Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives

Volume 12(1); February 2021

Editorial

Virus Mutation and Countermeasures: Jong-Koo Lee; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):1-2. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.01

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Original Articles

A Healthcare-Associated Outbreak of HCV Genotype 2a at a Clinic in Seoul: Siwon Choi, Hyerim Lee, Hyungmin Lee, Yoon-Seok Chung; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):3-12. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.02

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Abstract PDF: Objectives
An epidemiological investigation was conducted into a hepatitis C virus (HCV) outbreak at an outpatients clinic in Seoul (2011–2012). The aim of the study was to analyze the scale of infection, identify the source of infection, and route of transmission to prevent hepatitis C transmission in the future.
Methods
A retrospective study of the outpatients and health care workers (n = 7,285) in the target outpatient clinic during 2011–2012 was conducted. The history of the study population infection with hepatitis C, electronic medical records, field visits, and health care worker interviews were examined for the period between March 1^st, 2006 and March 25^th, 2016. The blood samples were collected and tested for anti-HCV antibodies, HCV RNA and HCV gene in 2016.
Results
The rate of anti-HCV positive results was 4.4% in the study population. The risk factors associated with an anti-HCV positive result were ≥ 10 clinic visits, and receiving an invasive procedure including a nerve block and a block of the peripheral branch of the spinal nerve (p < 0.05). There were 112 HCV RNA positive cases out of 320 anti-HCV positive test result cases, amongst which 100 cases had the dominant HCV genotype 2a which formed either 1 cluster (n = 56) or 2 clusters (n = 25). This result indicated exposure to a high-association infection source.
Conclusion
Anti-HCV antibodies and genotypic analysis showed an epidemiological association between the outbreak of HCV and invasive procedures performed (2011–2012) at an outpatients clinic in Seoul.

Gender Difference in the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Depression among US Adults: Baksun Sung; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):13-19. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.03

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Abstract PDF

Objectives

The objective of this study was to determine the association between e-cigarette use and depression and examine how this association is different by gender among US adults.

Methods

Data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends was used, and included 174,351 of 230,875 US adults aged 18 years and older. Data were analyzed using the multivariate logistic regression models.

Results

After adjusting for age, race, education, income, marital status, employment status, smoking status, and physical activity, firstly, “current daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 2.487, p < 0.001), “current non-daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.623, p < 0.001), and “former e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.573, p < 0.001) were associated with increased odds of depression compared with “never e-cigarette users.” Secondly, women were associated with increased odds of depression compared with men (AOR = 1.797, p < 0.001). Finally, male “current daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.366, p < 0.01) were associated with increased odds of depression compared with female “never e-cigarette users.”

Conclusion

Thus, even though women tend to be more vulnerable to depression compared with men, e-cigarette use was positively associated with depression among both men and women.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Association between e-cigarette use behaviors and perceived harmfulness of e-cigarettes and anxiety/depression symptoms among Black/African American Adults
David Adzrago, Kayo Fujimoto, Melissa B. Harrell, Antwan Jones, J. Michael Wilkerson
Preventive Medicine Reports.2023; 31: 102080. CrossRef
Use of electronic vaping products and mental health among adolescent high school students in the United States: The moderating effect of sex
Philip Baiden, Hannah S. Szlyk, Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, Henry K. Onyeaka, JaNiene E. Peoples, Erin Kasson
Journal of Psychiatric Research.2022; 147: 24. CrossRef

Use of Menstrual Sanitary Products in Women of Reproductive Age: Korea Nurses’ Health Study: Hansol Choi, Nam-Kyoo Lim, Heeja Jung, Oksoo Kim, Hyun-Young Park; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):20-28. Published online February 1, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.04

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Abstract PDF Supplementary Material

Objectives

The use of menstrual hygiene products and its effect on women’s health remains under studied. Patterns of menstrual hygiene product use and the rationale behind choices among Korean women aged 18–45 years were examined.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was a part of the Korea Nurses’ Health Study. A total of 20,613 nurses participated, and 8,658 nurses participated in Module 7 which included a menstrual hygiene products-related survey. The data were collected through the mobile survey using a self-reported questionnaire. Participants’ use of menstrual hygiene products and related characteristics were analyzed using frequency (percentage) or mean (SD).

