Perinatal and childhood outcomes of children born to female cancer survivors in South Korea.

Despite the increasing number of female cancer survivors, uncertainty remains regarding potential adverse health outcomes for their offspring. Comprehensive population-based studies would be invaluable for female cancer survivors in making decisions about their future. This study uses the National Health Information Database to investigate perinatal and long-term outcomes of offspring born to mothers with a history of cancer. In a South Korean cohort of 95,264 women aged 15-40 diagnosed with cancer between 2007 and 2010, we evaluated the outcomes of 15,221 children born to 11,092, cancer survivors. We selected 147,727 women without a history of cancer and 201,444 children as a control group. Our study found that children of female cancer survivors have a significantly higher odds ratio of primary outcomes including preterm birth, low birth weight, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and death. While there was no difference in the rate of death within 1 year of birth between the two groups, the total death rate during the follow-up period was significantly higher in children born to mothers with cancer. After adjusting for gestational age and birth weight, there was no statistically significant increased hazard ratio of secondary outcomes including cancer, chromosomal abnormalities, cerebral palsy, delayed development, epilepsy, language disorder, or hearing impairment.

Structural Equation Model of the Quality of Working Life among Cancer Survivors Returning to Work.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to construct and validate a model of the quality of working life (QWL) among cancer survivors returning to work. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was developed. Participants included 204 cancer survivors in the extended cancer survivor stage, 6 months after returning to work, who were treated at two tertiary hospital cancer centers. The data were analyzed with SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 20.0 for confirmatory factor analysis to assess the hypothesis fit and verify the hypothesis. RESULTS: Factors affecting cancer survivors' quality of working liferesulted in cancer stigma and social support (explanatory power was 43.1%) and the model showed acceptable goodness of fit. In the final model, cancer stigma had a significant direct effect on social support and indirect effect on organizational health, employee health, and QWL. Additionally, social support had significant direct effect on organizational health, employee health and QWL. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, there is a need to develop strategies and effective intervention programs that can increase the support of supervisors and colleagues for improving overall quality of work life. Furthermore, the development of policies and intervention programs to reduce cancer stigma for the purpose of transforming perceptions through education and public relations which are indirect factors that affect the quality of work life, can contribute to improving the quality of work life for cancer survivors.

Factors Affecting Quality of Work Life in a Sample of Cancer Survivor Female Nurses.

Background and objectives: Identifying the factors affecting the Quality of Work Life (QWL) of cancer survivor female nurses is important and necessary to overcome the various challenges experienced by these professionals upon returning to work following recovery from the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors affecting the level of nurses' QWL. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 115 registered female nurses who had survived cancer, in general hospitals and clinics in South Korea. SPSS statistics version 21 was used for ordinary least squares, and Stata version 12.0 was used for quantile regression analysis. Results: Workplace spirituality affected all quantiles of QWL except the 90% quantile; fatigue was an affecting factor in the 20%, 30%, and 70% quantiles; and job stress in the 20%, 30%, 40%, and 60%, 70%, 80% quantiles. For workplace spirituality, the effect size was 0.33 (p < 0.001) in the 10% quantile, increasing to 0.45 (p < 0.001) in the 80% quantile. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, suggestions for clinical practice include providing the mediating strategies and programs to manage fatigue and job stress as well as workplace spirituality. Job-related factors such as shift work should also be considered.

The Mediating Effect of Workplace Spirituality on the Relation between Job Stress and Job Satisfaction of Cancer Survivors Returning to Work.

This study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of workplace spirituality in the relation between job stress and job satisfaction as well as the level of job stress, job satisfaction, and workplace spirituality of cancer survivors returning to work. A total of 126 cancer survivors who returned to work more than six months prior to the research participated in this study. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling; they were visiting the outpatient clinic at two general hospitals located in a metropolitan city and their clinical stage was stage 0 or stage 1. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Job stress, workplace spirituality, and job satisfaction had a negative correlation, whereas workplace spirituality and job satisfaction had a positive correlation. The Sobel test was performed to verify the significance of the mediating effect size of workplace adaptation, the results confirmed a partial mediating effect of workplace spirituality on the relation between job stress and job satisfaction (Z = -4.72, p < 0.001). This study confirmed the mediating effect of workplace spirituality in the relation between job stress and job satisfaction. A systematic program needs to be developed to enhance workplace spirituality, a spiritual approach, to relieve job stress and increase job satisfaction.

Rescue of Helicobacter pylori-induced cytotoxicity by red ginseng.

Helicobacter pylori has been known to provoke gastric inflammation, ulceration, and DNA damage, based on which WHO defined H. pylori as a class I carcinogen. Although ginseng, the root of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, has been reported to possess antiadhesion or antimicrobial activity against H. pylori, in this study, we examined the protective effect of red ginseng extracts (RGE) against H. pylori-induced cytotoxicity and DNA damage. RGE significantly attenuated both H. pylori-induced DNA damage assessed by comet assay and apoptosis measured by DNA fragmentation. Inactivation of ERK1/2 signaling and attenuation of caspase-3 activation and PARP cleavage were revealed with RGE against H. pylori infection. RGE decreased H. pylori-stimulated IL-8 gene expression, which resulted from the transcriptional regression of NF-kappaB. In conclusion, RGE showed significant gastroprotective effects against H. pylori-associated gastric mucosal cell damage, suggesting that red ginseng could be used as a medicinal phytonutrient against H. pylori infection.