Spatio-temporal Analysis of District-level Life Expectancy from 2004 to 2017 in Korea.

Background: Health indicators, such as mortality rates or life expectancy, need to be presented at the local level to improve the health of local residents and to reduce health inequality across geographic areas. The aim of this study was to estimate life expectancy at the district level in Korea through a spatio-temporal analysis.

Methods: Spatio-temporal models were applied to the National Health Information Database of the National Health Insurance Service to estimate the mortality rates for 19 age groups in 250 districts from 2004 to 2017 by gender in Korea.

Stagnation of life expectancy in Korea in 2018: A cause-specific decomposition analysis.

According to the most recent annual report released by Korea Statistics, the life expectancy at birth (for both sexes) in 2018 was 82.7 years, an increase of 0.0 years over 2017, reflecting the first stagnation in life expectancy since 1960.

Comparison of three small-area mortality metrics according to urbanity in Korea: the standardized mortality ratio, comparative mortality figure, and life expectancy.

Background: This study aimed to compare three small-area level mortality metrics according to urbanity in Korea: the standardized mortality ratio (SMR), comparative mortality figure (CMF), and life expectancy (LE) by urbanity.

Methods: We utilized the National Health Information Database to obtain annual small-area level age-specific numbers of population and deaths in Korea between 2013 and 2017. First, differences in the SMR by urbanity were examined, assuming the same age-specific mortality rates in all small areas.

Educational Inequalities in Self-Rated Health in Europe and South Korea.

While numerous comparative works on the magnitude of health inequalities in Europe have been conducted, there is a paucity of research that encompasses non-European nations such as Asian countries. This study was conducted to compare Europe and Korea in terms of educational health inequalities, with poor self-rated health (SRH) as the outcome variable. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2017 were used (31 countries).

Tobacco price increases in Korea and their impact on socioeconomic inequalities in smoking and subsequent socioeconomic inequalities in mortality: a modelling study.

Objective: Through a modelling study, we assessed the impact of tobacco price increases on smoking and smoking inequalities by income, and then quantified the subsequent effects on mortality and inequalities in mortality in Korea.

Methods: Eleven-year pooled data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) (n=65 197) were used to estimate the income group-specific price elasticity. The price elasticity was then used to calculate changes in current smoking prevalence and per capita cigarette consumption resulting from a spectrum of hypothetical tobacco price increases.

Impact of the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak on Emergency Care Utilization and Mortality in South Korea.

Purpose: In May 2015, South Korea experienced an epidemic of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This study investigated the impacts of MERS epidemic on emergency care utilization and mortality in South Korea.

Materials And Methods: A natural experimental study was conducted using healthcare utilization and mortality data of the entire Korean population.

Trends in inequality in life expectancy at birth between 2004 and 2017 and projections for 2030 in Korea: multiyear cross-sectional differences by income from national health insurance data.

Objectives: The current status, time trends and future projections of a national health equity target are crucial elements of national health equity surveillance. This study examined time trends in inequality by income in life expectancy (LE) at birth between 2004 and 2017 and made future projections for the year 2030 in Korea.

Design: Using individually linked mortality data, time trends in inequality by income in LE at birth were examined.

Quantifying the impact of reducing socioeconomic inequalities in modifiable risk factors on mortality and mortality inequalities in South Korea.

Objectives: We quantified the impact of reducing socioeconomic inequalities in risk factors on mortality and mortality inequalities in South Korea.

Methods: The mortality risk function from the 12-year mortality follow-up data of the National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort, the prevalence of major risk factors from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2015, and the Health Plan 2020 (HP2020) goals for major risk factors were used to estimate the magnitude of reduction in mortality inequalities by changing the magnitude of income-based inequalities in risk factors in various scenarios under gender-specific models among participants aged 40-79 years.

Results: The greatest reduction in absolute and relative inequalities in mortality would occur if the low-income group achieved the HP2020 goals earlier than the high-income group.

Stress radiography for clinical evaluation of anterior shoulder instability.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of stress radiography using the Telos GA-IIE as a clinical methodology to evaluate shoulder instability.

Methods: On 36 anterior shoulder dislocators and 23 uninjured volunteers, 4 types of stress radiographs were captured while applying 15 daN of force anteriorly (AER0 and AER60) and posteriorly (PER0 and PER60) at 2 different positions: (1) 90° of abduction combined with 0° external rotation and (2) 90° of abduction combined with 60° external rotation. The results of the anterior drawer test and of the same test under anesthesia were correlated.

Embryotoxicity assessment of developmental neurotoxicants using a neuronal endpoint in the embryonic stem cell test.

The embryonic stem cell test (EST) is a validated in vitro embryotoxicity test; however, as the inhibition of cardiac differentiation alone is used as a differentiation endpoint in the EST, it may not be a useful test to screen embryotoxic chemicals that affect the differentiation of noncardiac tissues. Previously, methylmercury (MeHg), cadmium and arsenic compounds, which are heavy metals that induce developmental neurotoxicity in vivo, were misclassified as nonembryotoxic with the EST. The aim of this study was to improve the EST to correctly screen such developmental neurotoxicants.

Inhibition of aroclor 1254-induced depletion of stored calcium prevents the cell death in catecholaminergic cells.

The relationship between depleting effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the intracellular calcium store and PCBs-induced cell death in dopaminergic cells has not been fully evaluated. Here, we evaluated the effects of inhibitors of the release of ER-stored calcium on the cytotoxicities induced by 10 microg/ml of Aroclor 1254 (A1254; polychlorinated biphenyl mixture) in a catecholaminergic cell-line, CATH.a cells.

Changes of the level of G protein alpha-subunit mRNA by tolerance to and withdrawal from butorphanol.

Butorphanol was infused continuously into cerebral ventricle at a constant rate of 26 nmol/microl/h for 3 days, and the withdrawal from opioid was rendered 7 h after the cessation of infusion. The G-protein alpha-subunit has been implicated in opioid tolerance and withdrawal. The effects of continuous infusion of butorphanol on the modulation of G protein alpha-subunit mRNA were investigated by using in situ hybridization techniques.

Aroclor 1254-induced cytotoxicity in catecholaminergic CATH.a cells related to the inhibition of NO production.

The neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) specific inhibitor, 7-nitroindazole (7-NI), and the nitric oxide (NO) donor (S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillarnine, SNAP) were used to study the role of NO in polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB: Aroclor 1254)-induced cytotoxicity in the immortalized dopaminergic cell line (CATH.a cells), derived from the central nervous system of mice. Treatment of the dopaminergic cells with various concentrations of Aroclor 1254 (0.