Factors associated with ADL and IADL dependency among Korean centenarians: reaching the 100-year-old life transition.

This study aims to examine the functional status of Korean centenarians, who have crossed the relatively rare but increasingly common life transition of living for a century. As functional health is one of the essential components of healthy aging, our primary objective is to identify the correlates of two aspects of functioning, activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Using a census survey conducted by the Korean National Statistical Office (KNSO) in 2005, we documented ADL and IADL limitations and analyzed their relationship to sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, social connectedness, and presence of diseases.

Association of obesity with osteoarthritis in elderly Korean women.

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common sources of pain and disability among elderly people. Many genetic, demographic, and personal characteristics are involved in the risk of OA, of which obesity is one of the most important. This study evaluated the association between obesity and the prevalence of OA in elderly Korean women.

Association of low-dose exposure to persistent organic pollutants with global DNA hypomethylation in healthy Koreans.

Background: Global DNA methylation levels have been reported to be inversely associated with blood levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), xenobiotics that accumulate in adipose tissue. Whether these associations extend to a population with much lower concentrations of POPs is not known.

Objectives: This study was performed to examine whether low-dose exposure to POPs was associated with global DNA hypomethylation in Koreans.

The effect of intensive oral hygiene care on gingivitis and periodontal destruction in type 2 diabetic patients.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effects of oral hygiene care by oral professionals on periodontal health in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Materials And Methods: Diabetic participants were recruited at a university hospital and matched at a 1:1 ratio by age and gender, and randomly allocated into intervention (40 people) and control groups (35 people). Tooth brushing instruction, oral health education, and supra-gingival scaling were implemented in all patients at baseline.

More missing teeth are associated with poorer general health in the rural Korean elderly.

The aim was to investigate the association between missing teeth and general health conditions in elderly Korean people. This cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of a health-screening program supported by the National Health Insurance Corporation of Korea in a local region of Sungju-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do from 2000 to 2006. The participants were 3611 in number (1494 males and 2117 females) aged 60 years and over.

Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome using the modified ATP III definitions for workers in Japan, Korea and Mongolia.

A clustering of insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidemia has been labeled as the metabolic syndrome. Asians have a lower frequency of obesity than do Caucasians, but have an increasing tendency toward metabolic syndrome. Most data on metabolic syndrome are based on studies from Western countries with only limited information derived from Asian populations.

[Effects of home-visit nutrition education on nutritional status improvement of an urban community-dwelling elderly women in Korea].

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects on home-visit nutrition education by a dietitian on nutritional status improvement of an urban community-dwelling elderly women in Korea.

Methods: In the baseline survey, information on general characteristics, health-related characteristics, anthropometric measurements, biochemical measurements, nutritional knowledge. nutritional attitude, dietary habits, and food and nutrient intakes of 183 elderly people were obtained.

Triglyceride levels are ethnic-specifically associated with an index of stearoyl-CoA desaturase activity and n-3 PUFA levels in Asians.

Accumulated evidence suggests that hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) is independently associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. The hypotriglyceridemic effects of n-3 PUFAs have been confirmed in Caucasians, but the effect in Asians is less clear. Recent evidence indicates that stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) activity induced with high-carbohydrate diets increases plasma triglyceride levels.