A case-control study of environmental and genetic factors and prostate cancer in Guangdong / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the etiologic relationship of prostate cancer and environmental and genetic polymorphism in southern China</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A hospital-based and 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted. A total of 142 matched pairs of subjects were investigated in this study. The blood samples were collected from 85 cases of prostate cancer and 82 controls of other diseases after informing consent. The CYP1A1, CYP17 and AR genes were analyzed by using the method of PCR, PCR-RFLP. The data were analyzed with conditional logistic regression model.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>An increased risk of prostate cancer development was observed with the early first spermatorrhea (age < 18) (OR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.76 - 4.80), early first sexual intercourse (age < or = 24) (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.14 - 4.96), frequent sexual intercourse before 35 year old (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.19 - 2.70), family history of cancer (OR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.31 - 5.58), more intake of pork (OR =2.27, 95% CI: 1.38 - 3.70). Factors in lowing the risks were the fruit intake and drinking of green tea by OR value at 0.25 (95% CI: 0.08 - 0.75) and 0.52 (95% CI: 0.28 -0.96) respectively. CYP17 A1/A2 and CYP17 A2/A2 genotypes were related with a high risk of prostate cancer and OR values of 1.78 (95% CI: 0.70 - 4.53) and 2.57 (95% CI: 0.91 - 7.25) respectively. Study also showed that there was an interaction between CYP17 polymorphisms and early first spermatorrhea and family cancer history related to the risk of prostate cancer with OR value at 13.35 (95% CI: 1.58 - 113.00) and 4.01 (95% CI: 1.22 - 13.17) respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Sexual intercourse, dietary intake and family cancer history should be related to prostate cancer occurrence. CYP17 polymorphism might be associated with a high risk of prostate cancer. It suggests that there are multiple environmental and genetic factors to the prostate cancer.</p>

Possibility and predictors of successful cigarette purchase attempts by 201 primary school students in Guangzhou, China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the access to tobacco and exam the predictors of successful tobacco purchase attempts among Chinese minors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A simulative trial of purchasing cigarettes was participated by 201 sixth grade students to assess the prevalence of illegal cigarette sales to minors in Guangzhou. Methods of Chi-square and unconditional logistic regression were used to identify the significant predictors,with the result of tobacco purchase as the dependent variable and the characteristics of stores, retailers and minors as the independent variables.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 165 students succeeded in purchasing cigarettes but 36 failed, and the percentage of successful purchase attempts was 82. 1% . Data from univariate analysis indicated that 9 factors were significantly associated with students' success in purchasing cigarettes. They were age and height of the purchasers, types of stores, seller's gender and age, posting cigarette advertisements,showing warning signs of 'no cigarette selling to minors' ,asking buyer's age,and asking whom you buy the cigarettes for. The results of multivariable analysis showed that only three variables entering the final logistic regression: the age of students, the type of stores, and showing warning signs of 'no cigarette selling to minors'.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Chinese minors have easy access to purchasing cigarettes, especially in groceries and small markets. Selling cigarettes by sellers to minors should be monitored and managed in the future.</p>

Process evaluation on a health promotion model regarding smoking prevention among Chinese secondary school students / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the process of smoking prevention and control among Chinese adolescent with a model on health promotion in junior high school.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A cluster-randomized, controlled and schooled-based trial on smoking prevention was conducted among 2343 students at four secondary schools in Huangpu District of Guangzhou. Students 'reports and investigators' daily records were used to evaluate the intervention measures.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>During the one-year period of intervention (Dec. 2004 through Dec. 2005), eighteen activities had been implemented among students, teachers, parents and cigarette retailers. Ranked by the rate of awareness, the top six activities were shown as follows: "the nicotine toxicity experiment" (90.7%), "agreement of building families free of smoking"(77.7%), "a letter to parents" (77.1%), "no-smoking signs" (76.5%), "Blackboard information about health and smoking" (75.0%), and "signature on the 18th World Day of No Smoking" (70.2%). Among all the activities, "the nicotine toxicity experiment" had the highest rate of participation (88.5%), followed by "a letter to parents" (73.6%), "agreement of building families free of smoking" (69.8%), "health education through experiments"(68.6%), "health education through multimedia" (65.7%) and "signature on the 18th World Day of No Smoking" (65.6%). The top seven activities in which students showed greatest interests were "the nicotine toxicity experiment" (64.5%), "signature on the 18th World Day of No Smoking" (33.0%), "health education through experiments" (31.2%), "health education through multimedia" (29.8%), "class meetings with a thesis of smoking" (26.8%), "health pamphlets" (26.6%), "specific textbooks" (25.9%). The extent of students' general satisfaction to the work of tobacco control in school during the last year was 52.4%. The biggest perceived shortcoming for the intervention plan was the low participation of students.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Some intervention measures had not been fully carried out among the students and only covered part of them. It is necessary to adjust the previous intervention measures through keeping the nicotine toxicity experiment, health education through multimedia and other measures with extensive participation of students and at the same time, to avoid literal materials, exhibition boards and traditional single-way health education program.</p>