Background: The government should find ways to improve the effectiveness of the policies to control the incidence and mortality of the infectious disease. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the trust in the government’s ability to respond to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects the quarantine and hospitalization rate, incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 and quarantine rules compliance in each region of Korea. Methods: The subject of this study is 250 regions (si · gun · gu) in Korea, and the 2020 Community Health Survey data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) was used for the trust in the government’s ability to respond to COVID-19, quarantine and hospitalization rate and quarantine rules compliance. For the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 and community factors, data was obtained from KDCA and Korean Statistical Information Service. Path analysis was used to find out the degree of inter-variable influence, and community factors (socio-demographic factors, community health factors, and health behavior factors) were used as control variables. Results: The regional disparity in key variables showed that the late pandemic period cumulative incidence and mortality of COVID-19 were large, while the early pandemic period quarantine and hospitalization rate and quarantine rules compliance were small. Path analysis showed that when community factors were controlled, the trust in government was statistically significant in all of the late pandemic period cumulative incidence (p=0.024) and mortality (p=0.017), and quarantine rules compliance (p=0.011). Conclusion This study revealed that the higher the trust in the government’s ability to respond to COVID-19, the lower the COVID-19 mortality and the higher the quarantine rules compliance at the regional level in Korea. This suggests that when the government implements healthcare policies to control infectious diseases, it is necessary to consider trust to improve policy compliance and control the mortality of the disease and maintain high trust through several effective methods.

OBJECTIVES: Smoking and passive smoking have been extensively reported as risk factors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the biological mechanisms underlying the impact of hazardous chemical substances contained in tobacco in cardiovascular diseases (CVD), studies investigating the association between smoking and passive smoking with morbidity are at an inchoate stage in Korea. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the risks of smoking and passive smoking on cardiovascular morbidity at the national and regional levels.METHODS: This study calculated sex-standardized and age-standardized prevalence of CVD and smoking indices in 253 community health centers (si/gun/gu) in Korea using the 2008-2013 Korea Community Health Survey data. Furthermore, a Bayesian hierarchical model was used to estimate the association of smoking and passive smoking with the prevalence of CVD from the national and regional community health centers.RESULTS: At the national level, smoking was significantly associated with stroke (relative risk [RR], 1.060) and hypertension (RR, 1.016) prevalence, whilst passive smoking at home and work were also significantly associated with prevalence of stroke (RR, 1.037/1.013), angina (RR, 1.016/1.006), and hypertension (RR, 1.010/1.004). Furthermore, the effects of smoking and passive smoking were greater in urban-industrial areas than in rural areas.CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study would provide grounds for national policies that limit smoking and passive smoking, as well as regionally serve as the basis for region-specific healthcare policies in populations with high CVD vulnerability.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Community Health Centers ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Surveys ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Mortality ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stroke ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution

OBJECTIVES: Smoking and passive smoking have been extensively reported as risk factors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the biological mechanisms underlying the impact of hazardous chemical substances contained in tobacco in cardiovascular diseases (CVD), studies investigating the association between smoking and passive smoking with morbidity are at an inchoate stage in Korea. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the risks of smoking and passive smoking on cardiovascular morbidity at the national and regional levels. METHODS: This study calculated sex-standardized and age-standardized prevalence of CVD and smoking indices in 253 community health centers (si/gun/gu) in Korea using the 2008-2013 Korea Community Health Survey data. Furthermore, a Bayesian hierarchical model was used to estimate the association of smoking and passive smoking with the prevalence of CVD from the national and regional community health centers. RESULTS: At the national level, smoking was significantly associated with stroke (relative risk [RR], 1.060) and hypertension (RR, 1.016) prevalence, whilst passive smoking at home and work were also significantly associated with prevalence of stroke (RR, 1.037/1.013), angina (RR, 1.016/1.006), and hypertension (RR, 1.010/1.004). Furthermore, the effects of smoking and passive smoking were greater in urban-industrial areas than in rural areas. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study would provide grounds for national policies that limit smoking and passive smoking, as well as regionally serve as the basis for region-specific healthcare policies in populations with high CVD vulnerability.
Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Community Health Centers ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Surveys* ; Hypertension ; Korea* ; Mortality ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Stroke ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution*

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to comprehensively explore factors affecting quality of life in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA). Methods: This study was conducted base on the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). To search studies related to quality of life in patients with UIA. KoreaMed, Kmbase, Kiss, Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central and CINAHL were used. Key words were 'unruptured intracranial aneurysm', 'quality of life' and 'well-being'. A total of 136 studies were identified. After confirming duplication and abstracts, 15 studies were selected for analysis. Results: As a result, factors affecting the quality of life in patients with UIA were categorized into individual factors, disease related factors, symptom related factors, and functional related factors. The Short form-36 was one of the most frequently used measurements. Conclusion To improve the quality of life of patients with UIA, researchers need to explore the multiple factors affecting quality of life in patients with UIA, and consider application of tools that can reflect the disease specific quality of life in patients with UIA.

