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Yohan Lee

Korea University · Medicine

About the Lab

Professor Yohan Lee's research lab focuses on population health and health systems research, with a strong emphasis on understanding the epidemiological and socioeconomic determinants of disease burden across populations. The lab investigates the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying common diseases such as meningioma, while also examining the broader societal and economic impacts of chronic and non-communicable diseases. A key focus is on health disparities, particularly among vulnerable populations such as North Korean refugees, and how health outcomes evolve during migration and social adaptation. The lab integrates clinical, genetic, and population-level data to inform public health policy and health system strengthening.

disease burdenpopulation healthmolecular epidemiologyhealth systemsnon-communicable diseases

Research Overview

Papers
188
Total Citations
28,942
Papers (5y)
105
Primary Field
Medicine

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
105total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
23,246total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|145 citations·2009
Genomic Landscape of Meningiomas
Yo Han Lee, Jason Liu, Shilpa M. Patel, Timothy F. Cloughesy, Albert Lai, Haumith K Farooqi, David B. Seligson, Jun Dong, Linda M. Liau, Donald Becker, Paul S. Mischel, Soheil Shams
SJR Q1Brain Pathology

Meningiomas are one of the most common adult brain tumors. For most patients, surgical excision is curative. However, up to 20% recur. Currently, the molecular determinants predicting recurrence and malignant transformation are lacking. We performed retrospective global genetic and genomic analysis of 85 meningioma samples of various grades. Copy number alterations were assessed by 100K single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays and correlated with gene expression, proliferation indices and clinical

EpidemiologyMedicine
2
Article|64 citations·2011
Economic burden of asthma in Korea
Yo Han Lee, Seok‐Jun Yoon, Eun Jung Kim, Young Ae Kim, Hye-Young Seo, In‐Hwan Oh
SJR Q2Allergy and Asthma Proceedings

Understanding the magnitude of the economic impact of an illness on society is fundamental to planning and implementing relevant policies. South Korea operates a compulsory universal health insurance system providing favorable conditions for evaluating the nationwide economic burden of illnesses. The aim of this study was to estimate the economic costs of asthma imposed on Korean society. The Korean National Health Insurance claims database was used for determining the health care services provi

General Health ProfessionsHealth Professions
3
Article|58 citations·2024
Living longer but in poor health: healthcare system responses to ageing populations in industrialised countries based on the Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Minjae Choi, Joshua Kirabo Sempungu, Eun Hae Lee, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1BMC Public HealthOA

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine changes in life expectancy (LE), health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), unhealthy years of life, and disease burden of older people in industrialised countries and associations with health systems. METHODS: We used estimates of LE and HALE, unhealthy years of life, years of life loss (YLL), years lived with disability (YLD) for individuals aged 70 years and over in 33 industrialised countries from 1990 to 2019 from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.

General Health ProfessionsHealth Professions
4
Article|47 citations·2012
North Korean refugee health in South Korea (NORNS) study: study design and methods
Yo Han Lee, Won Jin Lee, Yun Jeong Kim, Myong Jin Cho, Joo Hyung Kim, Yun Jeong Lee, Hee Young Kim, Dong Seop Choi, Sin Gon Kim, Courtland Robinson
SJR Q1BMC Public HealthOA

BACKGROUND: Understanding the health status of North Korean refugees (NKRs), and changes in health during the resettlement process, is important from both the humanitarian standpoint and the scientific perspective. The NOrth Korean Refugee health iN South Korea (NORNS) study aims to document the health status and health determinants of North Korean refugees, to observe various health outcomes as they occur while adapting to the westernized lifestyle of South Korea, and to explain the mechanisms

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
5
Article|38 citations·2017
Clustering of four major lifestyle risk factors among Korean adults with metabolic syndrome
Shin Ha, Tae Hyun Choi, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1PLoS ONEOA

The purpose of this study was to investigate the clustering pattern of four major lifestyle risk factors-smoking, heavy drinking, poor diet, and physical inactivity-among people with metabolic syndrome in South Korea. There were 2,469 adults with metabolic syndrome aged 30 years or older available with the 5th Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey dataset. We calculated the ratio of the observed to expected (O/E) prevalence for the 16 different combinations and the prevalence o

Nutrition and DieteticsNursing
6
Article|24 citations·2013
Overview of the Burden of Diseases in North Korea
Yo Han Lee, Seok‐Jun Yoon, Young Ae Kim, Ji Won Yeom, In‐Hwan Oh
SJR Q2Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public HealthOA

This article evaluates the overall current disease burden of North Korea through the recent databases of international organizations. It is notable that North Korea as a nation is exhibiting a relatively low burden from deaths and that there is greater burden from deaths caused by non-communicable diseases than from those caused by communicable diseases and malnutrition. However, the absolute magnitude of problems from communicable diseases like TB and from child malnutrition, which will increas

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
7
Article|20 citations·2016
Serum selenium levels in patients with respiratory diseases: a prospective observational study
Yo Han Lee, Seok Jeong Lee, Myoung Kyu Lee, Won‐Yeon Lee, Suk Joong Yong, Sang‐Ha Kim
SJR Q2Journal of Thoracic DiseaseOA

Low serum selenium levels in patients with respiratory diseases have a significant correlation with poor nutritional status and prognosis on admission.