Results

The most common types of menstrual hygiene products across all age groups were disposable menstrual pads (89.0%), followed by cloth menstrual pads (4.5%), tampons (4.2%), and only 1.6% used a menstrual cup. Disposable menstrual pads were the most common across all age groups, but in those aged under 30 years this was followed by tampon use (6%). The most important criteria when choosing a menstrual hygiene product was comfort for disposable menstrual pads (31.3%) and tampons (41.5%), natural ingredients or organic products for cloth menstrual pads (51.4%), and custom fit for the menstrual cup (50.7%). However, for all menstrual hygiene products (except cloth menstrual pads), there was a higher proportion of anxiety than perception of safety, and low awareness of toxic shock syndrome.

Conclusion

It is important for women to use menstrual hygiene products with confidence. More research is needed to better understand potential health effects of menstrual hygiene products.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Use and perceptions on reusable and non-reusable menstrual products in Spain: A mixed-methods study
Laura Medina-Perucha, Tomàs López-Jiménez, Anna Sofie Holst, Constanza Jacques-Aviñó, Jordina Munrós-Feliu, Cristina Martínez-Bueno, Carme Valls-Llobet, Diana Pinzón Sanabria, Mª Mercedes Vicente-Hernández, Anna Berenguera, Muhammad Shahzad Aslam
PLOS ONE.2022; 17(3): e0265646. CrossRef
Women’s attitudes toward certification logos, labels, and advertisements for organic disposable sanitary pads: results from a multi-city cross-sectional survey
Hayeon Kim, Jinyoung Jung, Yun-Kyoung Song, Taegwon Chang, Sungmin Park, Jiwon Park, Kyungim Kim
BMC Women's Health.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Sanitation and hygiene practices of secondary school students from Mtwara town in Tanzania
Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge, Ademola Kabir Aremu, Dickson Dare Ajayi, Sayoki Godfrey Mfinanga
International Journal of Health Promotion and Educ.2022; : 1. CrossRef

Impact of Mixed Cognitive Intervention Training on Early Onset Dementia: Bo-Ra Jeon, Deok-Ju Kim; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):29-36. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.05

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Abstract PDF: Objectives
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of mixed cognitive intervention training using spaced retrieval training, and errorless learning in participants with early onset dementia. This was based on reality orientation therapy for cognitive function, depression, and occupational performance of patients.
Methods
Two early onset vascular dementia patients (> 65 years) with mild or moderate impairment were enrolled in a pre-test - post-test single-subject research design study. Prior to the study, the caregivers were interviewed about meaningful times, people, places, and areas of interest for the participant. A list of individual training words were selected based upon this information, and the participant was instructed to recall them after a 45-second, 90-second, 6-minute, and 12-minute delay. Baseline (3 sessions), intervention (20 sessions), and a second baseline period (3 sessions) were conducted. Activities of daily living were measured, and cognition was measured using the Consortium to Establish a Registry of Alzheimer’s Disease Korean version, whilst depression was measured using the Korean Form Geriatric Depression Scale, and task performance and satisfaction measured by the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure.
Results
After intervention, both participants showed improvements in activities of daily living (ADL), word list memory/recognition, trail making A, occupational performance, and satisfaction improvement, which was clinically significant in 1 participant who also had a reduced score in the scale of depression classifying him as not depressed.
Conclusion
Spaced retrieval training and errorless learning based on reality orientation therapy is an effective intervention in patients with early onset dementia and mild or moderate impairment.

Brief Reports

Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2: Distribution of Clades in the Republic of Korea in 2020: Ae Kyung Park, Il-Hwan Kim, Junyoung Kim, Jeong-Min Kim, Heui Man Kim, Chae young Lee, Myung-Guk Han, Gi-Eun Rhie, Donghyok Kwon, Jeong-Gu Nam, Young-Joon Park, Jin Gwack, Nam-Joo Lee, SangHee Woo, Jin Sun No, Jaehee Lee, Jeemin Ha, JeeEun Rhee, Cheon-Kwon Yoo, Eun-Jin Kim; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):37-43. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.06

