Relationship between Social Network and Stage of Adoption of Gastric Cancer Screening among the Korean Population

Religious Denomination, Religiosity, Religious Attendance, and Cancer Prevention. A Systematic Review

Recent research highlighted the influence of religion among health outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, there is no systematic review that summarizes the evidence on the relationship between religious factors and the utilization of cancer screenings. Therefore, this article aims to list the findings about the influence of religious denominations, the importance of religion in one’s life, and religious practices, such as church attendance on the utilization of cancer screenings. PubMed, PsycInfo and CINAHL were searched using a predefined algorithm in June 2020. We included observational studies that examined the association between religion and cancer screening use and employed appropriate items to quantify these key variables. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by two reviewers. We detected n=27 studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Hereby, n=16 used data from the United States. Most of the studies that were included in our review found a positive association between religious attendance and cancer screening utilization. There was mixed evidence concerning religious denomination as well as religiosity and use of cancer screenings. The studies suggest that religious factors are related to the utilization of cancer screenings. The findings of this systematic review may be helpful to resolve the underuse of cancer screenings by revealing at-risk-groups.

Religious Attendance and Cancer Screening Behavior

Background: Cancer is one of the most important health problems worldwide. Preventive examinations proved to be effective in tackling that issue, but their degree of utilization is not adequate. Thus, research is making efforts to reveal its determinants. It has been shown that religion is associated with several health outcomes, so the aim of our study is to analyze the association between religious attendance and participation in cancer prevention.

Methods: Data are derived from the fifth wave of the German Aging Survey (DEAS), a nationally representative, prospective cohort study. Participants are community-dwelling Germans aged 40 years and older. Our main independent variable is the frequency of attendance in religious services, and the dependent variable is participation in cancer screening. As covariates, we include factors from all the dimensions of the Andersen behavioral health services utilization model. Multiple logistic regressions were used. In our sensitivity analysis, logistic regressions were performed stratified by religious group (Roman Catholic church, Protestant church, not belonging to any religious group).

Results: Our model shows that attendance in religious services once a week, one to three times a month, several times a year, or less often is significantly associated with an increased likelihood of participating in preventive cancer screening, more than never participating in religious services. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis reveals that all these associations remain significant for the Catholic subsample, but not for the Protestant or the non-religious group.

Discussion: This study finds a link between a higher frequency of attendance in religious services and an increased likelihood of participating in cancer screenings. This is important to address individuals at risk for underuse of cancer screenings.

Online Social Networks - Opportunities for Empowering Cancer Patients

Online social network technologies have become important to health and apply in most health care areas. Particularly in cancer care, because it is a disease which involves many social aspects, online social networks can be very useful. Use of online social networks provides a suitable platform for cancer patients and families to present and share information about their medical conditions, address their educational needs, support decision making, and help to coping with their disease and improve their own outcomes. Like any other new technologies, online social networks, along with many benefits, have some negative effects such as violation of privacy and publication of incorrect information. However, if these effects are managed properly, they can empower patients to manage cancer through changing behavioral patterns and enhancing the quality of cancer patients lives This paper explains some application of online social networks in the cancer patient care process. It also covers advantages and disadvantages of related technologies.

Relationship between Cancer Worry and Stages of Adoption for Breast Cancer Screening among Korean Women

Background

The possibility of developing breast cancer is a concern for all women; however, few studies have examined the relationship between cancer worry and the stages of adoption for breast cancer screening in Korea. Here, we investigated the associations between cancer worry, the stages of adopting breast cancer screening, and socio-demographic factors known to influence screening behaviors.

Methods

This study was based on the 2013 Korean National Cancer Screening Survey, an annual cross-sectional survey that utilized nationally representative random sampling to investigate cancer screening rates. Data were analyzed from 1,773 randomly selected women aged 40–74 years. Chi-squared tests and multinomial logistic analyses were conducted to determine the associations between cancer worry and the stages of adoption for breast cancer screening and to outline the factors associated with each stage.

Results

Korean women were classified into the following stages of adoption for breast cancer screening: pre-contemplation (24.7%), contemplation (13.0%), action/maintenance (50.8%), relapse risk (8.9%), and relapse (2.6%). Women in the action/maintenance stages reported more moderate to higher levels of worry about getting cancer than those in the pre-contemplation stage. Further, age of 40–49 years and having private cancer insurance were associated with women in the action/maintenance stages.

Conclusion

Interventions to address breast cancer worry may play an important role in increasing participation and equity in breast cancer screening.

Salt processed food and gastric cancer in a Chinese population

To investigate the association between salt processed food and gastric cancer, a hospital based case-control study was conducted in a high risk area of China. One hundred and seven newly diagnosed cases with histological confirmation of gastric cancer and 209 controls were recruited. Information on dietary intake was collected with a validated food frequency questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression was applied to estimate the odds ratios with adjustment for other potential confounders. Comparing the high intake group with never consumption of salt processed foods, salted meat, pickled vegetables and preserved vegetables were significantly associated with increased risk of gastric cancer. Meanwhile, salt taste preference in diet showed a dose-response relationship with gastric cancer. Our results suggest that consumption of salted meat, pickled and preserved vegetables, are positively associated with gastric cancer. Reduction of salt and salt processed food in diets might be one practical measure to preventing gastric cancer.

Goseki grade and tumour location influence survival of patients with gastric cancer

BACKGROUND

Owing to the variability of histopathological features and biological behaviour in gastric carcinoma, a great number of categorisation methods such as classical histopathologic grading, Lauren classification, the TNM staging system and the newly presented Goseki grading method are used by pathologists and other scientists. In our study, we aimed to investigate whether Goseki grade and tumour location have an effects on survival of gastric cancer cases.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Eighty-four patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were covered in the investigation. The importance of Goseki grading system and tumour location were analysed in addition to the TNM staging and other conventional prognostic parameters.

RESULTS

The median survival time in our patients was 35 months (minimum: 5, maximum: 116). According to our findings, there was no relation between survival and tumour size (p=0.192) or classical histological type (p=0.270). In contrast, the Goseki grade and tumour location significantly correlated with survival (p=0.007 and p<0.001, respectively). Additionally, tumours of the intestinal type had a longer median survival time (60.0 months) than diffuse tumours (24.0 months).

CONCLUSIONS

In addition to the TNM staging system, tumour location and the Goseki grading system may be used as significant prognostic parameters in patients with gastric cancer.