• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.357-366
• /
• 2021

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to verify the level of ethical consciousness and decision-making of dental hygiene students in pandemic as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: This study included 249 college students who were interested in new infectious diseases. They completed a questionnaire on a 5-point scale, and data were analyzed by independent t-test, ANOVA, and correlation. Results: The perception of COVID-19 was moderate at 3.42 points. This was higher among males, first graders, emergency management students, those who received education and experienced self-quarantine. The level of ethical consciousness was moderate (3.89 points), which was higher in sophomores, emergency management students. Ethical decision-making was moderate, with a score of 3.44, and was higher in those with first grade, field practice training, and self-quarantine experience. The level of perception positively correlated with ethical consciousness (α=0.310, p<0.01). In addition, as the degree of ethical consciousness increased, the degree of decision-making also increased (α=0.539, p<0.01). Conclusions: In a crisis, involving the spread of COVID-19, providing prospective dental hygienists accurate information and an experience similar to that faced by patient is necessary for raising the level of ethical consciousness and decision-making.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.195-201
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the volume of trauma patients, the number of orthopedic trauma operations, and the severity of injuries. We also investigated the correlations between social distancing and these variables. Methods: This was a retrospective review of trauma patient cases at a single focused training center for trauma in Korea from January 2017 to April 2021. The COVID-19 group included patients treated from January 1 to April 30 in 2020 and 2021, and the control group included patients treated during the same months from 2017 to 2019. The volume of trauma patients according to the level of social distancing was evaluated among patients treated from August 2, 2020 to November 23, 2020. Results: The study included 3,032 patients who presented to the emergency department with traumatic injuries from January to April 2017 to 2021. The average number of patients was 646.7 and 546.0 in the control and COVID-19 groups, respectively. The percentage of patients injured in traffic accidents (TAs) decreased from 25.0% to 18.2% (P<0.0001). The proportions of in-car TAs and pedestrian TAs also decreased from 6.7% and 10.8% to 3.5% and 6.0%, respectively (P=0.0002 and P<0.0001). The percentage of bicycle TAs increased from 2.4% to 4.0% (P=0.0128). The proportion of patients with an Injury Severity Score above 15 and the mortality rate did not change significantly. As the level of social distancing increased, the number of trauma patients and the number of trauma injuries from TAs decreased. The number of orthopedic trauma operations also depended on the social distancing level. Conclusions: The number of trauma patients presenting to the emergency department decreased during the COVID-19 period. The volume of trauma patients and orthopedic trauma operations decreased as the social distance level increased.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.66 no.5
• /
• pp.573-581
• /
• 2023

Objective : Due to the implementation of vaccinations and the development of therapeutic agents, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that started at the end of 2019 has entered a new phase. As a result, neurosurgeons should reconsider the way they treat their patients. As the COVID-19 situation prolongs, the change in neurosurgical emergency patients according to the number of confirmed cases is no longer clear. Outpatient treatment by telephone was permitted according to government policy. In addition, visits to caregivers in the intensive care unit were limited. Methods : The electronic medical records of patients who had been treated over the phone for a month (during April 2020, while the hospital was closing) were reviewed. Meanwhile, according to the limited visits to the intensive care unit, a video meeting was held with the caregivers. After the video meeting, satisfaction was evaluated using a questionnaire. Results : During April 2020, 1021 patients received non-face-to-face care over the telephone. Among the patients, no critical medical problem occurred due to non-face-to-face care. From July 2021 to December 2021, 321 patients were admitted to the neurosurgical intensive care unit and 107 patients (33.3%) including their caregivers agreed to video visits. Twice a week, advance notice was given that access would be made through a mobile device and the nurse explained to caregivers how to use the mobile device. The time for the video meeting was approximately 20 minutes per patient. Based on the questionnaire, 81 respondents (75.7%) answered that they agreed, and 26 respondents (24.3%) answered that they strongly agreed that was easy to communicate through video meetings. Fifty-two (48.6%) agreed and 55 (51.4%) strongly agreed that they were easy to understand the doctor's explanation. For overall satisfaction with this video meeting, three respondents (2.8%) gave 4/5 points and 95 respondents (88.8%) gave 5/5 points, and nine (8.4%) gave 3/5 points. Their reason was that there was not enough time. Conclusion : In situations where patient visits are limited, video meetings through a mobile device can provide sufficient satisfaction to caregivers. Telemedicine will likely become common in the near future. Health care professionals should prepare and respond to these needs and changes. Therefore, establishing a system with institutional support is necessary.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.22.1-22.25
• /
• 2022