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16 Citations

Abstract PDF

Since a novel beta-coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in December 2019, there has been a rapid global spread of the virus. Genomic surveillance was conducted on samples isolated from infected individuals to monitor the spread of genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Korea. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency performed whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in Korea for 1 year (January 2020 to January 2021). A total of 2,488 SARS-CoV-2 cases were sequenced (including 648 cases from abroad). Initially, the prevalent clades of SARS-CoV-2 were the S and V clades, however, by March 2020, GH clade was the most dominant. Only international travelers were identified as having G or GR clades, and since the first variant 501Y.V1 was identified (from a traveler from the United Kingdom on December 22^nd, 2020), a total of 27 variants of 501Y.V1, 501Y.V2, and 484K.V2 have been classified (as of January 25^th, 2021). The results in this study indicated that quarantining of travelers entering Korea successfully prevented dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Korea.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Rapid Emergence of the Omicron Variant of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Korea
Ae Kyung Park, Il-Hwan Kim, Chae Young Lee, Jeong-Ah Kim, Hyeokjin Lee, Heui Man Kim, Nam-Joo Lee, SangHee Woo, Jaehee Lee, JeeEun Rhee, Cheon-Kwon Yoo, Eun-Jin Kim
Annals of Laboratory Medicine.2023; 43(2): 211. CrossRef
Genomic evidence of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection in the Republic of Korea
Ae Kyung Park, Jee Eun Rhee, Il‐Hwan Kim, Heui Man Kim, Hyeokjin Lee, Jeong‐Ah Kim, Chae Young Lee, Nam‐Joo Lee, SangHee Woo, Jaehee Lee, Jin Sun No, Gi‐Eun Rhie, Seong Jin Wang, Sang‐Eun Lee, Young Joon Park, Gemma Park, Jung Yeon Kim, Jin Gwack, Cheon‐K
Journal of Medical Virology.2022; 94(4): 1717. CrossRef
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.619 and B.1.620 Lineages, South Korea, 2021
Ae Kyung Park, Il-Hwan Kim, Heui Man Kim, Hyeokjin Lee, Nam-Joo Lee, Jeong-Ah Kim, SangHee Woo, Chae young Lee, Jaehee Lee, Sae Jin Oh, JeeEun Rhee, Cheon-Kwon Yoo, Eun-Jin Kim
Emerging Infectious Diseases.2022; 28(2): 415. CrossRef
Humoral and Cellular Responses to COVID-19 Vaccines in SARS-CoV-2 Infection-Naïve and -Recovered Korean Individuals
Ji-Young Hwang, Yunhwa Kim, Kyung-Min Lee, Eun-Jeong Jang, Chang-Hoon Woo, Chang-Ui Hong, Seok-Tae Choi, Sivilay Xayaheuang, Jong-Geol Jang, June-Hong Ahn, Hosun Park
Vaccines.2022; 10(2): 332. CrossRef
Increase in Viral Load in Patients With SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Infection in the Republic of Korea
Jeong-Min Kim, Jee Eun Rhee, Myeongsu Yoo, Heui Man Kim, Nam-Joo Lee, Sang Hee Woo, Hye-Jun Jo, Donghyok Kwon, Sangwon Lee, Cheon Kwon Yoo, Eun-Jin Kim
Frontiers in Microbiology.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Molecular Dynamics Studies on the Structural Stability Prediction of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Including Multiple Mutants
Kwang-Eun Choi, Jeong-Min Kim, Jee Eun Rhee, Ae Kyung Park, Eun-Jin Kim, Cheon Kwon Yoo, Nam Sook Kang
International Journal of Molecular Sciences.2022; 23(9): 4956. CrossRef
SARS-CoV-2 shedding dynamics and transmission in immunosuppressed patients
Jee-Soo Lee, Ki Wook Yun, Hyeonju Jeong, Boram Kim, Man Jin Kim, Jae Hyeon Park, Ho Seob Shin, Hyeon Sae Oh, Hobin Sung, Myung Gi Song, Sung Im Cho, So Yeon Kim, Chang Kyung Kang, Pyoeng Gyun Choe, Wan Beom Park, Nam Joong Kim, Myoung-Don Oh, Eun Hwa Choi
Virulence.2022; 13(1): 1242. CrossRef
Immunological and Pathological Peculiarity of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Beta Variant
Sunhee Lee, Gun Young Yoon, Su Jin Lee, Young-Chan Kwon, Hyun Woo Moon, Yu-Jin Kim, Haesoo Kim, Wooseong Lee, Gi Uk Jeong, Chonsaeng Kim, Kyun-Do Kim, Seong-Jun Kim, Dae-Gyun Ahn, Miguel Angel Martinez
Microbiology Spectrum.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Clinical scoring system to predict viable viral shedding in patients with COVID-19
Sung Woon Kang, Heedo Park, Ji Yeun Kim, Sunghee Park, So Yun Lim, Sohyun Lee, Joon-Yong Bae, Jeonghun Kim, Seongman Bae, Jiwon Jung, Min Jae Kim, Yong Pil Chong, Sang-Oh Lee, Sang-Ho Choi, Yang Soo Kim, Sung-Cheol Yun, Man-Seong Park, Sung-Han Kim
Journal of Clinical Virology.2022; 157: 105319. CrossRef
Model-informed COVID-19 exit strategy with projections of SARS-CoV-2 infections generated by variants in the Republic of Korea
Sung-mok Jung, Kyungmin Huh, Munkhzul Radnaabaatar, Jaehun Jung
BMC Public Health.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Comparative analysis of mutational hotspots in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 isolates from different geographic origins
Sanghoo Lee, Mi-Kyeong Lee, Hyeongkyun Na, Jinwoo Ahn, Gayeon Hong, Youngkee Lee, Jimyeong Park, Yejin Kim, Yun-Tae Kim, Chang-Ki Kim, Hwan-Sub Lim, Kyoung-Ryul Lee
Gene Reports.2021; 23: 101100. CrossRef
Review of Current COVID-19 Diagnostics and Opportunities for Further Development
Yan Mardian, Herman Kosasih, Muhammad Karyana, Aaron Neal, Chuen-Yen Lau
Frontiers in Medicine.2021;[Epub] CrossRef
Locally harvested Covid-19 convalescent plasma could probably help combat the geographically determined SARS-CoV-2 viral variants
Manish Raturi, Anuradha Kusum, Mansi Kala, Garima Mittal, Anita Sharma, Naveen Bansal
Transfusion Clinique et Biologique.2021; 28(3): 300. CrossRef
Molecular Dynamics Studies on the Structural Characteristics for the Stability Prediction of SARS-CoV-2
Kwang-Eun Choi, Jeong-Min Kim, JeeEun Rhee, Ae Kyung Park, Eun-Jin Kim, Nam Sook Kang
International Journal of Molecular Sciences.2021; 22(16): 8714. CrossRef
Management following the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 in a domestic cat associated with a massive outbreak in South Korea
Taewon Han, Boyeong Ryu, Suyeon Lee, Yugyeong Song, Yoongje Jeong, Ilhwan Kim, Jeongmin Kim, Eunjin Kim, Wonjun Lee, Hyunju Lee, Haekyoung Hwang
One Health.2021; 13: 100328. CrossRef
Genomic epidemiology reveals the reduction of the introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2 after implementing control strategies in Republic of Korea, 2020
Jung-Hoon Kwon, Jeong-Min Kim, Dong-hun Lee, Ae Kyung Park, Il-Hwan Kim, Da-Won Kim, Ji-Yun Kim, Noori Lim, Kyeong-Yeon Cho, Heui Man Kim, Nam-Joo Lee, SangHee Woo, Chae Young Lee, Jin Sun No, Junyoung Kim, JeeEun Rhee, Myung-Guk Han, Gi-Eun Rhie, Cheon K
Virus Evolution.2021;[Epub] CrossRef

