Yunmi Song

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The association between obesity and stroke remains controversial, with earlier studies suggesting that differences might stem from heterogeneous stroke subtype compositions. The association between body mass index (BMI) and stroke subtypes was examined prospectively in a large cohort study. METHODS: A total of 234 863 Korean men aged 40 to 64 years without substantial weight loss over 4 years after baseline examination in 1986 were divided into 8 categories of BMI and wer

To examine the relation of adult height with mortality, the authors conducted a cohort study of 386,627 middle-aged South Korean male civil servants from 1992 to 1998. An inverse association between height and all-cause mortality (14,003 deaths) was observed after adjustment for socioeconomic position and major behavioral risk factors. The adjusted relative risk for all-cause mortality associated with a 5-cm increment in height was 0.97 (95% confidence interval: 0.95, 0.98). There was little evi

"Healthy Twin" is a twin family study extension of the existing Korean Twin-Family Register. Healthy Twin recruits adult like-sex twins over the age of 30 and their adult family members. Healthy Twin protocols are primarily tailored to the study of the quantitative trait loci of complex traits as well as to the role of environment in the etiology of complex diseases. A full-length survey is underway, including questionnaires, health examinations and the collection of biological specimens. So far

PURPOSE: To evaluate an association between obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI; kg/m(2)), and risk of cancer at individual and all sites in postmenopausal women. METHODS: A cohort of 170,481 postmenopausal Korean women who were age 40 to 64 years at baseline measurement of BMI was observed prospectively from 1994 to 2003 for cancer incidence. Multivariable adjusted proportional hazard models were used for evaluating the association. RESULTS: Women with a BMI of 30 kg/m(2) or higher had a

Abstract ‘Healthy Twin’ is a twin family study extension of the existing Korean Twin-Family Register. Healthy Twin recruits adult like-sex twins over the age of 30 and their adult family members. Healthy Twin protocols are primarily tailored to the study of the quantitative trait loci of complex traits as well as to the role of environment in the etiology of complex diseases. A full-length survey is underway, including questionnaires, health examinations and the collection of biological specimen

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The effect of smoking reduction on cardiovascular disease outcomes has not been studied in Asian populations. METHODS: A total of 475 734 Korean men aged 30 to 58 years, stratified into 9 groups based on smoking status at 2 different time points (1990 and 1992), were followed from 1992 to 2001 for the occurrence of stroke or myocardial infarction (MI) events. RESULTS: Compared with nonreducing heavy smokers (>/=20 cigarettes/d), those who quit smoking showed significantly

To evaluate the association between height and risk of cancer in an East Asian, middle-income population, the authors followed up a cohort of 788,789 Koreans (449,214 men and 339,575 women) aged 40-64 years for cancer incidence between 1994 and 2003. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to evaluate the association. Each 5-cm increment in height was associated with 5% and 7% higher risk of all-sites cancer in men and women, respectively, after adjustment for age, body mass index,

The relation between body mass index (kg/m2) and noncoronary mortality is not well established. To study this relation, a population with low coronary mortality may be especially useful. We conducted a 12-year follow-up study of 235,398 Korean men 40-64 years of age. Study subjects had undergone health examinations in 1986 (baseline) and 1990. We excluded subjects with substantial weight loss during this period. There were 13,387 deaths, including 600 deaths from coronary events, between 1990 an

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the magnitude and contributory factors of socioeconomic differentials in mortality in a cohort of Korean male civil servants. DESIGN: A prospective observational study of male civil servants followed up for five years after baseline measurement. SETTING: All civil service offices in Korea. PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS: The study was conducted on 759,665 Korean male public servants aged 30-64 at baseline examination in 1992. The grade

Determining valid zygosity is a basic and important requirement in a twin study, because misdiagnosing zygosity leads to biased results. The Healthy Twin Study has collected data from adult like-sex twins and their families since 2005. In the study, a questionnaire to determine zygosity was developed comprising four questions; one concerning the degree of resemblance, and three concerning the degree of confusion by the resemblance. Among 2,761 individuals (624 twin pairs) of twin and their famil

Deaths from haemorrhagic stroke declined consistently through the 20th century, but deaths from ischaemic stroke showed a rise and fall, mirroring the coronary heart disease epidemic.1 Blood pressure has also declined,2 and if blood pressure is more strongly associated with haemorrhagic stroke than with ischaemic stroke, this might contribute to the divergent trends. Previous meta-analyses have shown contradictory findings; one showed similar associations for both stroke subtypes,3 and another,

To evaluate the relation between low cholesterol level and mortality, the authors followed 482,472 Korean men aged 30-65 years from 1990 to 1996 after a baseline health examination. The mean cholesterol level of the men was 189.1 mg/100 ml at the baseline measurement. There were 7,894 deaths during the follow-up period. A low cholesterol level (<165 mg/100 ml) was associated with increased risk of total mortality, even after eliminating deaths that occurred in the first 5 years of follow-up. The