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread over the world causing a pandemic which is still ongoing since its emergence in late 2019. A great amount of effort has been devoted to understanding the pathogenesis of COVID-19 with the hope of developing better therapeutic strategies. Transcriptome analysis using technologies such as RNA sequencing became a commonly used approach in study of host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2. Although substantial amount of information can be gathered from transcriptome analysis, different analysis tools used in these studies may lead to conclusions that differ dramatically from each other. Here, we re-analyzed four RNA-sequencing datasets of COVID-19 samples including human bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, nasopharyngeal swabs, lung biopsy and hACE2 transgenic mice using the same standardized method. The results showed that common features of COVID-19 include upregulation of chemokines including CCL2, CXCL1, and CXCL10, inflammatory cytokine IL-1β and alarmin S100A8/S100A9, which are associated with dysregulated innate immunity marked by abundant neutrophil and mast cell accumulation. Downregulation of chemokine receptor genes that are associated with impaired adaptive immunity such as lymphopenia is another common feather of COVID-19 observed. In addition, a few interferon-stimulated genes but no type I IFN genes were identified to be enriched in COVID-19 samples compared to their respective control in these datasets. These features are in line with results from single-cell RNA sequencing studies in the field. Therefore, our re-analysis of the RNA-seq datasets revealed common features of dysregulated immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and shed light to the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.92-107
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study investigated the characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients who visited the emergency department due to intoxication and analyzed the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on their visits. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using data from the National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS) on patients who visited the emergency department due to intoxication between January 2014 and December 2020. In total, 277,791 patients were included in the study, and their demographic and clinical data were analyzed. A model was created from 2014 to 2019 and applied to 2020 (i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic) to conduct a time series analysis distinguishing between unexpected accidents and suicide/self-harm among patients who visited the emergency department. Results: The most common reason for visiting the emergency department was unintentional accidents (48.5%), followed by self-harm/suicide attempts (43.8%). Unexpected accident patients and self-harm/suicide patients showed statistically significant differences in terms of sex, age group, hospitalization rate, and mortality rate. The time series analysis showed a decrease in patients with unexpected accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic, but no change in patients with suicide/self-harm. Conclusion: Depending on the intentionality of the intoxication, significant differences were found in the age group, the substance of intoxication, and the mortality rate. Therefore, future analyses of patients with intoxication should be stratified according to intentionality. In addition, the time series analysis of intentional self-harm/suicide did not show a decrease in 2010 in the number of patients, whereas a decrease was found for unintentional accidents.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.73-83
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the viral load dynamics in children with underlying malignancies diagnosed with symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal cohort study of patients <19 years old with underlying hemato-oncologic malignancies that were diagnosed with their first symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 infection during March 1 to August 30, 2022. Review of electronic medical records and telephone surveys were undertaken to assess the clinical presentations and transmission route of the patients. Thresholds of negligible likelihood of infectious virus was defined as E gene reverse transcription (RT)-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value ≥25. Results: During the 6-month study period, a total of 43 children with 44 episodes of COVID-19 were included. Of the 44 episodes, the median age of the patients included was 8 years old (interquartile range [IQR], 4.9-10.5), and the most common underlying disease was acute lymphoid leukemia (n=30, 68.2%), followed by patients post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (n=8, 18.2%). Majority of the patients had mild COVID-19 (n=32, 72.7%), and three patients (7.0%) had severe/critical COVID-19. Furthermore, 2.3% (n=1) died of COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome. The largest percentage of the patients showed E gene RT-PCR Ct value ≥25 between 15-21 days (n=13, 39.4%), followed by 22-28 days (n=10, 30.3%). In 15.2% (n=5), E gene RT-PCR Ct value remained <25 beyond 28 days after initial positive PCR. Refractory malignancy status (β, 67.0; 95% confidence interval, 7.0-17.0; P=0.030) was significantly associated with prolonged duration of E gene RT-PCR <25. A patient with prolonged duration of E gene RT-PCR Ct value <25 was suspected to have infectivity shown by the transmission of the virus to his mother at day 86 after his initial positive test. Conclusions: Children that acquire symptomatic COVID-19 during refractory malignancy state are at a high risk for prolonged shedding warranting PCR-based transmission precautions in this cohort of patients.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.12-24
• /
• 2024

