BACKGROUND/AIMS: With the enormous increase in the amount of data, the concept of big data has emerged and this allows us to gain new insights and appreciate its value. However, analysis related to gastrointestinal diseases in the viewpoint of the big data has not been performed yet in Korea. This study analyzed the data of the blog's visitors as a set of big data to investigate questions they did not mention in the clinical situation. METHODS: We analyzed the blog of a professor whose subspecialty is gastroenterology at Gangnam Severance Hospital. We assessed the changes in the number of visitors, access path of visitors, and the queries from January 2011 to December 2013. RESULTS: A total of 50,084 visitors gained accessed to the blog. An average of 1,535.3 people visited the blog per month and 49.5 people per day. The number of visitors and the cumulative number of registered posts showed a positive correlation. The most utilized access path of visitors to the website was blog.iseverance.com (42.2%), followed by Google (32.8%) and Daum (6.6%). The most searched term by the visitors in the blog was intestinal metaplasia (16.6%), followed by dizziness (8.3%) and gastric submucosal tumor (7.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Personal blog can function as a communication route for patients with digestive diseases. The most frequently searched word necessitating explanation and education was 'intestinal metaplasia'. Identifying and analyzing even unstructured data as a set of big data is expected to provide meaningful information.
Blogging/*statistics & numerical data ; Databases, Factual ; Dizziness/prevention & control ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/*prevention & control ; Humans ; Internet ; Metaplasia/prevention & control ; Stomach Neoplasms/prevention & control ; User-Computer Interface

BACKGROUND/AIMS: With the enormous increase in the amount of data, the concept of big data has emerged and this allows us to gain new insights and appreciate its value. However, analysis related to gastrointestinal diseases in the viewpoint of the big data has not been performed yet in Korea. This study analyzed the data of the blog's visitors as a set of big data to investigate questions they did not mention in the clinical situation. METHODS: We analyzed the blog of a professor whose subspecialty is gastroenterology at Gangnam Severance Hospital. We assessed the changes in the number of visitors, access path of visitors, and the queries from January 2011 to December 2013. RESULTS: A total of 50,084 visitors gained accessed to the blog. An average of 1,535.3 people visited the blog per month and 49.5 people per day. The number of visitors and the cumulative number of registered posts showed a positive correlation. The most utilized access path of visitors to the website was blog.iseverance.com (42.2%), followed by Google (32.8%) and Daum (6.6%). The most searched term by the visitors in the blog was intestinal metaplasia (16.6%), followed by dizziness (8.3%) and gastric submucosal tumor (7.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Personal blog can function as a communication route for patients with digestive diseases. The most frequently searched word necessitating explanation and education was 'intestinal metaplasia'. Identifying and analyzing even unstructured data as a set of big data is expected to provide meaningful information.
Blogging/*statistics & numerical data ; Databases, Factual ; Dizziness/prevention & control ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/*prevention & control ; Humans ; Internet ; Metaplasia/prevention & control ; Stomach Neoplasms/prevention & control ; User-Computer Interface

After World War II, the incidence of gastric cancer decreased rapidly in most of the developed countries; however, it remained high in countries where secondary prevention of gastric cancer is practiced without primary prevention (Helicobacter pylori eradication). In such countries, changes in gastric microbiota contribute to gastric carcinogenesis, and the composition of gastric microbiota is mainly determined by the status of H. pylori infection. In non-infected individuals with no history of H. pylori infection, gastric microbiota includes various bacteria, creating ideal microbial diversity. Because it is difficult for most bacteria to proliferate in an acidic environment in stomach, only few bacteria are present in non-infected individuals. Conversely, microbial dysbiosis with H. pylori predominance is often observed in infected individuals with unimpaired gastric secretory ability, because other bacteria cannot survive at low intragastric pH. Such microbial dysbiosis may rapidly lead to gastric carcinogenesis, resulting in diffuse-type gastric cancer. It is more frequent in young patients with unimpaired gastric secretory ability than in elderly patients with gastric atrophy and metaplasia. Lastly, bacteria producing carcinogenic N-nitrosamine compounds are often detected in individuals with past or chronic H. pylori infection, because of the loss of gastric secretory ability. Such an unideal microbial diversity observed at high intragastric pH may slowly lead to gastric carcinogenesis, in turn resulting in gastric adenoma or intestinal-type gastric cancer. To prevent gastric carcinogenesis, changes in the composition of gastric microbiota should be studied in conjunction with intragastric acidity, which depends on the status of H. pylori infection.
Adenoma ; Aged ; Atrophy ; Bacteria ; Carcinogenesis ; Developed Countries ; Dysbiosis ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Incidence ; Metaplasia ; Microbiota ; Primary Prevention ; Secondary Prevention ; Stomach ; Stomach Neoplasms ; World War II