Biomedical subjects

Mi Sook Song

Publications and source records attributed to Mi Sook Song.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Subjective memory complaints and clinical characteristics in elderly Koreans: a questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVES: The overall objectives of the Ajou-Bundang Study for the Elderly (AB study) were to describe the current geriatric diseases and health behaviors, and to improve the visiting health service in South Korea. The particular objectives of the current study were to describe the AB study and to investigate the associations between subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and objective cognitive function, to assess the clinical characteristics of SMCs, and to measure possible differences between elderly people with and without cognitive dysfunction. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of a sample of people from the AB study was constructed to study the association between SMCs and demographic variables. SMCs, cognitive function, and demographic characteristics were ascertained. A total of 9,477 subjects aged 65 years or over were recruited from the residents of Bundang, Korea. RESULTS: SMCs were reported by 57.3% of the study participants. SMCs were correlated with advanced age and with being female. Further analyses of cognitive functions revealed that associated factor profiles differed between the participants with and without cognitive dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that age is associated with SMCs, irrespective of the level of cognitive function. Longitudinal SMC studies should be undertaken to investigate potentially associated clinical parameters.

Age Distribution↗

PubMed2005

The PHC-cog: a brief cognitive function screening test for the elderly.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive dysfunctions such as dementia have emerged as a leading public health problem among the elderly. Its early detection is important for the management of patients, and for the educational support of other family members. Although cognitive dysfunction screening tests are available, they have not been widely utilized in community or primary care settings. AIM: To validate the PHC-cog (Public Health Center Cognitive Dysfunction Test) and to assess it as a simple and brief method for massive screening of cognitive dysfunctions in the primary care setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study comprised 137 community-dwelling patients with dementia and 134 age, sex, and education-matched controls. The PHC-cog was made combining patients' and informants' questionnaires to improve performance. The PHC-cog patient's section briefly assessed the patient's cognition. RESULTS: The PHC-cog Patient's Section had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.75 and 0.92, respectively. The PHC-cog Informants' Section had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.79 and 0.83, respectively. The total method of administering the PHC-cog had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.96 and 0.82, and the two-stage method had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.92 and 0.76, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The PHC-cog test is a simple, accurate and reliable, performance-based tool in the screening for cognitive dysfunction. The PHC-cog test is quick, and easy-to-use, and will hopefully become widely used in the cognitive screening of the aging population in the primary public medical institutions of Korea.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Effect of lifetime lactation on breast cancer risk: a Korean women's cohort study.

The objective of our study was to examine the effect of lifetime lactation on breast cancer risk among premenopausal women. The data were from a prospective cohort study with a follow-up period of 6 years in Korea (1995-2000). The cohort was composed of 110,604 premenopausal parous Korean women, aged 20 years and older, who received health insurance from the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation and who had medical evaluations in 1992 and 1994. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were tested, controlling for age, age at menarche, number of children, age at first pregnancy, oral contraceptive use, smoking, exercise and obesity. At baseline, 57,440 (51.9%) reported breastfeeding and 4,584 (4.1%) reported breastfeeding more than 24 months. From 1995-2000, 360 incident cases of breast cancer (61.8/100,000 person-years) occurred. Compared to parous women who had no history of lactation, a period of lactation of 13-24 months decreased the risk of breast cancer (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5-1.1), and this risk was decreased even further for those who breastfed for more than 24 months (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.3-1.0). There was a clear trend of decreasing breast cancer risk with the duration of lactation (p for trend <0.001). In conclusion, our study of a large Korean cohort provides additional empirical evidence to current theoretical conjecture that lactation decreases the risk of breast cancer among premenopausal women.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Translation and validation of champion's health belief model scale with Korean women.

The Champion's Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS) is a reliable and valid instrument developed for American women to measure beliefs about breast cancer and breast self-examination. The purpose of this study is to translate the CHBMS into Korean and to validate the scale among Korean women. The CHBMS was translated using a back-translation technique. A convenience sample of 264 women was recruited from a continuing education center, a community health center, and a university in 3 South Korean cities. The participants were asked to complete the translated Korean version of the CHBMS questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed using a principal component analysis with varimax rotation for construct validity. Loading criterion was set at.45. Cronbach's alpha was computed for the reliability of the scale. From the analysis, two items from the Benefits domain and four items from the Motivation domain were deleted from the original scale. Thus, the final Korean version of the CHBMS (CHBMS-K) consisted of 36 items that were clustered to 6 subscales: susceptibility (5 items), seriousness (7 items), benefits (4 items), barriers (6 items), confidence (11 items), and motivation (3 items). Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients for the 6 subscales ranged from.92 to.72. The CHBMS-K was found to be reliable and valid in scale for use with Korean women. It can be used in planning and testing interventions to improve breast self-examination beliefs and practice.

Adult↗