The aim of this study was to compare the sociodemographic characteristics, depression, and the health-related quality of life outcome, among the Korean elderly population, with and without activity limitation.

The data used was drawn from the raw data of the seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 8,150). There were 1,632 records for individuals aged 65 or older extracted from the seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database, 199 of those had missing responses (n = 1,433). Differences within the sociodemographic characteristic, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the EuroQol-5 Dimension were analyzed using logistic regression analysis according to the presence or absence of activity limitation.

The prevalence of activity limitation among the elderly individuals surveyed was 19.9%. In the unadjusted regression analysis, the odds ratios of all independent variables (age, gender, education level, type of region, family income, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, all 5 domains of the EuroQol-5 Dimension) between the elderly individuals with and without activity limitation, were significant. Although, in the adjusted logistic regression analysis, it was observed that the only factors that were significantly associated with activity limitation were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, EuroQol-5 Dimension, type of region, and family income.

These findings demonstrated that activity limitation in elderly individuals is associated with the sociodemographic characteristics of family income and type of region of residence, as well as depression and the health-related quality of life outcome.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has a substantial financial impact on healthcare systems in the US. This study aimed to examine the impact of CVD on health insurance coverage and health service use under economic stress as indicated by the Great Recession in the US (December 2007–June 2009).

Data of 26,483 adults aged ≥ 20 years from the 2003–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. There were 9,479 adults assigned to the group “before the Great Recession” (2003–2006), 5,674 adults assigned to “during the Great Recession” (2007–2008), and 11,330 adults assigned to “after the Great Recession” (2009–2012).

Patients with CVD from low-income families were more likely to have health insurance during the recession (OR:1.57, 95% CI: 1.01,2.45). Those participants without CVD, who were from low-income families or < 65 years, were more likely to use the emergency room rather than primary care facilities to gain access to routine healthcare (p < 0.05). Patients with CVD from high-income families were also more likely to use the emergency room (p < 0.05). Patients with CVD but not those without CVD, who reported a high family income or were ≥ 65 years old, were less likely to use mental health services during the recession than before the recession.

Effective strategies need to be developed to promote primary care use among the general adult American population. In addition, use of mental health services among patients with CVD needs to be improved when financial stress occurs.

The objective of this study was to examine the socio-demographic disparities in obesity among US adults across 130 metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.

This study used data from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trend of 159,827 US adults aged 18 years and older. Data were analyzed using the multilevel linear regression models.

According to individual level analyses, socio-demographic disparities in obesity exist in the United States. Individuals with low socioeconomic status were associated with a higher body mass index. The participants from the Midwest United States tend to have higher body mass index than those who from the South. According to metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area level analyses, secondly, there were significant differences in obesity status between different areas and the relation of obesity with 5 socio-demographic factors varied across different areas. According to geospatial mapping analyses, even though obesity status by metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area level has improved overtime, differences in body mass index between United States regions are increasing from 2007 to 2015.

Socio-demographic and regional disparities in obesity status persist among US adults. Hence, these findings underscore the need to take socio-environmental factors into account when planning obesity prevention on vulnerable populations and areas.

This study aimed to examine how social activity (SA) moderates the relationship between age norms (AN) and subjective health status (SHS) among older adults in Korea. Based on the theories of age-integrated structure and active aging, the proposed hypotheses were that SHS has a positive association with attitudes towards AN, and with the interactions between different types of AN and SA.

Cross-sectional data from a Korean national survey of older adults were analyzed. Participants were older adults N = 10,451, of whom 10,280 were used in the study sample. Multivariate linear regression including interaction terms, was used to examine the associations among SHS, AN, and SA.

The results of multivariate linear regression examining learning (ß = 0.066, p < 0.001), working (ß = 0.063, p < 0.001), and remarriage (ß = 0.036, p < 0.001) showed that those who perceived AN more positively, were more likely to have a high SHS. With interaction terms, those who had a positive attitude towards AN for learning and volunteering (ß = 0.025, p < 0.05), and remarriage and engaged in friendship groups (ß = 0.032, p < 0.05) were more likely to have a high SHS.

SA serves as a great moderator between AN and SHS.

Herbal remedies such as purgative manna are used to treat neonatal jaundice. In this study Bilineaster drop (purgative manna) and phototherapy, and phototherapy treatment alone were compared by assessing phototherapy duration and number of days in hospital.

There were 150 consecutive term neonates with jaundice, weighting from 2,500 g to 4,000 g enrolled in this randomized double blind clinical trial. The neonates were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The control patients received only phototherapy and the intervention group underwent phototherapy treatment and purgative manna drop (5 drops per kg of body weight, 3 times a day). Direct and total measurements of bilirubin concentration in the serum were measured and the reduction in concentration of bilirubin was calculated.

