Introduction: In the realm of education and professional licensure, the assessment of individuals’ competencies is pivotal in determining eligibility for entry into various fields of practice. Medical school assessments encompass cognitive and non-cognitive measures. The Philippines’ Physician Licensure Examination (PLE) relies solely on cognitive assessment. This study explored the predictive power of cognitive assessment in the passing the Physician Licensure Examinations. Methods: A case-control study design was done. Cognitive examination grade was defined as the average cumulative grade of written examinations in specific subjects, while the dependent variable was PLE scores. Results: The study revealed a positive association between failing written examinations and failing the Physician Licensure Examination. In all subjects, there is an observed association, but only Pharmacology reached statistical significance (OR: 2.30 CI:1.01,5.24). For the remaining subjects, although there is an association, it did not reach statistical significance (Biochemistry OR:1.42, CI: 0.43, 4.72; Medicine 3 OR:1.56, CI: 0.81, 3.0; Surgery 3 OR:1.28 CI: 0.63, 2.58). There was no association seen between failing the written examination and failing the PLE in Obstetrics (OR:0.98 CI: 0.47, 2.03). Furthermore, there was a weak positive correlation (0.18-0.31) between written examination grades and corresponding board exam subject grades for all subjects, highlighting the importance of cognitive assessments in predicting success. The research also found a statistically significant difference in PLE grades between those who failed the written examinations and those who passed. Conclusion These findings emphasized the crucial role of cognitive assessments in predicting success in the PLE and its associated board subjects. The study underscored the need for medical institutions to focus on strengthening cognitive competencies and to align the content and rigor of written examinations with the PLE. Addressing these issues would better prepare students for the licensure examination and enhance the quality of healthcare professionals entering the workforce. The results may contribute to the ongoing discussion on the effectiveness of assessment methods in medical education and licensure examinations.
Association

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate effects of sertraline treatment on symptoms and memory function of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHODS: Thirty Vietnam veterans were collected for this study, among whom fifteen were PTSD patients and fifteen were combat control subjects. We used Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, Combat Exposure Scale (CES), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Digit Span, Paired Association Learning Test (PALT) and Rey- Osterreith Complex Figure Test (CFT) were assessed for memory function. We evaluated HDRS, CAPS and memory function tests at baseline, 2-week and 6-week intervals with each subjects. RESULTS: There were significant differences between PTSD and Non-PTSD veterans in Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, CES, HDRS and CAPS. Significant difference was found in memory function tests between PTSD and Non-PTSD veterans. PTSD veterans showed significant improvement in HDRS and CAPS at 2-week and 6-week and in memory function tests at 6-week of sertraline treatment. There was no significant correlation between symptoms and memory function. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that sertraline improve symptoms and memory function of PTSD. There was no significant correlation between PTSD sysmtoms and memory function.
Association Learning ; Depression ; Humans ; Memory* ; Mississippi ; Sertraline* ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* ; Veterans ; Vietnam

With the success of the genome-wide association studies (GWASs), many candidate loci for complex human diseases have been reported in the GWAS catalog. Recently, many disease prediction models based on penalized regression or statistical learning methods were proposed using candidate causal variants from significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms of GWASs. However, there have been only a few systematic studies comparing existing methods. In this study, we first constructed risk prediction models, such as stepwise linear regression (SLR), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and Elastic-Net (EN), using a GWAS chip and GWAS catalog. We then compared the prediction accuracy by calculating the mean square error (MSE) value on data from the Korea Association Resource (KARE) with body mass index. Our results show that SLR provides a smaller MSE value than the other methods, while the numbers of selected variables in each model were similar.
Body Mass Index* ; Decision Support Techniques ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning ; Linear Models

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate efficacy on symptoms and memory function of mirtazapine treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. METHODS: Thirty Vietnam veterans were collected for this study, among whom fifteen were PTSD patients and fifteen were combat control subjects. We used Mississippi Scale for CombatRelated PTSD, Combat Exposure Scale (CES), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Digit Span, Paired Association Learning Test (PALT) and Rey-Osterrith Complex Figure Test (CFT) were assessed for memory function. We also evaluate HDRS, CAPS and memory function tests intervals of baseline, 2 week and 6 week in PTSD patients during mirtazapine treatment. RESULTS: There were significant differences between PTSD and Non-PTSD veterans in Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, CES, HDRS and CAPS. Significant difference was found in memory function tests between PTSD and Non-PTSD veterans. PTSD veterans showed significant improvement in HDRS and CAPS at 2 week and 6 week during mirtazapine treatment and in memory function tests at 6 week during mirtazapine treatment. There was no significant correlation between symptoms and memory function. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that mirtazapine improve symptoms and memory function of PTSD. There was no significant correlation between PTSD sysmtoms and memory function.
Association Learning ; Depression ; Humans ; Memory* ; Mississippi ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* ; Veterans ; Vietnam

