Ethnic disparity in metabolic syndrome and related obesity and health behavior: a community study in Taiwan.

Background: As studies on ethnic disparities in metabolic syndrome and its risk factors in Taiwan are still rare, the aims of this study were: (1) to detect the differences in the rates of metabolic syndrome, obesity and health behaviors between two ethnic groups (indigenous Tsou and nonindigenous Han) living in the same area and with similar age and sex distributions; (2) to examine whether ethnicity per se plays a significant role in the occurrence of metabolic syndrome, while taking other risk factors including sociodemographic characteristics, obesity and health behaviors into consideration.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using data from a community survey conducted in Chiayi County in southwestern Taiwan. A frequency matching strategy by age and sex with a ratio of 1 (Tsou) to 3 (Han) was applied to select a comparable sample between both ethnic groups (667 Tsou and 2001 Han) from among the survey participants.

Long-term exposure to air pollution and the incidence of Parkinson's disease: A nested case-control study.

Background: Previous studies revealed that chronic exposure to air pollution can significantly increase the risk of the development of Parkinson's disease (PD), but this relationship is inconclusive as large-scale prospective studies are limited and the results are inconsistent. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ascertain the adverse health effects of air pollution exposure in a nationwide population using a longitudinal approach.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study using the National Health Insurance Research Dataset (NHIRD), which consisted of 1,000,000 beneficiaries in the National Health Insurance Program (NHI) in the year 2000 and their medical records from 1995 to 2013 and using public data on air pollution concentrations from monitoring stations across Taiwan released from the Environmental Protection Administration to identify people with ages ≥ 40 years living in areas with monitoring stations during 1995-1999 as study subjects.

Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Relationship to Early Pregnancy Discomforts.

Objectives: We assessed environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and examined its association with pregnancy discomforts.

Methods: We used structured questionnaires to interview a convenience sample of 139 pregnant women (8-20 weeks of gestation) recruited from 2 hospitals in central Taiwan.

Results: We found that 84% of the participants experienced ETS exposure in their households, workplaces, and/or public areas.