BACKGROUND: Issues concerning with the classification accuracy of Korean Outpatient Groups (KOPGs) have been raised by providers and researchers. The KOPG is an outpatient classification system used to measure casemix of outpatient visits and to adjust provider risk in charges by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in managing insurance payments. The objective of this study were to refine KOPGs to improve the classification accuracy and to evaluate the refinement. METHODS: We refined the rules used to classify visits with multiple procedures, newly defined chemotherapy drug groups, and modified the medical visit indicators through reviews of other classification systems, data analyses, and consultations with experts. We assessed the improvement by measuring % of variation in case charges reduced by KOPGs and the refined system, Enhanced KOPGs (EKOPGs). We used claims data submitted by providers to the HIRA during the year 2012 in both refinement and evaluation. RESULTS: EKOPGs explicitly allowed additional payments for multiple procedures with exceptions of packaging of routine ancillary services and consolidation of related significant procedures, and discounts ranging from 30% to 70% were defined in additional payments. Thirteen chemotherapy drug KOPGs were added and medical visit indicators were streamlined to include codes for consultation fees for outpatient visits. The % of variance reduction achieved by EKOPGs was 48% for all patients whereas the figure was 40% for KOPGs, and the improvement was larger in data from tertiary and general hospitals than in data from clinics. CONCLUSION: A significant improvement in the performance of the KOPG was achieved by refining payments for visits with multiple procedures, defining groups for visits with chemotherapy, and revising medical visit indicators.
Classification ; Drug Therapy* ; Fee-for-Service Plans ; Fees and Charges ; Health Care Costs ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Insurance ; Insurance Claim Review ; Insurance, Health ; Outpatients* ; Product Packaging ; Prospective Payment System ; Referral and Consultation

Bronchiectasis refers to abnormal dilatation of the bronchi, which leads to the failure of mucus clearance and increased risk of infection. Pharmacotherapy for stable bronchiectasis includes oral or inhaled mucoactive agents, anti-inflammatory therapy, inhaled bronchodilators, long-term antibiotics, and long-term macrolide treatment.Among them, mucoactive agents are the most common adjunctive agents to airway clearance techniques. When patients with impaired lung function suffer from dyspnea, inhaled bronchodilators may be prescribed to relieve the symptom. Long-term macrolide treatment has been proven to prevent exacerbation in patients with frequent bronchiectasis exacerbation. If exacerbation occurs despite the above mentioned treatments, one or two weeks of antibiotics should be prescribed to cover respiratory bacteria that include Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Because evidence supporting the use of pharmacotherapy for bronchiectasis is weak, further research is warranted.

Patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (hereafter referred to as bronchiectasis) often present with comorbidities. These comorbidities significantly impact symptoms, acute exacerbation, hospitalization, disease progression, and mortality in patients with bronchiectasis. Thus, accurate diagnosis and management of comorbidities associated with bronchiectasis are essential to reduce the disease burden of bronchiectasis. This review provides a state-of-the-art summary of key pulmonary and extra-pulmonary comorbidities associated with bronchiectasis, outlines clinical tools to quantify the prognosis of bronchiectasis, and suggests a workflow to diagnose and manage comorbidities associated with bronchiectasis.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second-most-common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and an accurate and non-invasive biomarker for the early detection and monitoring of HCC is required. We assessed pathogenic variants of HCC driver genes in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from HCC patients who had not undergone systemic therapy. Methods: Plasma cfDNA was collected from 20 HCC patients, and deep sequencing was performed using a customized cfDNA next-generation sequencing panel, targeting the major HCC driver genes (TP53, CTNNB1, TERT) that incorporates molecular barcoding. Results: In 13/20 (65%) patients, we identified at least one pathogenic variant of two major HCC driver genes (TP53 and CTNNB1), including 16 variants of TP53 and nine variants of CTNNB1. The TP53 and CTNNB1 variants showed low allele frequencies, with median values of 0.17% (range: 0.06%–6.99%) and 0.07% (range: 0.05%–0.96%), respectively. However, the molecular coverage of variants was sufficient, with median values of 5,543 (range: 2,317–9,088) and 7,568 (range: 2,400–9,633) for TP53 and CTNNB1 variants, respectively. Conclusions Our targeted DNA sequencing successfully identified low-frequency pathogenic variants in the cfDNA from HCC patients by achieving high coverage of unique molecular families. Our results support the utility of cfDNA analysis to identify somatic gene variants in HCC patients.