This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the Cancer Public Library Database (CPLD), established under the Korean Clinical Data Utilization for Research Excellence project (K-CURE). The CPLD links data from four major population-based public sources: the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database in the Korea Central Cancer Registry, cause-of-death data in Statistics Korea, the National Health Information Database in the National Health Insurance Service, and the National Health Insurance Research Database in the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. These databases are linked using an encrypted resident registration number. The CPLD, established in 2022 and updated annually, comprises 1,983,499 men and women newly diagnosed with cancer between 2012 and 2019. It contains data on cancer registration and death, demographics, medical claims, general health checkups, and national cancer screening. The most common cancers among men in the CPLD were stomach (16.1%), lung (14.0%), colorectal (13.3%), prostate (9.6%), and liver (9.3%) cancers. The most common cancers among women were thyroid (20.4%), breast (16.6%), colorectal (9.0%), stomach (7.8%), and lung (6.2%) cancers. Among them, 571,285 died between 2012 and 2020 owing to cancer (89.2%) or other causes (10.8%). Upon approval, the CPLD is accessible to researchers through the K-CURE portal. The CPLD is a unique resource for diverse cancer research to investigate medical use before a cancer diagnosis, during initial diagnosis and treatment, and long-term follow-up. This offers expanded insight into healthcare delivery across the cancer continuum, from screening to end-of-life care.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of poor mental health in the general Korean population during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.METHODS: This cross-sectional, population-based, online survey-based study was conducted from November 5 to 20, 2020 and included adults aged 20-49 years in Chungnam Province, Korea. A total of 549 adults were included.RESULTS: In total, 18.8% of the participants had symptoms of depression, 10.6% had symptoms of anxiety, and 5.1% had a high level of perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher levels of stress (odds ratio [OR], 3.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13 to 8.67), anxiety (OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.09 to 4.49), and depression (OR, 3.00; 95% CI, 1.64 to 5.50) were found among never married, widowed, divorced, and separated people than among married/cohabiting/partnered participants. Participants who felt increased stress at home during the COVID-19 outbreak reported more depression (OR, 2.45; 95% CI, 1.49 to 4.05) and anxiety (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.31 to 4.50). Women had higher risks of anxiety (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.09 to 3.58) and stress (OR, 6.40; 95% CI, 2.30 to 17.85) than men. Participants with the highest household income were less likely to report symptoms of stress than those with the lowest household income (OR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.06 to 0.96).CONCLUSIONS: The participants in this study exhibited poor mental health index scores, suggesting that some people are at risk for mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being married was independently and significantly associated with a lower likelihood of depression, anxiety, and stress.

The aim of this study was to find the association between sleep duration and perceived stress in salaried workers according to occupational categories and which lifestyle factors affected those correlations in South Korea. This study used data from the 2015 Community Health Survey (CHS). The self-reported sleep duration was used as the dependent variable in this study. We explored sleep duration and stress awareness among salaried workers, as well as household income and educational level with multiple logistic regression analysis. Salaried workers who slept for five or less hours had a higher odds ratio for high-stress awareness (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.74–1.98). Stress awareness is associated with short sleep duration; specialized workers, office workers, those with above mid-high household income and graduate, university, or college level workers especially need to sleep adequately to manage stress.

Sleep is exceedingly important for our physical, physiological, psychological, and social health. Currently, few Koreans get the recommended daily amount of sleep. Stress can also have a major impact on our physiological, neurological, and mental health. In this study, we explored the correlation between sleep duration and perceived stress. The study used data from the Community Health Survey (CHS), 2017, which included 133,444 responses from Koreans. Sleeping time and stress were measured by self-diagnosis. The relationship between sleeping time and stress was analyzed using the chi-square test and multivariable regression. Both men and women felt the most stress when they slept for an average of 6 h a day. The results of the subgroup analysis showed that even when they sleep for the same time, younger people felt more stressed than older people. In the group that slept for an average of 6 h a day, women were the most stressed. We observed a correlation between sleeping time and stress in Korean adults. We found that about 16.7% of Koreans were sleeping for less than 5 h. This is less than the 7–9 h of sleep recommended by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). In addition, stress was found to increase when sleep was insufficient. In particular, it was also observed that young people who slept for less than 8 h felt stressed more easily.

This study investigated the association of smoking behaviors, including dual smoking (smoking both cigarettes and e-cigarettes), cigarettes smoking, and previous smoking, with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data from 2014–2016 was used. Associations between smoking behavior patterns and HbA1c levels were analyzed via multiple regression. Among 8809 participants, individuals who were dual smokers and cigarettes smokers had significantly higher HbA1c levels than non-smokers (dual: β = 0.1116, p = 0.0012, single: β = 0.0752, p = 0.0022). This relationship strengthened in subgroups of men (dual: β = 0.1290, p = 0.0013, single: β = 0.1020, p = 0.0014, ex: β = 0.0654, p = 0.0308), physically inactive subjects (dual: β = 0.1527, p = 0.0053, single: β = 0.0876, p = 0.0197), and overweight (dual: β = 0.1425, p = 0.0133) and obese individuals (dual: β = 0.1694, p = 0.0061, single: β = 0.1035, p = 0.0217). This study suggests that smoking behaviors are likely to increase the risk of HbA1c level in a general population. The health effects of dual smoking remain uncertain and should be addressed in the future.

Introduction This study aimed to examine the effect of socioeconomic deprivation on the outcomes of diabetes complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Research design and methods We conducted a cohort study using claims data and 2005 national census data. We included of 7510 patients newly diagnosed with T2DM from 2004 to 2012 and aged 40 years or above. We excluded participants who had onset of diabetes complications and hospitalization within 1 year after initial onset T2DM, aged less than 40 years and with missing covariates. We used the regional socioeconomic deprivation index and classified study participants into five categories according to the quintile distribution. We calculated the adjusted HR and 95% CI for hospitalization related to diabetes complications and all-cause mortality by applying Cox proportional hazards model and the adjusted subdistribution hazards model. Results The percentages of participants in the first quintile (least deprived) to fifth quintile (most deprived) were 27.0%, 27.9%, 19.5%, 14.8%, and 10.8% for socioeconomic deprivation; 25.4%, 28.8%, 32.4%, 34.6%, and 37.6% for hospitalization due to diabetes complications; 1.3%, 2.1%, 2.5%, 2.9%, and 3.6% for deaths from diabetes complications; and 5.7%, 7.2%, 9.7%, 9.7%, and 13.1% for deaths from all causes, respectively. Participants with higher socioeconomic deprivation had a higher HR for hospitalization and mortality from all-cause and diabetes complications. These associations were the strongest among men and participants in their 40s in hospitalization related to diabetes complications, 50s in diabetes complications-specific mortality and 50s and 60s in all-cause mortality. Conclusions Patients with T2DM with high socioeconomic deprivation had higher hospital admission and mortality rates for diabetes complications than those with low deprivation. We cannot fully explain the effect of socioeconomic deprivation on diabetes outcomes. Therefore, further studies are needed in order to find underlying mechanisms for these associations.