Experience and Awareness of Health Managers, Administrators, and Workers on a Hearing Conservation Program in Korea: A Qualitative Study.

This study aims to evaluate the experience and awareness of a hearing conservation program to explore its activation plan. Three focus group discussions were conducted with five health managers, five labor supervisors, and five workers. A single in-depth interview was conducted with a health manager. Since hearing loss has a significant influence on the quality of life of workers, all participants recognized the importance of management. Although the need for hearing conservation programs was acknowledged, the participants had negative views about their effectiveness. Most health managers have not been able to demonstrate tangible results from their efforts to solve hearing problems, and they have been unable to demand that their employers actively invest resources and personnel in solving or preventing hearing problems. The participants in this study did not entirely understand the hearing conservation program, negative comments suggested that it is impossible to eliminate noise sources from the workplace, and measures for noise reduction would reduce work efficiency. This study can be supplied not only as a basis for reidentifying the real problems of the hearing conservation program but also for the tailored implementation method of future hearing conservation programs at each worksite.

Effects of an Integrated Health Care Program for Children.

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of an integrated health care program in elementary school students. METHODS: The integrated program comprised exercises (3-4 times/week) and six sessions on nutritional and psychological education. Anthropometric measurements were recorded before the intervention. Additionally, physical fitness, dietary habits, nutrition knowledge, and psychological changes were assessed before and after the program. RESULTS: In total, 29% of the subjects were overweight and obese before the intervention (32% boys and 26% girls). There was a significant increase in flexibility, endurance, and cardiovascular endurance after the implementation of the program. Additionally, as a result of the program, participants showed improvement in nutrition knowledge and dietary habits. After the training, children tended to exhibit increased self-efficacy and lower stress, but the findings were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Implementation of an integrated health care program for the prevention and treatment of obesity could have a positive impact on children's health. It is hoped that continued research on the long-term effects of such programs is conducted along with the development of various programs.

Interventions for Preventing Childhood Obesity with Smartphones and Wearable Device: A Protocol for a Non-Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is a critical health issue, both currently and for the foreseeable future. To prevent obesity, behavior changes are essential. Smartphones can be a good tool, as the number of child smartphone users is rapidly increasing. We have developed a mobile platform system named "HAPPY ME," which is a smartphone application coupled with a wearable device, designed to improve healthy behaviors to prevent childhood obesity. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of obesity prevention among children 10-12 years of age using HAPPY ME. METHODS: A total of 1000 participants, all fifth and sixth graders from four schools, were assigned to either control or intervention groups by school. Students in the intervention group used HAPPY ME. The study comprises a safety test, a 12-week efficacy test, and a six-month follow-up test to determine the long-term effects of preventive intervention via the integrated service platform. The integrated service platform aims to facilitate child-parent-school participation, involving the child-parent mobile application, a child-teacher mobile web, and a school website. Primary outcome measures are behavioral changes, including healthy eating, increased physical activity, and fitness. Secondary outcome measures are changes in anthropometric parameters (body weight, height, body mass index z-score, and waist circumference), body mass index (BMI) percentiles (obesity rate), and psychological perceptions among participants. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study will offer evidence of the effectiveness of a mobile platform service with a multi-component intervention program based on a comprehensive approach.

Associations between Sugar Intake from Different Food Sources and Adiposity or Cardio-Metabolic Risk in Childhood and Adolescence: The Korean Child-Adolescent Cohort Study.

The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity is a serious public health problem associated with co-morbidities in adulthood, as well as childhood. This study was conducted to identify associations between total sugar intake and sugar intake from different foods (fruit, milk, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)), and adiposity and continuous metabolic syndrome scores (cMetS) among Korean children and adolescents using cohort data. The study subjects were children (n = 770) who participated in the 4th year (2008) of the Korean Child-Adolescent Cohort Study (KoCAS). Dietary intake data were collected via three-day 24-h food records, and sugar intake was calculated for the total sugar content of foods using our database compiled from various sources. Anthropometric measurements, assessments of body composition, and blood sample analysis were performed at baseline and at follow-up four years later. The cMetS was calculated based on waist circumference, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and mean arterial blood pressure. According to multiple linear regression analysis, there were no significant associations between total sugar intake and adiposity and cMetS. However, higher intake of fruit sugar at baseline was significantly associated with lower body mass index (BMI) z-scores and body fat percentages at baseline (ß = -0.10, p = 0.02 and ß = -0.78, p < 0.01, respectively). At follow-up, sugar intake from fruit at baseline was still negatively associated with the above outcomes, but only the relationship with BMI z-scores retained statistical significance (ß = -0.08, p < 0.05). There was a significant positive relationship between consumption of sugar from SSBs and cMetS at baseline (ß = 0.04, p = 0.02), but that relationship was not observed at follow-up (p = 0.83). Differences in consumption sugars from fruit and SSBs might play an important role in the risk of adiposity and metabolic disease in children and adolescents. Our results suggest that strategies for reducing sugar intake need to target particular food groups. Consequently, this information could be of value to obesity- and metabolic disease-prevention strategies.

