Background: The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is widely used as a strategy in the search for the etiology of infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. During the Taiwan epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), many health care workers were infected. In an effort to establish a screening program for high risk personal, the distribution of HLA class I and II alleles in case and control groups was examined for the presence of an association to a genetic susceptibly or resistance to SARS coronavirus infection.

BACKGROUND:The increased health risks associated with obesity have been found to occur in Asians at lower body mass indices (BMIs). To determine the optimal cut-off values for overweight or obesity in Taiwan, we examined the relationships between four anthropometric indices and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: The data were collected from four health-screening centers from 1998 to 2000 in Taiwan. Included were 55 563 subjects (26 359 men and 29 204 women, mean age ¼ 37.3 AE 10.9 and 37.0 AE 11.1 y, respectively). None had known major systemic diseases or were taking medication. Individual body weight, height, waist circumference (WC), and a series of tests related to cardiovascular risk (blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) were assessed and their relationships were examined. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to find out the optimal cut-off values of various anthropometric indices to predict hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. RESULTS: Of the four anthropometric indices we studied, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) in women was found to have the largest areas under the ROC curve (women ¼ 0.755, 95% CI 0.748 -0.763) relative to at least one risk factor (ie hypertension or diabetes or dyslipidemia). The optimal cut-off values for overweight or obesity from our study in men and women showed that BMIs of 23.6 and 22.1 kg=m 2 , WCs of 80.5 and 71.5 cm, waist-to-hip ratios (WHpR) of 0.85 and 0.76, and WHtR of 0.48 and 0.45, respectively, may be more appropriate in Taiwan. CONCLUSIONS: WHtR may be a better indicator for screening overweight-or obesity-related CVD risk factors than the other three indexes (BMI, WC and WHpR) in Taiwan. Our study also supported the hypothesis that the cut-off values using BMI and WC to define obesity should be much lower in Taiwan than in Western countries.

OBJECTIVE—To study the effect of birth weight on risk of type 2 diabetes in the schoolchildren in Taiwan. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—From 1992 to 1997, all schoolchildren aged 6–18 years were screened for diabetes in Taiwan Province. This cohort consisted of 1,966 patients with diabetes and 1,780 randomly selected subjects with normal fasting glycemia (NFG). Questionnaire interviewing was designed to classify diabetes. The birth weight was obtained from the Taiwan’s Birth Registry. After merging the data, there were 978 subjects, including 429 with type 2 diabetes and 549 with of NFG enrolled in the present analyses. RESULTS—The odds ratios (95% CI) for type 2 diabetes, after adjusting age, sex, BMI, family history of diabetes, and socioeconomic status, were 2.91 (1.25–6.76) for children with low birth weight (<2,500 g) and 1.78 (1.04–3.06) for those with high birth weight (≥4,000 g) when compared with the referent group (birth weight 3,000–3,499 g). The risk of diabetes was still 64% higher in the high birth weight group [odds ratio (OR) 1.64 (95% CI 0.91–2.96)], even after adjustment for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Patients with type 2 diabetes who were born with high birth weight were more likely to have a higher BMI and diastolic blood pressure as well as a higher family history of diabetes compared with those with low birth weight. CONCLUSIONS—A U-shaped relationship between birth weight and risk of type 2 diabetes was found in the schoolchildren aged 6–18 years in Taiwan. Schoolchildren with type 2 diabetes who were born with low birth weight had different metabolic phenotypes compared with those born with high birth weight.

Context Despite a disturbing trend of increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in childhood, little is known about the epidemiology of childhood type 2 DM, especially in the Taiwanese population.Objective To study the rate and risk factors for childhood type 2 DM based on a nationwide screening program in Taiwan.Design, Setting, and Participants Screening in 1999 for type 2 DM using urine and blood testing and confirmed by follow-up telephone survey among schoolchildren aged 6 to 18 years in Taiwan, followed by a nested case-control study conducted in 2002 comparing 137 children with type 2 DM with 1000 randomly selected children without diabetes chosen to represent the age and sex distribution of the whole student population.Main Outcome Measures Rate and identification of risk factors associated with childhood type 2 DM. ResultsThe rate of newly identified diabetes was 9.0 per 100000 for boys and 15.3 per 100000 for girls. Follow-up at 3 years revealed that, of 253 children with newly diagnosed diabetes, 24 (9.5%) had type 1 DM, 137 (54.2%) had type 2 DM, and 22 (8.7%) had secondary diabetes. Compared with children aged 6 to 9 years, the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of type 2 DM increased to 6.59 (3.23-13.4) for those aged 13 to 15 years and to 4.59 (2.07-10.2) for those aged 16 to 18 years. The OR (95% CI) of type 2 DM in children with a body mass index in the 95th percentile or higher (obesity) was 18.8 (9.22-38.5) compared with those with a body mass index in less than the 50th percentile. Other factors significantly associated with type 2 DM were hypercholesterolemia (OR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.04-3.23), blood pressure greater than the 85th percentile (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.07-2.70), and positive family history of diabetes (OR, 3.95; 95% CI, 2.01-7.78). ConclusionsOur mass screening program showed that type 2 DM is the leading cause of childhood DM in Taiwan. Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 DM in children.

This study compared the prevalence of asthma with climate and air pollutant data to determine the relationship between asthma prevalence and these factors. We conducted a nationwide survey of respiratory illness and symptoms in middle-school students in Taiwan. Lifetime prevalences of physician-diagnosed asthma and of typical symptoms of asthma were compared to air monitoring station data for temperature, relative humidity, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter . 10 jam (PM1O). A total of 331,686 nonsmoking children attended schools located within 2 km of 55 stations. Asthma prevalence rates adjusted for age, history of atopic eczema, and parental education were associated with nonsummer (June-August) temperature, winter January-March) humidity, and trafficrelated air pollution, especially carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, for both girls and boys.Nonsummer temperature, winter humidity, and traffic-related air pollution, especially carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, were positively associated with the prevalence of asthma in middle-school students in Taiwan.