To investigate the cognitive characteristics that affect the emotional and functional distress caused by tinnitus and to decide and test the model to explain their relations, 167 patients with tinnitus, who visited Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea between March 2001 and May 2002 were recruited. To examine their features related to tinnitus, the following scales were administered; Tinnitus-related basic questionnaire including dysfunctional beliefs, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Anxious Thought and Tendencies, Self-Consciousness Scale, and modified 'catastrophic thought' from Coping Strategies Questionnaire. The results showed that the duration of experiencing tinnitus was 4.7 +/-7.1 yr, those who com-plained of hearing one sound were the most common (45.5%), and hearing sounds similarly described to whistling were the most common (22.5%). Also, there were significant correlations among tinnitus features, cognitive characteristics, and distresses from tinnitus. As a result of testing the model, Normed fit index, Incremental fit index, Tucker-Lewis index, and Comparative fit index were over .90, indicating that it is a good model, and Root mean square error of approximation showed a reasonable fit. Also, the direct effects of the trait or severity of tinnitus on distress did not appear to be significant, thus it appeared to be affecting indirectly through the cognitive characteristics. This result shows that cognitive interventions can be important for the psychological adaptations of tinnitus patients.
Anxiety Disorders/*diagnosis/*epidemiology/psychology ; Cognition Disorders/*diagnosis/*epidemiology/psychology ; Comorbidity ; Depression/diagnosis/epidemiology/psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Risk Assessment/*methods ; Risk Factors ; Severity of Illness Index ; Tinnitus/*diagnosis/*epidemiology/psychology

OBJECTIVETo study the cognitive function, its correlation with and the impact on quality of life in epileptic children aged 6-13 years in regular school.

METHODCognitive function of 172 children with various types of epilepsy were measured using a computerized neuropsychological test battery including six items. Their scores across the neuropsychological measures were compared with 172 healthy control subjects from the general population strictly matched for age, sex and the region where education was accepted. The quality of life was measured in 105 cases by the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31).

RESULT(1) After adjusting for age, gender, and education, children with epilepsy performed significantly worse than healthy control subjects on 5 of 6 cognitive tasks, including Raven's progressive matrices correct number (8.6 vs. 14.0), choice reaction time (620.4 ms vs. 489.5 ms), word-rhyming tasks (2796.9 ms vs. 2324.4 ms), simple substraction correct number (28.6 vs. 35.5)as well as number comparision (1002.4 ms vs. 803.1 ms), P < 0.01. When an impairment index was calculated, 44.2% patients had at least one abnormal score on the test battery, compared with 14.5% of healthy volunteers, there was statistically significant differences between the two groups, P < 0.001. (2) Children with new onset epilepsy before the treatment with anti-epilepstic drugs performed significantly worse than healthy controls on 5 of 6 cognitive tasks, including Raven's progressive matrices correct number (9.1 vs. 13.8), choice reaction time (625.8 ms vs.474.5 ms), word-rhyming tasks(3051.8 ms vs. 2575.4 ms), simple substraction correct number (28.9 vs. 35.3) as well as number comparison (942.4 ms vs. 775.8 ms), P < 0.01. (3) Cognitive performance was not related to the age of onset, type of epilepsy, therapy duration or comorbid emotional and behavior disorders, P > 0.05. (4) 105 cases filled in the QOLIE-31 questionaire, the total score of the quality of life in the group without cognitive impairment and psychical conditions was the highest (60.5 ± 0.9), and the lowest total score was found in group with cognitive impairment and psychical conditions (54.6 ± 1.5), there were highly significant differences between the groups, P < 0.001.

CONCLUSIONAlmost one-half of the children with epilepsy accepting regular education had at least one abnormal score in the battery tests. Newly diagnosed untreated patients with epilepsy are cognitively compromised before the start of antiepileptic drug medication. Cognitive impairment was not related to the epilepsy-related or psychiatric variables. Cognitive impairment and mental disorders require further attention and essential therapy, which is important to the improvement of the quality of life in epileptic children.

Adolescent ; Child ; Cognition ; physiology ; Cognition Disorders ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; psychology ; Comorbidity ; Epilepsy ; complications ; psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Quality of Life ; Reaction Time ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo formulate the classification criteria of disability weight for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) in China and to evaluate the disability weight of AD and PD in population over 60 years old in Beijing.

METHODSBased on the criteria of Global Burden of Disease (GBD), a seven-grade disability classification was used to develop a new disability classification criteria for AD and PD in terms of Delphi method in China. Using the data from epidemiological survey for AD and PD in Beijing in 1997 and new criteria, mean disability weights of AD and PD in population over 60 years old in Beijing were obtained.

RESULTSThe mean disability weights of Alzheimer's disease was 0.40 in population over 60 years old who received treatment in Beijing and 0.52 in those without treatment while the mean disability weights of Parkinson's disease were 0.30 in the patient receiving treatment and 0.23 in those without treatment.

CONCLUSIONDifference between the result of this study and the data of GBD study in the mean disability weight for AD and PD was noticed.

Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Alzheimer Disease ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Cognition Disorders ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Cost of Illness ; Disability Evaluation ; Disabled Persons ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Parkinson Disease ; epidemiology ; Recognition (Psychology)