As unfiltered health information overflows through social networking services, people’s health rights are being violated and unnecessary medical expenses are increasing. Citizens and patients participating in the group initiative Public Involvement in the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), the sole health technology assessment (HTA) agency in South Korea, began monitoring information on health technology in social media from 2021 as a new way to identify HTA topics.

Citizens and patients in Public Involvement in NECA were provided with search keywords related to “common diseases on general public” and “diseases with high public interest”. They monitored social media platforms for one month and collected information about health technologies, such as medicines and treatments without scientific evidence on their safety and effectiveness. The target information included subjective information on health technologies based on personal experience; information with unclear sources; information that might cause excessive anxiety and fear; and information with a high risk of side effects. Information was collected from the internet and a checklist was given to the participants to evaluate the suitability of the information.

In the topic selection process, NECA, and the Korean Society of Science Journalists (KSIA) evaluated the priority of HTA topics developed from the collected information. HTA topics were evaluated using five criteria, including the possible harm the information might cause throughout society. As a result, the safety and effectiveness of saw palmetto in patients with prostatic hyperplasia and high-dose intravenous vitamin C in patients with cancer were selected. NECA conducted health technology reassessments on these topics and was able to successfully disseminate the reassessment results in collaboration with the KSIA.

Participation in the HTA process using social media lowered the barriers that laypersons experience with HTA and increased the possibility of bringing HTA topics closer to citizens’ lives. However, as there were difficulties in collecting meaningful information for developing a HTA topic, providing systematic training on health information monitoring remains a challenge.

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.

The two key mechanisms affected by internet gaming disorder (IGD) are cognitive and reward processing. Despite their significance, little is known about neurophysiological features as determined using resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) source functional connectivity (FC).

We compared resting-state EEG source FC within the default mode network (DMN) and reward/salience network (RSN) between patients with IGD and healthy controls (HCs) to identify neurophysiological markers associated with cognitive and reward processing. A total of 158 young male adults (79 patients with IGD and 79 HCs) were included, and the source FC of the DMN and RSN in five spectral bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) were assessed.

Patients with IGD showed increased theta, alpha, and beta connectivity within the DMN between the orbitofrontal cortex and parietal regions compared with HCs. In terms of RSN, patients with IGD exhibited elevated alpha and beta connectivity between the anterior cingulate gyrus and temporal regions compared with HCs. Furthermore, patients with IGD showed negative correlations between the severity of IGD symptoms and/or weekly gaming time and theta and alpha connectivity within the DMN and theta, alpha, and beta connectivity within the RSN. However, the duration of IGD was not associated with EEG source FC.

Hyper-connectivities within the DMN and RSN may be considered potential state markers associated with symptom severity and gaming time in IGD.

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.

A recent meta-analysis suggested that the association between vitamin D and risk of hypertension was markedly stronger in women aged <55 years in observational data, while the association became null in women aged ≥55 years. We therefore hypothesized that this difference in associations might potentially be caused by the change in oestrogen around menopause. Our objective was to investigate associations between vitamin D status and hypertension risk and to evaluate those associations as they may differ according to menopausal status.

A cross-sectional population survey conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2007–2010 formed the setting for the present study.

We analysed data from 2098 premenopausal women and 2298 postmenopausal women.

After adjustment for sociodemographic, behavioural and dietary factors, higher concentrations both of serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25(OH)D3) revealed significant dose-dependent trends with lower risk of hypertension (Ptrend = 0·005 and 0·014, respectively) in premenopausal women. In those women, 25(OH)D ≥ 50 nmol/l (sufficient; in contrast to deficient, vitamin D < 30 nmol/l) appeared to have a protective effect against hypertension (OR = 0·64, 95 % CI 0·39, 1·02 for total 25(OH)D and OR = 0·60, 95 % CI 0·36, 1·00 for 25(OH)D3). Neither association with hypertension was observed in postmenopausal women.

Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were associated with lower risk of hypertension in premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women.

A number of multiple-casualty incidents during 2014 and 2015 brought changes to Korea’s disaster medical assistance system. We report these changes here.

Reports about these incidents, revisions to laws, and the government’s revised medical disaster response guidelines were reviewed.

The number of DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) staff members was reduced to 4 from 8, and the mobilization method changed. An emergency response manual was created that contains the main content of the DMAT, and there is now a DMAT training program to educate staff. The government created and launched a national 24-hour Disaster Emergency Medical Service Situation Room, and instead of the traditional wireless communications, mobile instant smart phone messaging has been added as a new means of communication. The number of disaster base hospitals has also been doubled.

