OBJECTIVES: As the prevalence of elderly depression increases, it becomes urgent problem to provide preventive and management measures. But in practice, it is difficult to detect depression in early stage. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between sociodemographic factors and depression in elderly welfare facility users in a city. METHODS: In this research, the severity of depression and sociodemographic factors(gender, age, education, comorbid disease, housing type, number of children, number of family members living with the subjects) was evaluated through PHQ-9 and interview. Using the data, the associations of depression and sociodemographic factors were analyzed. Based on PHQ-9 depression cut-off value(10 points), the subjects were divided into two groups, and the difference of the variables between groups were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: ‘Own house’(YES/NO), education(less than elementary school graduation/more than elementary school graduation) were sociodemographic factors which showed significance difference in mean PHQ-9 scores. Group with Over PHQ-9 10 points showed less ‘having their own house’ and less education level than group with less PHQ-9 10 points. CONCLUSIONS: With this research, it is expected that the risk factors for the elderly depression can be understood and the measures for early detection and invention of elderly depression would be provided.
Aged* ; Child ; Depression* ; Education ; Housing ; Humans ; Inventions ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors

Breast cancer ranks second to stomach cancer as a primary cancer site. An increasing trend in mortality and morbidity of breast cancet has been shown since 1980s. Studies on migrant populations, in which higher incidences were shown than population in their motherlands, indicated the importance of environmental factors on breast cancer development. Older age, family history of breast cancer, early menarche, late menopause, late full-term pregnancy, never-having had a breast-fed child, and postmenopausal obesity were idenrified as risk factors in Korea. These are not different from risk factors detected in western countries. Nevertheless, a ^-shape age-specific incidences surve is shown in Korea shose incidence is relatively low. In western countries, where incidence rates are high, the incidences increase with age in a straight line. This difference may be explained by the "Estrogen-Augmented-:rogesterone Hypothesis" that is relevant to sex hormones. In fact, a nuch lower estradiol levels was reported in Korean women compared to those in American. On the other hand, genetic polymorphism is expected for future research on breast cancer etiology. Only preventive strategies based on epidemiology of breast cancer in Korea may effective to counter this malignancy in Korean women.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Child ; Epidemiology ; Estradiol ; Female ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea* ; Menarche ; Menopause ; Mortality ; Obesity ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Pregnancy ; Risk Factors ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Transients and Migrants

A 65-year-old male patient with an end-stage renal disease was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The patient complained of cough, sputum, and respiratory distress that worsened three days ago. The patient required mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal mentrane oxygenation. On day 9, convalescent plasma collected from a 34-year old man who recovered from COVID-19 45 days ago was administered. The patient showed immediate clinical improvement. However, on day 14, the patient’s clinical course worsened again. On day 19 and day 24, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium bacteremia and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia were found. After long-term supportive care, he slowly recovered. He was discharged on day 91 without any oxygen requirement. This case report suggests that convalescent plasma therapy might just provide a short-term relief and that persistent effort for critical care is necessary to save patients from severe COVID-19.

PURPOSE: The majority of patients with allergic disease are highly sensitized to house dust mites (HDM). There is few data to observe sensitization rate to HDM in asthmatics in Korea. The aim of this study was to observe the differences of clinical profiles by HDM sensitization in patients with asthmatics in Soonchunhyang University Hospital (SCH) cohort. METHODS: We recruited 2,345 asthmatic patients in SCH cohort. Lung function, body mass index and sputum and blood eosinophils, and PC20, and clinical profiles were compared by HDM sensitization. RESULTS: Dermatophagoides farinae (Derf) and/or Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Derp) (+) sensitization rate was higher prevalence in male than in female. Compared with nonatopy asthmatics, Derf and/or Derp (+) asthmatics had early onset of age [Derf and/or Derp (+) vs. Derf and Derp (-) vs. atopy (-); 32.5+/-0.51 vs. 36.1+/-0.88 vs. 43.1+/-0.54, P<0.05]. Derf and/or Derp (+) asthmatics had shorter duration of asthma symptom than that of nonatopy asthmatics. Derf and/or Derp (+) asthmatics had lower forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity than those of Derf and Derp (-) asthmatics. PC20 in Derf and/or Derp (+) asthmatics had lower than those of Derf and Derp (-) and nonatopy asthmatics [Derf and/or Derp (+) vs. Derf and Derp (-) vs. atopy (-); 5.4+/-0.24 mg/mL vs. 6.59+/-0.52 mg/mL vs. 7.19+/-0.33 mg/mL, P<0.05]. Blood eosinophils number in Derf and/or Derp (+) asthmatics had higher than that of nonatopy asthmatics (414.7+/-131.1 vs. 350.6+/-14.0, P<0.05). Total immunoglobulin E (IgE) in Derf and/or Derp positive asthmatics had higher than that of Derf and Derp negative and nonatopy asthmatics. There was no difference of body mass index among three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that atopy asthmatics sensitized to Derf and/or Derp had early onset of age, high total IgE and airway responsiveness, and eosinophilic inflammation.
Asthma ; Body Mass Index ; Cohort Studies ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus ; Dust ; Eosinophils ; Female ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulins ; Inflammation ; Korea ; Lung ; Male ; Prevalence ; Pyroglyphidae ; Sputum ; Vital Capacity

Background: There is insufficient data on the benefits of empiric antibiotic combinations for hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP). We aimed to investigate whether empiric antipseudomonal combination therapy with fluoroquinolones decreases mortality in patients with HAP. Methods: This multicenter, retrospective cohort study included adult patients admitted to 16 tertiary and general hospitals in Korea between January 1 and December 31, 2019.Patients with risk factors for combination therapy were divided into anti-pseudomonal non-carbapenem β-lactam monotherapy and fluoroquinolone combination therapy groups.Primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce selection bias. Results: In total, 631 patients with HAP were enrolled. Monotherapy was prescribed in 54.7% (n = 345) of the patients, and combination therapy was prescribed in 45.3% (n = 286).There was no significant difference in 30-day mortality between the two groups (16.8% vs.18.2%, P = 0.729) or even after the PSM (17.5% vs. 18.2%, P = 0.913). After the PSM, adjusted hazard ratio for 30-day mortality from the combination therapy was 1.646 (95% confidence interval, 0.782–3.461; P = 0.189) in the Cox proportional hazards model. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the appropriateness of initial empiric antibiotics between the two groups (55.0% vs. 56.8%, P = 0.898). The proportion of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens was high in both groups. Conclusion Empiric anti-pseudomonal fluoroquinolone combination therapy showed no survival benefit compared to β-lactam monotherapy in patients with HAP. Caution is needed regarding the routine combination of fluoroquinolones in the empiric treatment of HAP patients with a high risk of MDR.