COVID-19 Pandemic in Hong Kong and Gaza Strip: Lessons Learned from Two Densely Populated Locations in the World: Hammoda Abu-Odah, Sheena Ramazanu, Eslam Saleh, Jonathan Bayuo, Yehia Abed, Motasem Said Salah; Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2021;12(1):44-50. Published online February 23, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.07

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2 Citations

Abstract PDF

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic led to the implementation of several precautionary measures across the globe. For densely populated regions in the world, this may have been challenging given the proximity of people to one other. Thus, this brief report sought to compare the measures across 2 densely populated locations, Hong Kong and Gaza. Epidemiological data was obtained from governmental online repositories and was compared with the data presented by the Johns Hopkins coronavirus map to ensure consistency. Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data obtained over the period of the study. The data suggested that although Hong Kong and Gaza implemented similar strategies, Gaza recorded marginally higher cases compared with Hong Kong in the same timeframe. The strategies implemented in both settings included border closures, social distancing, proper hand hygiene, and mask usage. Cultural and socio-demographic differences may have played a part in this variation in case numbers, in addition to lessons Hong Kong had previously learned from a similar outbreak. As the pandemic is ongoing it is essential that public sensitization to adherence to precautionary measures at the personal/family level does not occur.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Unwillingness or reluctance of Palestinians to get the COVID-19 vaccine: the reasons behind it and how to persuade them
Hammoda Abu-Odah, Jing Su, Salihu Sabiu Musa
International Journal of Infectious Diseases.2022; 119: 53. CrossRef
Palliative Care Landscape in the COVID-19 Era: Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research
Hammoda Abu-Odah, Jingjing Su, Mian Wang, Sin-Yi (Rose) Lin, Jonathan Bayuo, Salihu Sabiu Musa, Alex Molassiotis
Healthcare.2022; 10(7): 1344. CrossRef

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