Factors related to body mass index and body mass index change in korean children: preliminary results from the obesity and metabolic disorders cohort in childhood.

BACKGROUND: This preliminary study is to assess risk factors associated with children's body mass index (BMI) and their changes over a 2-year period based on the analysis of the Obesity and Metabolic Disorders Cohort in Childhood registry. METHODS: A total of 1,504 children comprised of 474 1st graders and 1,030 4th graders were included in the study. Data on physical activity, dietary intake, and socioeconomic status were obtained through self-administered questionnaires, and height and weight were measured annually for 2 years. RESULTS: In a cross-sectional analysis, BMI of 1st graders was associated with higher parental BMI (both P < 0.001) and frequent snack consumption (P = 0.049). BMI of 4th graders was additionally associated with shorter sleep duration (P = 0.001), lower household income (P = 0.016), higher fat intake (P = 0.017), and frequent meal skipping (P = 0.020). During a 2-year follow-up, BMI increased by 0.8 ± 1.4 kg/m(2) in 1st graders and by 1.3 ± 1.4 kg/m(2) in 4th graders. In a longitudinal analysis, higher exercise frequency (P = 0.007), shorter sleep duration (P = 0.027), lower household income (P = 0.002), and higher paternal BMI (P = 0.002, 0.043) were significant predictors of BMI changes in the 1st graders whereas only higher maternal BMI (P=0.035), and frequent snack consumption (P = 0.010) were predictors for the 4th graders BMI changes. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that parental obesity, short sleep duration, low socioeconomic status, and frequent snacking are associated with BMI and BMI changes.

Weekend catch-up sleep is associated with decreased risk of being overweight among fifth-grade students with short sleep duration.

Previous studies have reported a relationship between short sleep duration and childhood overweight. Although school-aged children tend to compensate for weekday sleep deficit by increasing weekend sleep duration, the association between weekend catch-up sleep and childhood overweight remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the relationship between weekend catch-up sleep and being overweight in children. A total of 936 school children (48.2% boys) aged 10 or 11 years participated in this school-based cohort study. Anthropometric measurements including height and body weight were carried out. We obtained data on sleep patterns, lifestyle and parent characteristics using questionnaires. The main outcome measure was childhood overweight. After adjusting for the relevant confounding variables (age, sex, breakfast eating, screen time and parental obesity), longer sleep on weekdays and weekends was associated with decreased odds of childhood overweight (OR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.54-0.86; OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.53-0.77, respectively). Participants with increased catch-up sleep duration during weekends also had decreased odds of being overweight (OR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.53-0.85). There was an interaction between weekday sleep duration and weekend catch-up sleep in relation to childhood overweight, and this effect of weekend catch-up sleep on being overweight was stronger as the participants slept less on weekdays (P = 0.024). These results indicate that weekend catch-up sleep is independently associated with decreased risk of being overweight in fifth-grade students, and this effect can be varied by the weekday sleep duration. A prospective study is required to confirm this observation.

Improvement of recombinant hGM-CSF production by suppression of cysteine proteinase gene expression using RNA interference in a transgenic rice culture.

Recombinant proteins have been previously synthesized in a transgenic rice cell suspension culture system with the rice amylase 3D promoter, which can be induced via sugar starvation. However, the secreted recombinant proteins have been shown to be rapidly decreased as the result of proteolytic degradation occurring during prolonged incubation. The secreted proteases were identified via two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and ESI/Q-TOF mass spectrometry analyses. The internal amino acid sequences of 8 of 37 spots corresponded to cysteine proteinase (CysP), which is encoded for by Rep1 and EP3A. This result shows that CysP is a major secreted protease in rice cell suspension cultures following induction via sugar starvation. Intron-containing self-complementary hairpin RNA (ihpRNA)-mediated post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) was applied to suppress the expression of CysP in rice cell suspension cultures. The reduction of rice CysP mRNA and the detection of siRNA specific to CysP, an initiator of RNAi, were verified via Northern blot analysis and RNase protection assays, respectively, thereby indicating that PTGS operated successfully in this system. The analysis of total secreted protease and CysP activities evidenced lower activity than was observed with the wild-type. Furthermore, suspension cultures of rice cells transformed with both hGM-CSF and the gene expressing the ihpRNA of CysP evidenced a reduction in total protease and CysP activities, and an up to 1.9-fold improvement in hGM-CSF production as compared to that observed in a rice cell line expressing hGM-CSF only. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the suppression of CysP via RNA interference to reduce protease activity and to increase target protein accumulation in rice cell suspension cultures.