaking sample of older adults in Taiwan.
Research Design And Methods: Data from 292 participants (Mage = 77.64 years) in the Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan cohort were used for Study 1, whereas data from young-old adult samples in Germany were used for Study 2.
Lung cancer in never smokers (LCINS) accounts for up to 25% of all lung cancers and has been associated with exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and air pollution in observational studies. Here, we evaluate the mutagenic exposures in LCINS by examining deep whole-genome sequencing data from a large international cohort of 871 treatment-naïve LCINS recruited from 28 geographical locations within the Sherlock- study. mutations were 3.
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- The study investigated how pulse pressure and hypertension relate to reduced physical function in older adults over an average of 6.19 years.
- Researchers analyzed data from Taiwanese adults aged 55 and older, measuring handgrip strength, gait speed, and walking distance to assess physical decline.
- Findings revealed that higher baseline pulse pressure correlated with future declines in handgrip strength and gait speed, with older adults having elevated blood pressure at greater risk of weakness, slowness, and lower endurance.
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- Taiwan effectively managed to control COVID-19 with a remarkable 253 days of no local transmission before experiencing outbreaks due to variants, despite low vaccination rates.
- The study compared Taiwan's rapid border closure and non-pharmaceutical interventions to other countries, finding a significant difference in response times and strategies.
- Key factors in Taiwan's success included quick responses, effective contact tracing, community cooperation, and the implementation of multiple preventive measures without strict lockdowns.
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- The study analyzed the age at lung cancer diagnosis and sex differences in individuals who never smoked, involving 33,793 participants from various regions including East Asia, the US, and the UK.
- Results showed that in Chinese individuals, females were diagnosed at a younger age than males, with significant differences recorded in several locations, while patterns in other racial groups were inconsistent.
- The findings suggest that there are notable sex differences in the age of diagnosis for lung cancer among non-smokers, highlighting the need for further research in this area.
Background: Prognostic indices can enhance personalized predictions of health burdens. However, a simple, practical, and reproducible tool is lacking for clinical use. This study aimed to develop a machine learning-based prognostic index for predicting all-cause mortality in community-dwelling older individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This study aimed to investigate the distinct yet interconnected aspects of social isolation, namely living alone and loneliness, and their individual and combined effects on predicting health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
Methods: A comprehensive analysis, encompassing both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, was conducted using a nationally representative sample of 5644 community-dwelling adults aged 55 and older from the Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan (HALST).
Results: Baseline data revealed that 9% of the sample reported living alone, while 10.
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- Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is linked to healthy aging, but the impact of work-related physical activity (WPA) on disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) and disabled life expectancy (DLE) remains unclear.
- A study involving 5,663 adults aged 55 and older found that women with low WPA had a significantly shorter DLE compared to those with no or high WPA, while men's DFLE and DLE appeared consistent across WPA levels.
- The findings suggest that older adults, especially women, should be mindful of the type and intensity of their physical activities to mitigate disability risks, highlighting the need for policies that promote balanced activity engagement.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension are common comorbidities and, along with hyperlipidemia, serve as risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) on cardiometabolic traits related to T2D, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia and the incidence of these three diseases in Taiwan Biobank samples. Using publicly available, large-scale genome-wide association studies summary statistics, we constructed cross-ethnic PRSs for T2D, hypertension, body mass index, and nine quantitative traits typically used to define the three diseases.
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- In Taiwan, a study called TALENT is examining the effectiveness of low-dose CT (LDCT) screening for lung cancer in never-smokers who have other risk factors, as nearly 60% of such patients are diagnosed at advanced stages.
- The study involved 17 medical centers and included individuals aged 55-75 who met specific eligibility criteria, like having never smoked or having a very limited smoking history, and certain risk factors for lung cancer.
- Preliminary results from a 1-year follow-up after the initial LDCT screenings were analyzed, focusing on the detection rates of lung cancer and using various statistical methods to evaluate the outcomes.
Background: Salary impacts nurse retention rates and thus is a factor affecting the nursing shortage both in Taiwan and around the world. Nurses in Taiwan earn a low salary compared with other health professionals and may be undervalued compared with their international counterparts.
Purpose: This study was designed to analyze the factors associated with nurse salary (NS) in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and to compare NS in Taiwan with those in OECD member states.
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- Estimating the absolute risk of lung cancer in never-smokers is key for developing effective lung cancer screening programs, particularly in relation to the influence of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).
- This study focused on never-smoking women in Taiwan, integrating their genetic susceptibility (via a polygenic risk score) and exposure to ETS to evaluate the risk of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).
- Findings revealed that the estimated lifetime risk of LUAD in women with no ETS exposure was 2.5%, highlighting the variability based on genetic and environmental factors, and the study examined how these elements interact in determining lung cancer risk.
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- This study investigates sex differences in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) incidence rates in Taiwan, focusing on whether women have higher rates than men regardless of smoking status.
- Data from multiple Taiwanese health databases covering several decades were analyzed, including information on smoking and tumor stage for individuals aged 40 to 84 diagnosed with lung ADC between 2011 and 2019.
- The findings indicate a significant number of patients diagnosed, with over 61,000 cases documented, providing valuable insights for lung cancer prevention strategies tailored to specific demographic groups.
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- Before vaccines, mobility restrictions were key in controlling COVID-19, with different age groups experiencing different levels of health risk and mobility changes affecting control measures' effectiveness.
- The study analyzed data from the Taipei metropolitan area, focusing on how mobility patterns among various age groups influenced COVID-19 transmission before and after certain control measures were implemented.
- Findings revealed that inter-district mobility increased COVID-19 cases more than intra-district mobility, and the movements of younger (15-59) and older (≥60) individuals significantly impacted case numbers, providing insights for public health strategies.
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- The study examines how a family history of lung cancer affects screening for the disease using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), following participants over multiple years.
- A total of 1,102 participants were enrolled, and the overall lung cancer detection rate was 4.5%, with higher rates observed in families with multiple lung cancer cases and among never-smokers.
- The findings suggest that having a maternal relative with lung cancer significantly increases the risk, highlighting the need for further research through randomized controlled trials to determine if LDCT screening can reduce mortality in this high-risk group.
Introduction: We investigated the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in individuals without known diabetes in Taiwan and developed a risk prediction model for identifying undiagnosed diabetes and IFG.
Research Design And Methods: Using data from a large population-based Taiwan Biobank study linked with the National Health Insurance Research Database, we estimated the standardized prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and IFG between 2012 and 2020. We used the forward continuation ratio model with the Lasso penalty, modeling undiagnosed diabetes, IFG, and healthy reference group (individuals without diabetes or IFG) as three ordinal outcomes, to identify the risk factors and construct the prediction model.
People with dementia (PwD) who receive home healthcare (HHC) may have distressing symptoms, complex care needs and high mortality rates. However, there are few studies investigating the determinants of mortality in HHC recipients. To identify end-of-life care needs and tailor individualized care goals, we aim to explore the mortality rate and its determinants among PwD receiving HHC.
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