PURPOSE: The success of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) depends on how soon after a heart attack the intervention is done and on how the quality of the CPR is. Although in Korea there are several CPR education courses, CPR done by bystanders to an attack remains very low. This might be related to different causes such as the complexity of the CPR sequence and the difficulty of learning CPR, specifically ventilation maneuvers. The American Heart Association (AHA) has recently recommended 'Hands Only(TM) CPR', without ventilation, for bystander rescuers. In the present study, we investigated the educational effects of 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' in elementary school students. We further analyzed the effects of this variable on CPR skill learning and retention for a 3 months period. METHODS: We selected two groups of 5th grade elementary school students to perform this study. One group received CPR education with ventilation (CPR with ventilation group); the other received 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' education ('Hands Only(TM) CPR' group). The Laerdal PC Skill Reporting system was used for both education sessions and for evaluation immediately after the sessions. Skill performance data, together with ventilation data and compression data were recorded for further comparisons. RESULTS: There were no differences between the two groups regarding chest compression (average rate, average duty cycle, registered with no error, average depth, etc.). The average chest compression count per minute was 118+/-12/min in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 85+/-13/min in the CPR with ventilation group (p=0.001). Registered adequate compression depth was 23+/-29% in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 23+/-31% in the CPR with ventilation group (p=0.962). The total hands off time was 18+/-7 seconds in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 40+/-11 seconds in the CPR with ventilation group. After 3 months there were still no differences in chest compression between the two groups. The average count per minute at 3 months was 109+/-15/min in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 83+/-17/min in the CPR with ventilation group (p=0.001). Registered adequate compression depth was 26+/-31% in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 31+/-35% in the CPR with ventilation group (p=0.334). The total hands off time was 12+/-5 seconds in the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' group and 31+/-12 seconds in the CPR with ventilation group (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: The 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' program in elementary school children increased the chest compression rate. However, there was no between groups difference in adequate compression depth. We were unable to demonstrate that the 'Hands Only(TM) CPR' education program in elementary school children led to a better effect.
American Heart Association ; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Child ; Hand ; Heart ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning ; Retention (Psychology) ; School Health Services ; Thorax ; Ventilation

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to find risk factors that are associated with complications of cerebral infarction in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and to discover useful association rules among these factors. METHODS: The risk factors with respect to cerebral infarction were selected using logistic regression analysis with the Wald's forward selection approach. The rules to identify the complications of cerebral infarction were obtained by using the association rule mining (ARM) approach. RESULTS: We observed that 4 independent factors, namely, age, hypertension, initial electrocardiographic rhythm, and initial echocardiographic left atrial dimension (LAD), were strong predictors of cerebral infarction in patients with AF. After the application of ARM, we obtained 4 useful rules to identify complications of cerebral infarction: age (>63 years) and hypertension (Yes) and initial ECG rhythm (AF) and initial Echo LAD (>4.06 cm); age (>63 years) and hypertension (Yes) and initial Echo LAD (>4.06 cm); hypertension (Yes) and initial ECG rhythm (AF) and initial Echo LAD (>4.06 cm); age (>63 years) and hypertension (Yes) and initial ECG rhythm (AF). CONCLUSIONS: Among the induced rules, 3 factors (the initial ECG rhythm [i.e., AF], initial Echo LAD, and age) were strongly associated with each other.
Arm ; Association Learning ; Atrial Fibrillation ; Cerebral Infarction ; Data Mining ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Mining ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: Exploration of the questionable Alzheimer disease is important for accurate estimation of prevalence and incidence, understanding the natural history, and evaluation of treatment strategies for the Alzheimer disease. Subjects and METHODS: We compared neuropsychological test performances among 14 nondemented controls, 14 elderly persons with questionable dementia of the Alzheimer type and 14 elderly persons with mild dementia of the Alzheimer type. The test performances analyzed were the digit span of the Korean Adult Wechsler Intelligence Scale, registration, short term memory and long term memory of the Cognitive Impairment Diagnosing Instrument, and paired association learning and logical memory of the Wechsler Memory Scale. RESULTS: There was significant difference between questionable dementia of the Alzheimer type and controls in the long-term memory, short-term memory, immediate and delayed recalls of the logical memory, and easy association. But the subjects with questionable and mild dementia of the Alzheimer type scored similarly on all tests except the long-term memory. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that questionable Alzheimer disease may be the very early Alzheimer disease.
Adult ; Aged ; Aging ; Alzheimer Disease ; Association Learning ; Cognition ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intelligence ; Logic ; Memory* ; Memory, Long-Term ; Memory, Short-Term ; Natural History ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Prevalence