The number of pediatric coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases worldwide are increasing compared to the early phase of the pandemic, along with highly transmissible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus variant and the increase in adult COVID-19 vaccination. We conducted a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of the COVID-19 vaccines and the observational retrospective studies on adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents. Seventeen studies were finally included in this systematic review. Meta-analysis showed that although vaccination in adolescents was significantly effective to prevent COVID-19 infection in retrospective studies (risk ratio [RR], 0.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22-0.37; I² =100%), however the effect of preventing COVID-19 infection was lower than in RCTs (RR, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.01-0.27). In five retrospective studies, the pooled estimated proportion of participants with myocarditis and/or pericarditis was 2.33 per 100,000 of the population (95% CI, 0.97-5.61 per 100,000). Sub-group analysis with sex and vaccine doses showed that male (5.35 per 100,000) and the second dose (9.71 per 100,000) had significantly higher incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis than female (1.09 per 100,000) and the first dose (1.61 per 100,000), respectively. Our study showed that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in adolescent recipients were favorable and effective against COVID-19 in RCT as well as observational studies. The safety findings of BNT162b2 vaccine in adolescents were explored and we found the difference of safety according to sex and vaccine doses. The occurrence of adverse events after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination should be monitored.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.153-169
• /
• 2024

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to identify the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on grocery purchases (i.e., fresh and processed foods by grain, vegetable, fruit, seafood, and meat categories) in Korea. To understand the specific impact of COVID-19, the study period was divided into 3 segments: PRE-COVID-19, INTER-COVID-19, and POST-COVID-19. Methods: We used the microdata of household income and expenditure from Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), representing households across the country. The data comprised monthly grocery expenditure data from January 2019 to September 2022. First, we compared the PRE-COVID-19 period to INTER-COVID-19 and then INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19 and used multiple regression analysis. The covariates used were the gender and age of the head of the household, the household's monthly income, the number of family members, the price index, and the month (dummy variable). Results: The expenditures on all grocery categories except fresh fruit increased from PRE-COVID-19 to INTER-COVID-19. From INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19, almost all grocery category spending declined, with processed meat being the only exception. Most purchases of protein sources, increased during INTER-COVID-19 compared to PRE-COVID-19, while ham/sausage/bacon for meat protein, fish cakes and canned seafood for seafood protein, and soy milk for plant-based protein did not decrease during POST-COVID-19 compared to INTER-COVID-19. Conclusion: These results show an overall increase in in-home grocery expenditure during COVID-19 due to an increase in eating at home, followed by a decrease in this expenditure in the POST-COVID-19 period. Among the trends, the protein and highly processed convenience food categories did not see a decline in spending during the POST-COVID-19 period, which is a reflection of the preferences of consumers in the post-COVID-19 period.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.83 no.2
• /
• pp.304-316
• /
• 2022

Purpose To evaluate the effect of the emergence of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) on pediatric intussusception. Materials and Methods Patients (< 18 years) who were diagnosed with intussusception and received enema reduction from 2011 to 2020 were included. We reviewed the demographics, yearly/monthly/seasonal incidence of intussusception, method and failure rate of enema reduction, recurrence rate of intussusception, surgical record, and pathologic report. Subsequently, we investigated the differences in mean age, failure rate of enema reduction, and recurrence rate of intussusception between the cases in 2020 and those in the period from 2011 to 2019. Results A total of 859 enema reductions were performed during the past decade, more in males and in the age < 1 year (mean age, 22.2 months). The yearly incidence was highest in 2014 and lowest in 2020, and the monthly incidence was highest on December and September. The cases in 2020 (n = 27) had a lower mean age (18.1 months vs. 22.8 months), higher failure rate of enema reduction (7.4% vs. 2.4%), and higher recurrence rate of intussusception (14.8% vs 7.3%) compared with those that occurred between 2011 and 2019 (n = 832). However, these results did not show statistical significance (p = 0.07, p = 0.15, p = 0.14, respectively). Conclusion With the emergence of COVID-19, the number of enema reductions was remarkably decreased with a lower mean age, higher failure rate, and higher recurrence rate.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.136-143
• /
• 2021

Objectives : The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is a global medical crisis imposing particular burden on public sector employees. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychiatric distress among public sector workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods : We conducted a cross-sectional study with 531 public sector workers in Gwangmyung city who completed Korean versions of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised-Korean (IES-R-K). Results : The results revealed more than moderate levels of stress (85.2%), depressive symptoms (22.2%), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (38.8%). PSS total score was significantly correlated with PHQ-9, IES-R-K total scores as well as IES-R-K subscale scores. Total scores on the PSS, PHQ-9, and IES-R-K were all inversely correlated with age. Conclusions : COVID-19-related workers experience considerable stress and depressive symptoms, with self-rated stress correlating significantly with depression scores. Age may serve as a protective factor against occupational stress and burnout. These findings highlight the need for adequate psychiatric screening and intervention for public sector workers.