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.
A retrospective study of the outpatients and health care workers (
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 (
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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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.
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).
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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 22nd, 2020), a total of 27 variants of 501Y.V1, 501Y.V2, and 484K.V2 have been classified (as of January 25th, 2021). The results in this study indicated that quarantining of travelers entering Korea successfully prevented dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Korea.
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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.
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