Although there are still limitations that need to be remedied, the changes to the current emergency medical assistance system are expected to improve the system’s response capacity. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:526–530)

Psychological health is an important issue after disasters. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychological symptoms among 993 residents of Taean District in South Korea after the Hebei Spirit oil spill and to examine determinants of vulnerability in residents’ psychological symptoms.

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression, suicidal ideation, and anxiety were assessed by questionnaires, and the responses were analyzed by using the survey analysis considering the sampling frame.

Among the study subjects, the symptom prevalences of PTS, depression, suicidal ideation, and anxiety were 19.5%, 22.0%, 2.3%, and 4.2%, respectively, and symptoms were higher in people who were female, were older, were less educated, and had lower family income. People with fishery or related occupations compared to those with unrelated livelihoods and people residing in the vicinity of the oil band in the contaminated coastline showed additively increased symptom risks of PTS. Risk of suicidal ideation was predominantly increased in people with fishery or related occupations compared with those with unrelated livelihoods.

Social supports, including compensation for income loss and community mental health programs, and longer follow-up studies are needed for residents in the communities affected by the Hebei Spirit oil spill. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:51-58)

This study aimed to investigate the influences of age, education, and gender on the two total scores (TS-I and TS-II) of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychological assessment battery (CERAD-NP) and to provide normative information based on an analysis for a large number of elderly persons with a wide range of educational levels.

In the study, 1,987 community-dwelling healthy volunteers (620 males and 1,367 females; 50–90 years of age; and zero to 25 years of education) were included. People with serious neurological, medical, and psychiatric disorders (including dementia) were excluded. All participants underwent the CERAD-NP assessment. TS-I was generated by summing raw scores from the CERAD-NP subtests, excluding Mini-Mental State Examination and Constructional Praxis (CP) recall subtests. TS-II was calculated by adding CP recall score to TS-I.

Both TS-I and TS-II were significantly influenced by demographic variables. Education accounted for the greatest proportion of score variance. Interaction effect between age and gender was found. Based on the results obtained, normative data of the CERAD-NP total scores were stratified by age (six overlapping tables), education (four strata), and gender.

The normative information will be very useful for better interpretation of the CERAD-NP total scores in various clinical and research settings and for comparing individuals’ performance of the battery across countries.

The incidence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is presumed to be higher among people with schizophrenia who take antipsychotic medication, most of which blocks the dopamine D2 receptor. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the G-protein β3 subunit (GNB3) C825T polymorphism is associated with antipsychotic-induced RLS in schizophrenia.

We examined 178 Korean patients with schizophrenia. All of the subjects were evaluated using the diagnostic criteria of the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group and the International Restless Legs Scale. Genotyping was performed for the C825T polymorphism in the GNB3 gene.

The genotype distribution did not differ significantly between antipsychotic-induced RLS patients and patients who had no-RLS symptoms (χ2 = 4.30, p = 0.116). The genotypes of the C825T single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were classified into two groups: C+ (CC and CT genotypes) and C– (TT genotype). The presence of the C allele (C+) was associated with an increased likelihood of RLS (χ2 = 4.14, p = 0.042; odds ratio = 2.56, 95% confidence interval = 1.02–6.47).

These results suggest that the GNB3 C825T SNP is associated with RLS in schizophrenia. However, confirming this association requires future larger scale studies in which the effects of medication are strictly controlled.

Klotho protein is involved in insulin-signalling and ageing. Klotho mutation causes premature ageing and significantly shortens the lifespan. The anti-neoplastic drug cisplatin promotes ototoxicity at higher doses by inducing apoptosis. This study aimed to clarify the effect of klotho expression on cisplatin ototoxicity, using an auditory cell line.

Expressions of klotho messenger RNA and protein were analysed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Auditory cells (HEI-OC1 line) were pretreated with 2 nM klotho protein for 2 hours; 15 µM cisplatin was then applied. After 48 hours incubation, assessment of cell viability (via 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide assay), apoptosis (via Hoechst 33258 staining) and reactive oxygen species was performed.

Klotho protein expression increased in cisplatin-treated auditory cells. Cells treated with both klotho protein and cisplatin showed a viability of 67.7 per cent, versus 59.4 per cent in cisplatin-treated cells. Klotho significantly attenuated the cisplatin-induced increase in reactive oxygen species, and increased the viability of cells with cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity.

Klotho protein is protective against cisplatin-induced auditory cell cytotoxicity; inhibition of reactive oxygen species may be the main mechanism.