There were 28% of patients whose hospital duration following phototherapy was 2 days, for Bilineaster and phototherapy treatment this was 49.3% of patients. At 48 hours and 72 hours the reduction in the concentration of total bilirubin in the serum was statistically significantly different across groups (p < 0.05) but at 24 hours and 96 hours there were no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). The reduction in direct bilirubin concentration in the serum was significantly different between groups at 72 hours and 96 hours (p > 0.001).

Purgative manna and phototherapy, can statistically significantly reduce total bilirubin concentration at 48 hours and 72 hours compared with phototherapy alone, and reduce the length of hospital stay for jaundiced neonates at 2 days compared with phototherapy treatment.

This research aimed to understand the popularity of topics in the field of women’s health through analysis of online news articles which were chronologically classified and examined to determine how women’s health and diseases had changed over time.

Women’s health and disease news articles were collated from a popular news website between 1993 to 2015 and preprocessed using gynecological medical terminology, Korean words and nouns (excluding general nouns not related to women’s healthcare topics). The resultant articles (N = 7,710) were analyzed using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm and major topics were extracted. Topic trends were analyzed by year and period for women’s health.

It was observed that most of the women’s health articles were focused on “Healthcare”, and 9 other topics were identified that represented a relatively small proportion in 1993–2000. In 2001–2005, most of the articles were focused on “Medical Services” and “Dietary Supplements” with some specific topics that peaked people’s interest, as compared to those focused on “Healthcare” in the 1990s. It was also observed that differences in the proportion of each topic was small after 2011.

Changes in topics related to women’s disease were not clearly distinguished in the 1990s but this changed from 2001where articles related to “women disease” appeared as articles on the topics of various diseases.

Staphylococcus aureus is a nosocomial pathogen that provides a major challenge in the healthcare environment, especially in burns units where patients are particularly susceptible to infections. In this study, we sought to determine molecular types of S. aureus isolates collected from burns patients, based on staphylococcal protein A and coagulase gene polymorphisms.

Antibiotic susceptibility testing of 89 S. aureus strains isolated from burn wounds of patients was assessed using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Strains were characterized by spa typing, coa typing, and resistance and toxin gene profiling.

A total of 12 different spa types were identified with the majority being t790 (18%). Panton-Valentine leucocidin encoding genes were identified in spa types t044 (5.6%), t852 (2.2%) and t008 (2.2%). The most commonly detected antibiotic resistance gene was ant (4′)-Ia (60.7%). Ten different coa types were detected and the majority of the tested isolates belonged to coa III (47.2%). All the high-level mupirocin-resistant and low-level mupirocin resistant strains belonged to coa type III.

The present study illustrated that despite the high frequency of coa III and spa t790 types, the genetic background of S. aureus strains in Iranian burns patients was diverse. The findings obtained are valuable in creating awareness of S. aureus infections within burns units.

In Egypt, the National Cancer Registry Program integrates hospital-based data from multiple Egyptian governorates to obtain representative rates. Unfortunately, Dakahlia (one of the largest Egyptian governorates) was not integrated in the National Cancer Registry Program. This research aimed to acquire malignancy rates from the Oncology Center of Mansoura University, which is one of the two oncology centers present in Dakalia Governorate in Egypt.

Electronic records of patients who attended the Oncology Center of Mansoura University during 2016 were accessed with permission. Analysis was performed to extract diagnostic categories (age, gender, and geographic distribution of cases).

Most commonly diagnosed malignancies were breast cancer which represented about 10% of cases in the Oncology Center of Mansoura University during 2016. This was followed by leukemia (3.80%), lymphoma (3.59%), and liver cancer (3.44%). Diagnoses encountered included benign and malignant tumors as well as non-tumor diagnoses. The Mansoura district had the highest proportionate rate of breast cancer cases. Females in the age group ≥ 35 < 60 years had the highest incidence of malignancy cases across all diagnoses.

The burden of breast cancer in Mansoura district is high. Risk factors need further evaluation with a recommendation to perform an environmental risk assessment.

This study aimed to extend an epidemiological model (SEIHFR) to analyze epidemic trends, and evaluate intervention efficacy.

SEIHFR was modified to examine disease transmission dynamics after vaccination for the Ebola outbreak. Using existing data from Liberia, sensitivity analysis of various epidemic scenarios was used to inform the model structure, estimate the basic reproduction number ℜ₀ and investigate how the vaccination could effectively change the course of the epidemic.

If a randomized mass vaccination strategy was adopted, vaccines would be administered prophylactically or as early as possible (depending on the availability of vaccines). An effective vaccination rate threshold for Liberia was estimated as 48.74% among susceptible individuals. If a ring vaccination strategy was adopted to control the spread of the Ebola virus, vaccines would be given to reduce the transmission rate improving the tracing rate of the contact persons of an infected individual.

The extended SEIHFR model predicted the total number of infected cases, number of deaths, number of recoveries, and duration of outbreaks among others with different levels of interventions such as vaccination rate. This model may be used to better understand the spread of Ebola and develop strategies that may achieve a disease-free state.