• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the potential benefits of microcurrent stimulation as a non-invasive therapeutic approach for managing pain and improving the quality of life in women suffering from primary dysmenorrhea. Design: A case study. Methods: This study was conducted, involving a cohort of 6 women diagnosed with primary dysmenorrhea, aged between 20 to 30 years. Participants were received microcurrent stimulation using low-intensity microcurrents for 30 minutes every day for 4 weeks. The intensity of microcurrent stimulation was 25 μA and the frequency was 8 Hz. The intervention was administered between the menstruations, with pain intensity and quality of life being assessed at baseline, and then at the end of menstrual cycle. Pain intensity was evaluated using a visual analog scale (VAS) and menstrual symptom questionnaire (MSQ), while the quality of life was assessed through the stress response inventory (SRI), state trait anxiety inventory (STAI), center for epidemiologic studies depression (CES-D), and menstrual distress questionnaire (MEDI-Q). Results: After the intervention, participants demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in pain intensity, as evidenced by improved VAS scores (p<0.05). However, the changes in MSQ scores did not reach statistical significance. Regarding quality of life measures, no statistically significant differences were found in the SRI, STAI, CES-D, and MEDI-Q scores after the intervention (p>0.05). Conclusions: This study suggest that microcurrent stimulation holds promise as a potential treatment option for alleviating pain associated with primary dysmenorrhea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.4567-4575
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• 2016

A number of studies have evidenced the effect of modifiable lifestyle factors such as diet, breastfeeding and nutritional status on breast cancer risk. However, none have addressed the missing data problem in nutritional epidemiologic research in South America. Missing data is a frequent problem in breast cancer studies and epidemiological settings in general. Estimates of effect obtained from these studies may be biased, if no appropriate method for handling missing data is applied. We performed Multiple Imputation for missing values on covariates in a breast cancer case-control study of $C{\acute{o}}rdoba$ (Argentina) to optimize risk estimates. Data was obtained from a breast cancer case control study from 2008 to 2015 (318 cases, 526 controls). Complete case analysis and multiple imputation using chained equations were the methods applied to estimate the effects of a Traditional dietary pattern and other recognized factors associated with breast cancer. Physical activity and socioeconomic status were imputed. Logistic regression models were performed. When complete case analysis was performed only 31% of women were considered. Although a positive association of Traditional dietary pattern and breast cancer was observed from both approaches (complete case analysis OR=1.3, 95%CI=1.0-1.7; multiple imputation OR=1.4, 95%CI=1.2-1.7), effects of other covariates, like BMI and breastfeeding, were only identified when multiple imputation was considered. A Traditional dietary pattern, BMI and breastfeeding are associated with the occurrence of breast cancer in this Argentinean population when multiple imputation is appropriately performed. Multiple Imputation is suggested in Latin America's epidemiologic studies to optimize effect estimates in the future.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2011

Purpose : In this study, we listed common diseases in pediatric inpatients and evaluated the distribution of diseases by period and age group, in order to estimate the epidemiologic trend. Methods : Patients who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics between 1997 and 2008 were included. Demographic characteristics, date of admission, and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code of patients were indentified. Study period was divided into two; early (1997-2002) and late (2003-2008), and age of patients were grouped into four; infancy, early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence. Results : A total of 33,513 patients were admitted for 12 years. In the list of ICD code, Pneumonia (J12-J18; 21.2%) was the most prevalent, followed by gastroenteritis (A00-A09; 17.8%), bronchiolitis (J21; 11.9%), and so on. Common diseases ranked from 1 to 10 comprised the majority (79.1%) of all the inpatients. There was increase in the number of inpatients with respiratory infectious disease (bronchiolitis, otitis media, and sinusitis), enlarged lymph node, or impetigo/cellulitis, but decrease in the number of inpatients with aseptic meningitis, intussusceptions, measles, or nephritic/nephrotic syndrome. The distribution of diseases also showed age group-specific difference. Conclusion : The distribution of diseases by period and age group was different. The epidemiologic trend should be considered in developing the management of strategy for the Department of Pediatrics.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2010

Purpose: In Korea, most abdominal penetrating wounds are caused by stab wounds rather than gun-shot wounds. However, not many studies have been performed on stab injuries and their epidemiologic characteristics. Disagreements of opinions of obligatory surgical exploration and conservative treatment exist, and this subject is still being debated. Therefore, the authors studied the epidemiologic characteristics of abdominal stab wound patients visiting the emergency department and reviewed the proportion of patients that received nontherapeutic surgery and conservative treatment. Methods: This study included patients visiting the emergency department with abdominal stab wounds. A retrospective chart review was done on the abdominal stab wound patients. Sex, age, cause of injury, location of wound, initial vital signs, operation results, injured organs and CT & LWE results were reviewed. Results: The median age of the 121 patients was 40.9 years, of these patients, 88 were males, of which 52 (43.0%) were drunken. Of the patients that received non-therapeutic operations, only 3 patients (15.0%) were drunken, significantly lower than the therapeutic operation group. For the location of the wound, most patients were injured in the right and left upper quadrants, 27 patients each. The most common injured organ was the small bowel; 13 patients were injured in the small bowel. With abdominal CT scans and local wound explorations together, the results exhibited a sensitivity of 97%, a specificity of 44%, a positive predictive value of 56%, and a negative predictive value of 95%. Conclusion: In our study, the sensitivity was 97% when CT & LWE were performed together; thus we can conclude that CT and LWE can be used together to select the treatment method. Although in our study, the surgical indications in abdominal stab wound patients is not sufficient, our results showed a higher rate of nontherapeutic surgery compared to previous studies. Therefore, more research is needed to prevent unnecessary laparotomies in hemodynamically-stable patients without symptoms.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.80-85
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• 2012

