This study aimed to identify the roles of community pharmacists (CPs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the differences in their role performance compared with their perceived importance, and limiting factors.

A cross-sectional online survey of CPs was conducted. The CPs self-measured the importance and performance of each role during the pandemic using a 5-point Likert scale. A paired t-test was used to compare each role’s importance and performance scores. A logistic regression analysis of the roles with low performance scores, despite their level of importance, was conducted to determine the factors affecting performance. The limiting factors were also surveyed.

The 436 responses to the questionnaire were analyzed. The performance scores were significantly lower than the perceived importance scores for 15 of the 17 roles. The source and update frequency of COVID-19 information and participation in outreach pharmaceutical services were associated with low performance scores. Insufficient economic compensation, the lack of communication channels, and legal limitations were the limiting factors in performing the CPs’ roles.

The participation in outreach pharmaceutical services, economic compensation, and communication channel should be improved to motivate the CPs in performing their roles.

Accurate prognostication is important for patients and their families to prepare for the end of life. Objective Prognostic Score (OPS) is an easy-to-use tool that does not require the clinicians’ prediction of survival (CPS), whereas Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) needs CPS. Thus, inexperienced clinicians may hesitate to use PaP. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of OPS compared with PaP in inpatients in palliative care units (PCUs) in three East Asian countries.

This study was a secondary analysis of a cross-cultural, multicenter cohort study. We enrolled inpatients with far-advanced cancer in PCUs in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan from 2017 to 2018. We calculated the area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve to compare the accuracy of OPS and PaP.

A total of 1,628 inpatients in 33 PCUs in Japan and Korea were analyzed. OPS and PaP were calculated in 71.7% of the Japanese patients and 80.0% of the Korean patients. In Taiwan, PaP was calculated for 81.6% of the patients. The AUROC for 3-week survival was 0.74 for OPS in Japan, 0.68 for OPS in Korea, 0.80 for PaP in Japan, and 0.73 for PaP in Korea. The AUROC for 30-day survival was 0.70 for OPS in Japan, 0.71 for OPS in Korea, 0.79 for PaP in Japan, and 0.74 for PaP in Korea.

Both OPS and PaP showed good performance in Japan and Korea. Compared with PaP, OPS could be more useful for inexperienced physicians who hesitate to estimate CPS.

Several studies supported the usefulness of “the surprise question” in terms of 1-year mortality of patients. “The surprise question” requires a “Yes” or “No” answer to the question “Would I be surprised if this patient died in [specific time frame].” However, the 1-year time frame is often too long for advanced cancer patients seen by palliative care personnel. “The surprise question” with shorter time frames is needed for decision making. We examined the accuracy of “the surprise question” for 7-day, 21-day, and 42-day survival in hospitalized patients admitted to palliative care units (PCUs).

This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of 130 adult patients with advanced cancer admitted to 7 hospital-based PCUs in South Korea. The accuracy of “the surprise question” was compared with that of the temporal question for clinician's prediction of survival.

We analyzed 130 inpatients who died in PCUs during the study period. The median survival was 21.0 days. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy for the 7-day “the surprise question” were 46.7, 88.7, and 83.9%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy for the 7-day temporal question were 6.7, 98.3, and 87.7%, respectively. The c-indices of the 7-day “the surprise question” and 7-day temporal question were 0.662 (95% CI: 0.539–0.785) and 0.521 (95% CI: 0.464–0.579), respectively. The c-indices of the 42-day “the surprise question” and 42-day temporal question were 0.554 (95% CI: 0.509–0.599) and 0.616 (95% CI: 0.569–0.663), respectively.

Surprisingly, “the surprise questions” and temporal questions had similar accuracies. The high specificities for the 7-day “the surprise question” and 7- and 21-day temporal question suggest they may be useful to rule in death if positive.

To date, there have been few studies on dietary supplement (DS) use in Korean children and adolescents, using nationally representative data. This study aimed to investigate the current status of DS use and its related factors, among Korean children and adolescents from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data.

A cross-sectional study.

Data from the KNHANES 2015–2017. Participants completed 24-h dietary recall interviews, including DS products that the subjects consumed.

The study population was 4380 children and adolescents aged 1–18 years.

Approximately 2013 % of children and adolescents were using DS; the highest use was among children aged 1–3 years old, and the lowest use was among adolescents aged 16–18 years. The most frequently used DS was prebiotics/probiotics, followed by multivitamin/mineral supplements. Factors that were associated with DS use were lower birth weight in children aged <4 years; younger age, higher household income, regular breakfast intake and lower BMI in children aged 4–9 years; and regular breakfast intake and use of nutrition facts label in adolescents aged 10–18 years. Feeding patterns in infancy and having chronic diseases were not associated with DS use.

We report that over 20 % of children and adolescents use DS. Nutritional education for parents and children about proper DS consumption is needed.

Adolescents’ Internet gaming disorders might influence on their social and psychological developmental tasks and physical health negatively. Depression is the commonly co-existed conditions with addictive Internet gaming, but not much research has been reported whether depressive symptoms would precede the addictive Internet gaming in this population.