Nutrition and DieteticsNursing
8
Article|20 citations·2022
Single and combined effects of marital status, education attainment, and employment status on suicide among working-age population: A case-control study in South Korea
Minjae Choi, Joshua Kirabo Sempungu, Eun Hae Lee, Shu‐Sen Chang, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1SSM - Population HealthOA

Marital status, education attainment, and employment status have a separate and combined impact on suicide among the working-age population. Specifically, the divorced and unemployed or economically inactive status amplified suicide risk, predominantly among young adults. Monitoring and intervention for those young adults should be considered for suicide prevention.

Clinical PsychologyPsychology
9
Article|19 citations·2023
The burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and its association with development assistance for health and governance: An exploration of the GBD 2019 study
Joshua Kirabo Sempungu, Minjae Choi, Eun Hae Lee, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1Global Public HealthOA

Even with a reduced burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), differences remain in the rate of change among countries and sub-regions. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 to establish the relationship between Development Assistance for Health (DAH) and governance and trends in malaria burden in SSA. The trend was estimated using the Joinpoint regression program and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation’s DAH database, and World Bank Governance Indicators to a

Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child HealthMedicine
10
Article|17 citations·2017
Socioeconomic inequalities in health in the context of multimorbidity: A Korean panel study
Myung Ki, Yo Han Lee, Yong-Soo Kim, Ji‐Yeon Shin, Jiseun Lim, James Nazroo
SJR Q1PLoS ONEOA

Socioeconomic inequalities in health are commonly known to decrease at late age. Yet, it remains unclear whether socioeconomic inequalities in health at late age appear in relation to multimorbidity, particularly in Korea where social support remains unsatisfactory for older people. Using three waves of Korea Health Panel, data of 19,942 observations with repeated measure were constructed to ensure a temporal sequence between three socioeconomic measures (i.e., poverty, employment status, and ed

EpidemiologyMedicine
11
Article|16 citations·2020
Effects of Prehospital Factors on Survival of Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients: Age-Dependent Patterns
Bo Yoon Rhee, Bo-Ram Kim, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q2International Journal of Environmental Research and Public HealthOA

Many prehospital factors that are known to influence survival rates after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have been rarely studied as to how their influence varies depending on the age. In this study, we tried to find out what prehospital factors affect the survival rate after OHCA by age groups and how large the effect size of those factors is in each age group. We used the South Korean OHCA registry, which includes information on various prehospital factors relating OHCA and final surviv

Emergency MedicineMedicine
12
Review|15 citations·2016
Health Performance and Challenges in Korea: a Review of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
Yo Han Lee, Seok‐Jun Yoon, Arim Kim, Hye-Young Seo, Seulki Ko
SJR Q2Journal of Korean Medical ScienceOA

The global burden of disease study (GBD) provides valuable information for evaluating population health in terms of disease burden. This study collected and reviewed GBD data in Korea for the year 1990 and 2013. The burdens of cancer, cardiovascular disease, communicable disease, and injuries have decreased remarkably, thereby greatly diminishing the overall disease burden on Korea. Meanwhile, the burdens due to non-fatal chronic diseases such as neuropsychiatric and musculoskeletal disease beca

General Health ProfessionsHealth Professions
13
Article|14 citations·2023
Long-term trajectories of suicide ideation and its socioeconomic predictors: A longitudinal 8-year follow-up study
Minjae Choi, Eun Hae Lee, Joshua Kirabo Sempungu, Yo Han Lee, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1Social Science & Medicine
Clinical PsychologyPsychology
14
Article|10 citations·2010
Reliability of Self-Reported Information by Farmers on Pesticide Use
Yo Han Lee, Eun Shil, Eun Kyeong Moon, Kyoung Ae Kong, Sang Baek Koh, Yun Keun Lee, Won Jin Lee
SJR Q2Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public HealthOA

Our results support that carefully designed, self-reported information on ever-never pesticide use among farmers is reliable. However, the reliability of data on individual pesticide exposure may be unstable due to low response rates and needs to be refined.

Plant ScienceAgricultural and Biological Sciences
15
Article|10 citations·2024
Differential trends and patterns of sociodemographic disparities in burden of mental disorders, substance use disorder and self-harm across age groups: ecological study in 204 countries using the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Minjae Choi, Joshua Kirabo Sempungu, Eun Hae Lee, Yo Han Lee
SJR Q1BJPsych OpenOA

BACKGROUND: It is well-known that socioeconomic status is associated with mental illness at both the individual and population levels, but there is a less clear understanding of whether socioeconomic development is related to poor mental health at the country level. AIMS: We aimed to investigate sociodemographic disparities in burden of mental disorders, substance use disorders and self-harm by age group. METHOD: Estimates of age-specific disability-adjusted life years (DALY) rates for mental di

Social PsychologyPsychology

Research Areas

Sociology and Political ScienceClinical PsychologyPsychiatry and Mental healthEpidemiologyOncologyGeneral Health Professions

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