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiologic characteristics of adult patients with carbon monoxide poisoning who presented to the emergency department in recent years. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study on adult consecutive patients with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning who presented to the emergency department of a tertiary care university-affiliated hospital from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2011. Results: A total of 91 patients were included in this study; there were 56(61.5%) unintentional and 35(38.5%) intentional poisonings. For the unintentional CO poisonings, the principal sources of exposure to CO were fire (39.3%), charcoal (17.9%), briquette charcoal (7.1%), wood burning boiler (7.1%), gas boiler (5.4%), automobile heater (3.6%), briquette boiler (3.6%), firewood (3.6%), and other items (12.5%). For the intentional CO poisonings, the sources were ignition charcoal (60.0%), briquette (31.4%), charcoal (5.7%) and butane gas (2.9%). For the unintentional CO poisonings, the places of poisoning were the home (58.9%), workplace (10.7%), public accommodation (8.9%), tent (8.9%), automobile (3.6%) and parking place (1.8%). For the intentional CO poisonings, the places of poisoning were the home (77.1%), public accommodation (11.4%) and automobile (11.4%). The proportion of intentional CO poisonings among total poisonings has increased significantly in recent years; 0.0% in 2008, 3.3% in 2009, 5.5% in 2010, and 29.7% in 2011. Conclusion: This study showed that in recent years in Korea, the source of CO has diversified broadly and intentional CO poisonings from burning ignition charcoal or briquettes has increased. Prevention efforts should consider these factors.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.312-321
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• 2013

Objective: In May 2011, an interview with three United States Forces Korea veterans revealed that chemicals believed to be 'Agent Orange' were buried at Camp Carroll (situated in Waegwan, Chilgok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea) in 1978. Many hazardous chemicals, such as perchloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and organochlorines were subsequently found in a joint US-ROK environmental investigation, although dioxins or burial evidence related to 'Agent Orange' have been not uncovered. This study was carried out to investigate the relevance of hazardous chemical exposure and health effects of the residents around Camp Carroll. Methods: The authors conducted a health questionnaire survey among residents around Camp Carroll regarding Waegwan groundwater ingestion, length of residence in Waegwan, and physician-diagnosed disease history (such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes and etc.). Logistic regression was performed to identify the associations between hazardous chemical exposure and physician-diagnosed diseases. Results: Among the 5,320 residents, excluding those living outside the Waegwan area, 3,430 subjects age 30 and over were analyzed. Among females, upon correction of age, smoking history and Camp Carroll working history, a higher distribution in the Waegwan groundwater ingestion group was demonstrated for patients with physician-diagnosed cancer and hypertension. The odds ratios have a tendency to increase with increased length of Waegwan groundwater ingestion. Conclusions: This study may be limited by not adopting a cohort study for the evaluation of factors that may confound environmental exposure. Yet it is meaningful that the correlation between Waegwan groundwater ingestion and chronic diseases were found through regression analysis in female; and further, this outcome may be used as a sampling basis for a secondary epidemiologic study.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.157-169
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• 2010

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of Hwa-Byung(HB) patients, draw the clinical key issue of HB, and provide the data as the basis for development of Clinical Guideline of HB. Methods : The study participants included 151 subjects who thought they have HB in 9 site. For all patients, we used HB epidemiologic study protocol, which include the Korean version of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Diagnosis (SCID-1), diagnostic criteria of HB, symptoms check list, pattern identification tool, psychiastric psychological questionaires, and Framingham coronary risk score(FRS). Results : 1. For all participants, 62 % of subjects were diagnosed with HB. These patients had comorbid DSM-IV diagnoses with depression (65%) and anxiety (27%). But 22% of these patients had only HB. 2. HB patients had various physical symptoms when visiting, were diagnosed as various disease, and undergone medical treatments in the past. Among the diagonsed illness, Gastronitestinal diseases (51.6%), psychiatric disorders(40.9%), endocrine diseases(39.8%) were being the most frequent. The frequent physical symptoms of HB patients reported were chest discomfort, head ache, pallpitation, frequent sigh, amnesia, shoulder pain, dry mouth, eye fatigue etc. 3. HB patients had high scores in psychologic questionares, CES-D, STAI, and STAXI. It means that HB patients might be low-level emotional stability. 4. Participant had negative opinion about the treatment of HB that it would be difficult or impossible (65.7%), but they neglect the need of medical treatment. Conclusions : This result shows that HB is comorbid with various psychiatric disease, but it has different physio-psychological symptoms from others and there were only HB patients. so we identify HB is independent disease. Moreover, there were the wrong perception of HB which blocking treatments. These problems support that the neccesity of development of Clinical Guideline of HB.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.131-140
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• 2001