This prospective observation study was performed to make clear whether adolescents’ depressive symptoms precede their addictive Internet gaming.

Adolescents’ 1-year incidence of the addictive Internet gaming was calculated, and test their depressive symptoms increase the incidence.

In Korea, whole students of the 1st grade in three middle schools were participated in this study. Baseline assessment of 508 students was performed via standardized self-reported questionnaire on May–June, 2015. Internet game use-elicited symptom screen (IGUESS) was used to addictive Internet gaming conditions. IGUESS is the 9-itemed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria-based instrument to screen high risk of Internet gaming disorders. Depressive symptoms was measured by Child Depression Inventory (CDI) group. One year after the baseline assessment, follow-up assessment was performed. Four hundred and forty-eight students have been participated in the 1-year check up without addictive Internet gaming at baseline.

In total, 4.7% of subjects had depressive symptoms at baseline, and incidence of addictive Internet gaming was 9.2%. After adjusted by sex, Internet game use per week, and self-control status, depressive symptoms of baseline increased the 1-year incidence of addictive Internet gaming significantly (OR = 3.5, P = 0.034).

Depressive adolescents have higher possibility they could experience the addictive Internet gaming.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Previous studies have indicated that people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) often experience spontaneous, recurrent images (SRI). It was assumed that Koreans with interdependent self-views may contain more features related to social contexts in their self-images than those reported in Western cultures.

In the present study, we aimed to explore the prevalence and content of SRIs in individuals with SAD in Korea. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between features of SRIs and variables of SAD.

Sixty-four individuals with SAD (27.00 ± 7.42 years, 64.1% female), diagnosed with SAD, completed self-report questionnaires related to social anxiety. Afterwards, a semi-structured interview was used to assess features and content of the individuals’ SRI.

Thirty (47%) of the participants reported experiencing SRIs in social situations. The content of the SRIs were classified under three themes: negative self-images, negative images of others, and abstract images. The distress level of SRIs was positively associated with social phobia scales (r = .385, p < .05) and physical anxiety symptoms (r = .478, p < .05). Frequency of SRIs was positively associated with avoidance scores (r = .402, p < .05).

The results demonstrated differences in the prevalence and content of the SRIs between Western and non-Western cultures. Fewer individuals with SAD in Korea reported having SRIs, and the content of these SRIs involved people other than the self. Some features of SRIs were associated with variables of SAD.

Spirituality is what gives people meaning and purpose in life, and it has been recognized as a critical factor in patients’ well-being, particularly at the ends of their lives. Studies have demonstrated relationships between spirituality and patient-reported outcomes such as quality of life and mental health. Although a number of studies have suggested that spiritual belief can be associated with mortality, the results are inconsistent. We aimed to determine whether spirituality was related to survival in advanced cancer inpatients in Korea.

For this multicenter study, we recruited adult advanced cancer inpatients who had been admitted to seven palliative care units with estimated survival of <3 months. We measured spirituality at admission using the Korean version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-sp), which comprises two subscales: meaning/peace and faith. We calculated a Kaplan-Meier curve for spirituality, dichotomized at the predefined cutoffs and medians for the total scale and each of the two subscales, and performed univariate regression with a Cox proportional hazard model.

We enrolled a total of 204 adults (mean age: 64.5 ± 13.0; 48.5% female) in the study. The most common primary cancer diagnoses were lung (21.6%), colorectal (18.6%), and liver/biliary tract (13.0%). Median survival was 19.5 days (95% confidence interval [CI95%]: 23.5, 30.6). Total FACIT-sp score was not related to survival time (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.981, CI95% = 0.957, 1.007), and neither were the scores for its two subscales, meaning/peace (HR = 0.969, CI95% = 0.932, 1.008) and faith (HR = 0.981, CI95% = 0.938, 1.026).

Spirituality was not related to survival in advanced cancer inpatients in Korea. Plausible mechanisms merit further investigation.

The purpose of this case series was to describe patients with aberrant drug-related behaviors and similar patterns of dose escalation in whom interdisciplinary assessment revealed different bases for their dose increases.

During the period from December 26 to December 30, 2011, the medical records of two patients with opioid-related aberrant behaviors were reviewed.

We described two patients with a significant cancer history and different comorbidities who presented with different aberrant drug-related behaviors and opioid requirements.

Opioid-related aberrant behaviors can be interpreted in different ways, and two of the more common syndromes in cancer patients are chemical coping and pseudoaddiction. In advanced cancer patients, the boundaries between these conditions are not as clear, and diagnosis is often made retrospectively. Furthermore, there have been relatively limited studies describing these two syndromes. Thus, they continue to pose a diagnostic and treatment challenge that requires different approaches for effective management of symptoms. The key characteristic between the two syndromes is that the behaviors displayed in chemical coping are motivated by obtaining opioids to relieve psychosocial distress, while in pseudoaddiction these behaviors are motivated by uncontrolled nociceptive input. Close monitoring of the pain syndromes, aberrant behaviors, and opioid requirements over several visits is usually necessary to distinguish the two syndromes.