Wayne Gao

Taipei Medical University | TMU · College of Public Health

Background It has been known that smoking and various lung diseases including lung cancer can cause lung function impairment. However, the impact of different types of lung function impairments, such as preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) and airflow obstruction (AO), on the incidence and mortality of lung cancer in both general and never-s...

Importance For the first time, the 2020 World Health Organization guidelines on physical activity recommended reducing sedentary behaviors owing to their health consequences. Less is known on the specific association of prolonged occupational sitting with health, especially in the context of low physical activity engagement. Objective To quantify...

Background The relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and the risk of end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) among those without cardiovascular disease remains unclear. We aim to establish temporal consistency and elucidate the independent relationship between RHR and the risk of ESRD. Methods and Results This cohort enrolled participants from 476...

Background A substantially elevated Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of the largest global modifiable risk factors for stroke and heart diseases. Most studies classify BMI according to the WHO BMI cut-off point in stroke and heart disease studies. However, there is a limited understanding of the association between the BMI cut-off point in the Asian po...

Background It has been known that smoking and various lung diseases including lung cancer can cause lung function impairment. However, the impact of different types of lung function impairments, such as preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) and airflow obstruction (AO), on the incidence and mortality of lung cancer in both general and never-s...

Background Kidney diseases are viewed as continuously progressing diseases from microalbuminuria and chronic kidney disease (CKD), to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and its mortality including deaths. The report on the association between prolonged sitting and kidney diseases is limited. Methods We examined a cohort of 455,506 participants in a sc...

The effectiveness of interventions such as public mask-wearing, contact tracing, and vaccination presents an important lesson for control of the further COVID-19 outbreaks without of whole country lockdowns and the restriction of individual movement. We simulated different scenarios of COVID-19 waves in Taiwan from 2020 to the beginning of March 20...

Background There are limited renal replacement therapy (RRT) prediction models with good performance in the general population. We developed a model that includes lifestyle factors to improve predictive ability for RRT in the population at large. Methods We used data collected between 1996 and 2017 from a medical screening in a cohort comprising 4...

Objective To investigate the association between the amount and intensity of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and the risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Methods The study examined a cohort of 543,667 participants aged 20 years and older who participated in a health screening program from January 1, 1996, through December 31, 2017. We ide...

Importance As smoking continues to decline in many developed countries, the proportion of lung cancers in nonsmokers will rise. This shift may create substantial pressure to further expand lung cancer screening to lower-risk groups. Objective To determine the association of lung cancer incidence with the promotion of screening in a largely nonsmok...

Background For the first time, the 2020 WHO guidelines on physical activity recommend reducing sedentary behaviors due to their health consequences. Less is known on the effect of prolonged occupational sitting, especially in the context of low physical activity engagement.This study aims at quantifying cardiovascular risk associated with prolonged...

For facilitating risk communication in clinical management, such a ratio-based measure becomes easier to understand if expressed as a loss of life expectancy. The cohort, consisting of 543,410 adults in Taiwan, was recruited between 1994 and 2008. Health risks included lifestyle, biomarkers, and chronic diseases. A total of 18,747 deaths were ident...

Case isolation and contact tracing are two essential parts of control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, however, additional interventions, such as mask wearing, are required. Taiwan successfully contained local COVID-19 transmission after the initial imported cases in the country in early 2020 after applying the above-mentioned interventi...

Background The role of smoking in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains uncertain, especially in endemic regions. We conducted an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies to investigate the associations between smoking exposure and risk of NPC. Methods We obtained individual participant data of 334 935 male pa...

Background and objectives: Mortality risk of resting heart rate (RHR) has been shown to be an independent risk factor for mortality but attracted limited attention, particularly compared to hypertension. We focused on high normal RHR (80-99 beats/min), and sought equivalent risks at levels of blood pressure in hypertension. Methods: The cohort, 515...

Introduction The COVID-19 outbreak is posing an unprecedented challenge to healthcare workers. This study analyzes the geo-temporal effects on disease severity for the 1,688 Chinese healthcare workers infected with COVID-19. Methods Using the descriptive results recently reported by the Chinese CDC, we compare the percentage of infected healthcare...

Introduction In Taiwan, national tobacco use surveys show that e-cigarette use has increased since 2014 among youth, while, at the same time, conventional cigarette smoking has continuously decreased. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the increased popularity of e-cigarettes has undermined this favourable declining trend for cigarette...