Objectives : During March-May, 2000, a measles outbreak occurred at Youngduk, Korea. This county is divided into two areas with different historical and socioeconomic background. The outbreak occurred in one of these areas. We conducted a comparative epidemiologic study on the two areas in order to evaluate the factors related to the epidemic. Materials and Methods : We selected two groups, grades 3 and 5 in a primary schools in each area. We investigated outbreak-related factors using parent-questionnaires, the vaccination history from the student's health record and the records concerning the recent measles-outbreak from the local health center. Serologic test on measles-IgG and -IgM antibody was done. Results : The infection rate was 31.5% for the epidemic area and 3.7% for non-the epidemic area according to clinical or serological criteria (p<0.001). No difference was seen in the measles vaccination rate, residence at the time of vaccination or past measles infection history between the two areas. In the epidemic area, the attack rate for the 4-6 year-old MMR booster group(20.5%) was higher than the non-booster group(32.4%), but was not found significantly. Vaccine efficacy was 29.6% in the epidemic area and 87.0% in the non-epidemic area (p<0.001). The IgG level and positive rate were significantly different between the two areas (median 10727 IU/ml, 98.9% in epidemic area; median 346 IU/ml, 85.9% in the non-epidemic area, p<0.001). However, the IgG level and positive rate between the measles-cases and non-cases were not significantly different. Conclusions : This outbreak took place in mostly vaccinated children. These results suggest that a reduction of herd immunity for immunity failure after vaccination may be one of the feasible factors related to the outbreak pattern in the two areas. The results of the IgG level and positive rate suggest that re-establishment of a normal value for IgG level and of a qualitative method for IgG are needed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2010

Purpose: There are an insignificant number of studies done on the demographics of intoxication patients and on the characteristics of toxic exposure on a long term basis in Korea. The objective of our survey is to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of intoxication in a metropolitan emergency department in order to more efficiently manage intoxication patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of intoxication patients who visited the emergency department of a high end medical facility between January, 1998 and June, 2009. We investigated the trend of the substances people became intoxicated with during the study period and we analyzed the age, gender, year and distribution of patients and the outcome of the patients. Results: There were 1544 cases of intoxication during the study period, and the cases made up 0.37% of the total visitors to our emergency department, which is a high end medical facility located in the city. Most of the patients were female (70%) in their twenties and thirties. The most commonly ingested intoxication substances were sedatives, analgesics and pesticides. Unlike in the province, antidepressant abuse is on the rise while pesticide abuse is falling. The overall admission rate was 24.8% and the mortality rate was 1.6%. Pesticides intoxication was the most common cause of death (76%). Pesticides intoxication, a male gender and old age were the most significant fatality-related factors. Conclusion: We think that there is a need to investigate the actual conditions of drug intoxication in the city and prepare measures to prevent drug intoxication.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.187-195
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• 2008

Purpose: This epidemiologic research was carried out to investigate the degree and aspects of symptoms of patients suffered from TMD using RDC/TMD. Subjects and Methods: Subjects were the patients who had visited to SNUBH dental clinic from Jan. 2005 to Dec. 2005, and total 117 patients were included (M: 22, F:95). The signs and symptoms of physical, psychological and behavioral factors were retrospectively evaluated by questionnaires in the RDC/TMD. The patients were examined through clinical and radiological method, and diagnosed by same investigator. They were divided into 3 groups such as osteoarthritis group (group 1), internal deragnement (group 2), myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome group (MPDS, group 3). In addition, in patient with complex diagnosis they were divided into subgroups in detail (ex. group 1+group 2). In the questionnaire, several items were selected to calculate the graded pain score (grade $0{\sim}IV$), depression and vegetative symptoms, nonspecific physical symptoms(pain items included) and nonspecific physical symptoms(pain items excluded) in each group. Results: As a result of classification by diagnostic criteria of this study, the patients were distributed to 45% of group 1, 47% of group 2, 8% of group 3 in this study. In younger patients (under 25-year old, n=40), group 2 was occupied 57% (n=23) and group 1 was 35%, group 3 was 8%, while group 1 was occupied 75% in elderly-patients (over 40-year old, n=28) in present study (group 2: 21%, group 3: 4%). In the analysis of depression and vegetative symptoms, majority of patients in Group 2 were included in 'normal', and in Group 3 it appeared to have larger proportion of 'moderate' & 'severe' than others. According to nonspecific physical symptoms, there have been tendencies of higher ratio of 'severe' in patients with MPDS. In graded pain score, more than half (58%) of subjects were included in grade 0 and low disability (Grade I and II), and 27% were revealed high disability (grade III, IV).