| Yoo-Seock Cheong | 4 Articles |
Background
Hypertension is a major contributor to the global disease burden of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine demographic and clinical factors associated with adherence to antihypertensive medication. Methods From August 2012 to February 2015, we recruited 1,523 Korean patients with hypertension who visited family physicians. The study was conducted in 24 facilities located in urban and metropolitan areas. Of these facilities, two were primary care clinics and 22 were level 2 or 3 hospitals. Adherence was assessed using the pill count method; a cut-off value of 80% was used as the criterion for good adherence. Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were compared between the adherent and nonadherent groups using the chi-square test for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed with medication adherence as the outcome variable. Results Of the 1,523 patients, 1,245 (81.7%) showed good adherence to antihypertensive medication. In the multivariate logistic analysis, age ≥65 years, exercise, treatment in a metropolitan-located hospital, being on ≥2 classes of antihypertensive medication and concomitant medication for diabetes, and a family history of hypertension or cardiovascular diseases were associated with good adherence. Patients who had a habit of high salt intake were less adherent to medication. Conclusion Multiple classes of antihypertensive medications, concomitant medication, and exercise were associated with good adherence to antihypertensive medication, and high salt intake was associated with poor adherence to antihypertensive medication. These factors should be considered to improve hypertension control. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
The prevalence of childhood obesity in South Korea has increased owing to economic improvement and the prevailing Westernized dietary pattern. As the incidence of chronic diseases caused by obesity is also expected to increase, effective interventions to prevent childhood obesity are needed. Therefore, we conducted a Delphi study to determine the priorities of a potential intervention research on childhood obesity prevention and its adequacy and feasibility. The two-round Delphi technique was used with a panel of 10 childhood obesity experts. The panelists were asked to rate “priority populations,” “methods of intervention,” “measurement of outcomes,” “future intervention settings,” and “duration of intervention” by using a structured questionnaire. Finally, a portfolio analysis was performed with the adequacy and feasibility indexes as the two axes. For priority populations, the panel favored “elementary,” “preschool,” and “middle and high school” students in this order. Regarding intervention settings, the panelists assigned high adequacy and feasibility to “childcare centers” and “home” for preschool children, “school” and “home” for elementary school children, and “school” for adolescents in middle and high school. As the age of the target population increased, the panelists scored increasing numbers of anthropometric, clinical, and intermediate outcomes as highly adequate and feasible for assessing the effectiveness of the intervention. According to the results of the Delphi survey, the highest-priority population for the research on childhood obesity prevention was that of elementary school students. Various settings, methods, outcome measures, and durations for the different age groups were also suggested. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
In the 1990s the primary focus of medicine was shifted to disease prevention. Accordingly, it became the responsibility of primary-care physicians to educate and counsel the general population not only on disease prevention specifically but health promotion generally as well. Moreover, it was, and is still today, considered important that physicians provide positive examples of health-promotion behaviors to patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate physicians' health-promotion behaviors and to identify the factors that influence them. We conducted a postal and e-mail survey of the 371 members of the Physician Association of Cheonan City between May 16th and June 25th, 2011. The questionnaire consisted of 18 items, including questions relating to sociodemographic factors, screening tests for adult diseases and cancer, and health habits. There were 127 respondents. The gender breakdown was 112 men (88.2%) and 15 women (11.8%), and the mean age was 47.8 years. Fifty-nine (46.4%) were family physicians or interns, and 68 (53.6%) were surgeons. Twenty-six percent (26%) were smokers, and 74.8% were drinkers; 53.5% did exercise; 37% had chronic diseases; 44.9% took periodic cancer screening tests, and 72.4% took periodic screening tests for adult diseases. It was found that general characteristics and other health-promotion behaviors of physicians do not affect physicians' practice of undergoing periodic health examination. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
To compare the prevalence and metabolic characteristics of metabolically healthy but obese (MHO) individuals according to different criteria. We examined 186 MHO middle-aged men (age, 37.2 years; body mass index [BMI], 27.2 kg/m2). The following methods were used to determine MHO: the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, 0-2 cardiometabolic abnormalities; the Wildman criteria, 0-1 cardiometabolic abnormalities; the Karelis criteria, 0-1 cardiometabolic abnormalities; the homeostasis model assessment [HOMA] criteria (lowest quartile of HOMA). After dividing the overall subjects into two age groups, we compared the prevalence and clinical characteristics between MHO and at-risk groups according to four different criteria. The prevalence of MHO using the NCEP, Wildman, Kaleris, and HOMA criteria were 70.4%, 59.7%, 28.5%, and 24.2%, respectively. The agreement between the groups according to the NCEP and Wildman criteria was substantial (kappa = 0.8, P < 0.001). Among individuals 35 years or younger, and regardless of method, the MHO subjects had significantly lower weight, waist circumference, BMI, body fat percentage, insulin, HOMA, alanine aminotransferase, triglyceride (TG), and TG/high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio than the at-risk subjects (P < 0.05); However, among individuals older than 35 years old, and regardless of method, the MHO subjects had different insulin, HOMA, HDL-C, and TG/HDL-C levels than the at-risk subjects (P < 0.05). The differences in metabolic profile between MHO and at-risk groups varied according to age. MHO prevalence varies considerably according to the criteria employed. Expert consensus is needed in order to define a standardized protocol for determining MHO. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
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