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare ciliopathy generally inherited with an autosomal recessive pattern. BBS is characterized by 6 primary features namely retinal dystrophy, obesity, postaxial polydactyly, renal dysfunction, learning difficulties, and hypogonadism and a wide range of secondary features. To date, mutations in 16 genes have been identified as causative factors for BBS. Among them, the BBS1 and BBS10 genes are major disease-causing genes, and each of these gene mutations presents in more than 20% of all BBS patients. Genotype-phenotype correlations have not been observed in BBS, and there can be phenotypic overlap between BBS and other ciliopathies. In Korea, no molecular, genetically confirmed case of BBS has been reported to date. Herein, we describe the case of the first Korean siblings with BBS resulting from 2 BBS10 gene mutations who showed typical clinical phenotypes, including retinal dystrophy, obesity, intellectual disability, cystic tubular disease, and postaxial polydactyly.
Bardet-Biedl Syndrome* ; Genetic Association Studies ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Intellectual Disability ; Korea ; Learning ; Obesity ; Phenotype ; Polycystic Kidney Diseases ; Polydactyly ; Retinal Dystrophies ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; Siblings*

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS15) is a widely used depression screening questionnaire, the implications of the GDS15 in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are questionable. We designed this study to explore the GDS15 factor structure and the relationships between these factors and cognitive-behavioral aspects. METHODS: The GDS15, cognitive function tests, and the Korean-Neuropsychiatry Inventory were administered to 310 patients with probable AD, who were not medicated before visiting the hospital. Three factors were identified by principal components analysis. A bivariate correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationships between factors and neurocognitive and behavior symptoms. RESULTS: Factor 2 was correlated with the Korean Boston Naming Test, calculating ability, the go-no-go test, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), the Color Word Stroop Test (CWST; words and color), aggression, depression, and apathy. Factor 3 was correlated with calculating ability, the Seoul Verbal Learning Test, immediate recall, copy, and delayed recall on the Rey-Osterieth Complex Figure Test, contrasting on the COWAT, and words and delusion on the CWST. We identified three factors and revealed that the GDS15 may be comprised of a heterogeneous scale. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the GDS15 may be comprised of a heterogeneous scale and suggest multi-dimensional properties of the GDS15 in patients with AD.
Aggression ; Alzheimer Disease* ; Apathy ; Delusions ; Depression* ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Memory, Short-Term ; Seoul ; Stroop Test ; Verbal Learning ; Word Association Tests ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: Non-verbal memory deficits, impairments in executive function and deficits in visuospartial functions have been repeatedly reported in subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study aimed to evaluate the frontal lobe function using neuro-psychological test in subjects with OCD and normal control. METHODS: A battery of neuropsychological tests (Wisconsin Card Sorting test, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test, Controlled Oral Word Association test, Trail Making test, Verbal Learning test) reflecting frontal lobe function was administrated to 32 OCD patients and 28 healthy comparison subjects. RESULT: There were no significant differences in age, years of education, or estimated IQ between the groups. Scores in category fluency, immediate recall and delayed recall of Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test in OCD subjects were significantly lower than those of healthy comparison subjects (ANCOVA, F=15.07, df=58, p< .001; ANCOVA, F=6.33, df=57, p=0.015; ANCOVA, F=5.53, df=57, p=0.022, respectively). CONCLUSION: OCD patients had selective deficits in task involving non-verbal memory and categorical word fluency relative to healthy comparisons.
Education ; Executive Function ; Frontal Lobe* ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory Disorders ; Memory, Short-Term ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Neuropsychology ; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder* ; Trail Making Test ; Verbal Learning ; Word Association Tests