Internet addiction has become a serious behavioral health problem in Asia. However, there are no up-to-date country comparisons. The Asian Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (AARBS) screens and compares the prevalence of Internet behaviors and addiction in adolescents in six Asian countries. A total of 5,366 adolescents aged 12-18 years were recruited from six Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Participants completed a structured questionnaire on their Internet use in the 2012-2013 school year. Internet addiction was assessed using the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R). The variations in Internet behaviors and addiction across countries were examined. The overall prevalence of smartphone ownership is 62%, ranging from 41% in China to 84% in South Korea. Moreover, participation in online gaming ranges from 11% in China to 39% in Japan. Hong Kong has the highest number of adolescents reporting daily or above Internet use (68%). Internet addiction is highest in the Philippines, according to both the IAT (5%) and the CIAS-R (21%). Internet addictive behavior is common among adolescents in Asian countries. Problematic Internet use is prevalent and characterized by risky cyberbehaviors.

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relationships between students’ sense of school community, poverty level, and student attitudes, motives, beliefs, and behavior among a diverse sample of 24 elementary schools. Major findings were that: (a) within schools, individual students’ sense of school community was significantly associated with almost all of the student outcome measures, (b) Between schools, school-level community and poverty were both significantly related to many of the student outcomes (the former positively, the latter negatively), (c) Most of the relationships between school community and student measures held for schools at different poverty levels, (d) Several significant interactions between school community and poverty level indicated that some of the strongest positive effects of school community occurred among schools with the most disadvantaged student populations.

This study developed a Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS) based on the existing internet and cellular phone addiction scales. For the development of this scale, 29 items (1.5 times the final number of items) were initially selected as preliminary items, based on the previous studies on internet/phone addiction as well as the clinical experience of involved experts. The preliminary scale was administered to a nationally representative sample of 795 students in elementary, middle, and high schools across South Korea. Then, final 15 items were selected according to the reliability test results. The final scale consisted of four subdomains: (1) disturbance of adaptive functions, (2) virtual life orientation, (3) withdrawal, and (4) tolerance. The final scale indicated a high reliability with Cronbach's α of .880. Support for the scale's criterion validity has been demonstrated by its relationship to the internet addiction scale, KS-II (r  =  .49). For the analysis of construct validity, we tested the Structural Equation Model. The results showed the four-factor structure to be valid (NFI  =  .943, TLI  =  .902, CFI  =  .902, RMSEA  =  .034). Smartphone addiction is gaining a greater spotlight as possibly a new form of addiction along with internet addiction. The SAPS appears to be a reliable and valid diagnostic scale for screening adolescents who may be at risk of smartphone addiction. Further implications and limitations are discussed.

No abstract

Background: Little research has been done to examine whether γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is prospectively associated with the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We performed a prospective study to examine the association between GGT and the risk for the development of CKD. Methods: The study cohort included a total of 10 337 healthy males with normal baseline kidney functions and no proteinuria. Participants were workers in a semiconductor manufacturing company and its 13 affiliates. CKD was defined as either the presence of proteinuria or a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of <60 mL · min−1 · (1.732)−1. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the adjusted hazard ratios in separate models for CKD. Results: During a follow-up period of 25 774.4 person-years, 366 men developed CKD. After adjustments were made for age, baseline GFR, triglyceride, and HDL-C, the risk for CKD increased with an increasing quartile of serum GGT (p for trend <0.001). The top one fourth of serum GGT vs the bottom one fourth of relative risks for CKD was 1.90 (95% confidence interval, 1.37–2.63). These associations were also apparent in participants who consumed ≤20 g/day of alcohol and those with normal weight, with values of alanine aminotransferase within reference intervals, or with C-reactive protein <3.0 mg/L, and participants without metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: Our findings, which were obtained from a large work-site cohort and excluded individuals with diabetes and hypertension, indicated that serum GGT may be an early predictor for the development of CKD, independent of baseline confounding factors.

Remsima® (infliximab) was recently approved as the world's first biosimilar monoclonal antibody (mAb) in both the European Union and Korea. To achieve this, extensive physicochemical characterization of Remsima® in relation to Remicade® was conducted in order to demonstrate the highly similar properties between the two molecules. A multitude of state-of-the-art analyses revealed that Remsima® has identical primary as well as indistinguishable higher order structures compared with the original product. Monomer and aggregate contents of Remsima® were also found to be comparable with those of Remicade®. In terms of charge isoforms, although Remsima® was observed to contain slightly less basic variants than the original antibody, the difference was shown to be largely due to the presence of C-terminal lysine. On the other hand, this lysine was found to be rapidly clipped inside serum in vitro and in vivo, suggesting it has no effect on the biological potency or safety of the drug. Analysis of the glycan contents of the antibodies showed comparable glycan types and distributions. Recent results of clinical studies have further confirmed that the two antibody products are highly similar to each other. Based on this research as well as previous clinical and non-clinical comparability studies, Remsima® can be considered as a highly similar molecule to Remicade® in terms of physicochemical properties, efficacy, and safety for its final approval as a biosimilar product to Remicade®.

No abstract

Abstract. To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of Clonorchis sinensis infection, an epidemiologic survey was performed (3,169 residents; age range: 30-87 years; mean age ‫ס‬ 59; 1,973 women) in three areas with different mortality rates of cholangiocarcinoma. C. sinensis prevalence was 2.1% in Chuncheon, 7.8% in Chungju, and 31.3% in Haman, where cholangiocarcinoma incidence rate was 0.3, 1.8, and 5.5 per 100,000 persons, respectively. Of the four major risk factors for C. sinensis (male sex, alcohol consumption, raw freshwater fish intake, and area of residence), area was the strongest. Efforts to discourage raw freshwater fish intake, treat egg carriers, and protect water sources from C. sinensis contamination should be strengthened in the Republic of Korea.