Introduction The COVID 19 outbreak is posing an unprecedented challenge to healthcare workers. This study analyzes the geo temporal effects on disease severity for the 1,688 Chinese healthcare workers infected with COVID 19. Method Using the descriptive results recently reported by the Chinese CDC, we compare the percentage of infected healthcare w...

Objective There has been an alarming increase of lung cancer, 3.4-fold at age 65-69 rate and 13-fold in total number in 35 years, among nonsmoking women in Taiwan, The worried well, concerned with their risk, demanded LDCT screening. However, current recommendation was limited to heavy smokers with 30 pack years. Screening low-risk individuals had...

Air pollution has been labelled the ‘new smoking’, with news articles bearing titles such as ‘If You Live in a Big City You Already Smoke Every Day’ and ‘The Air Is So Bad in These Cities, You May As Well Be Smoking’. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, highlighted this attention-catching comparison, saying, ‘The world has turned t...

Objective The rapid increase in lung cancer in nonsmoking women puzzled the public. The 3.4 folds increase for age 65-69 rate in 35 years was translated into a 13-fold increase in total lung cancer cases in women in Taiwan. More than 90% came from nonsmokers. Without smoking as a cause, how they came about was a mystery, and many people blamed it o...

Objective This study compares the effect of industry vs government induced cigarette price increases on cigarette consumption in Taiwan. Methods Using governmental tax and market survey data, we analyzed the changes in cigarette retail prices, sales volume, and net revenue of the top tobacco companies in Taiwan from 2011 to 2016, when no tax incre...

Introduction This study aims to analyse the non-tax-induced price increasing strategies adopted by tobacco industry in Taiwan, a high-income country with comprehensive tobacco control policies but low tobacco taxes and a declining cigarette market. Methods Using governmental tax, price and inflation data, we analysed cigarette sales volume, afford...

A growing literature indicates that electronic cigarette use increases the risk of subsequent initiation of conventional smoking among cigarette-naïve adolescents in several Western countries. This research assesses the same relationship in an Asian country, Taiwan. The Taiwan Adolescent to Adult Longitudinal Study is a school-based survey that was...

Introduction Adult smoking prevalence in Taiwan rapidly declined from 26.5% in 2005 to 20.0% in 2015. Nevertheless, future projections on smoking-attributable deaths and current per capita consumption do not paint an equally bright picture. Methods We used SimSmoke, a tobacco control simulation model to assess the impact of tax increases and other...

Introduction Both smoking and diabetes are known to have health risks, but the extent of the risks when both co-existed are little known. Methods A cohort, consisting of 422,771 adults, was recruited successively during health surveillance between 1996 and 2008. Data from questionnaire, and results from fasting blood and other screening tests were...

Introduction Nearly half of all smokers are hypertensive based on new guidelines issued in 2017. The objective of this study is to assess the excess risk and shortened life expectancy of smokers with 1) elevated blood pressure (120-129/

The increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, especially among adolescents, has alarmed health advocates and government officials, dominating the tobacco control narrative in the past few years. According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, the percentage of Taiwanese teenagers reporting use of e-cigarettes in the past 30 days rose from 2.01% (95% con...

Objectives: Transport injuries (TI) are ranked as one of the leading causes of death, disability, and property loss worldwide. This paper provides an overview of the burden of TI in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) by age and sex from 1990 to 2015. Methods: Transport injuries mortality in the EMR was estimated using the Global Burden of Dise...

OBJECTIVES:Transport injuries (TI) are ranked as one of the leading causes of death, disability, and property loss worldwide. This paper provides an overview of the burden of TI in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) by age and sex from 1990 to 2015. METHODS:Transport injuries mortality in the EMR was estimated using the Global Burden of Disease...

Background Cigarettes kill more than one million Chinese each year and the number is expected to reach three million by 2030. Total smoking attributable deaths (SADs) is expected to reach 200 million in China in 21 century under business as usual scenario. Methods Taiwan and Hong Kong's historical transitions in male smoking endemic were used as r...

Results Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28.6 to 94.7. Out of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with Sou...

Background National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological...

Background: The scale-up of tobacco control, especially after the adoption of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, is a major public health success story. Nonetheless, smoking remains a leading risk for early death and disability worldwide, and therefore continues to require sustained political commitment. The Global Burden of Diseases, In...

Summary Go Background The scale-up of tobacco control, especially after the adoption of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, is a major public health success story. Nonetheless, smoking remains a leading risk for early death and disability worldwide, and therefore continues to require sustained political commitment. The Global Burden of Di...