OBJECTIVES: We reviewed digital epidemiological studies to characterize how researchers are using digital data by topic domain, study purpose, data source, and analytic method. METHODS: We reviewed research articles published within the last decade that used digital data to answer epidemiological research questions. Data were abstracted from these articles using a data collection tool that we developed. Finally, we summarized the characteristics of the digital epidemiological studies. RESULTS: We identified six main topic domains: infectious diseases (58.7%), non-communicable diseases (29.4%), mental health and substance use (8.3%), general population behavior (4.6%), environmental, dietary, and lifestyle (4.6%), and vital status (0.9%). We identified four categories for the study purpose: description (22.9%), exploration (34.9%), explanation (27.5%), and prediction and control (14.7%). We identified eight categories for the data sources: web search query (52.3%), social media posts (31.2%), web portal posts (11.9%), webpage access logs (7.3%), images (7.3%), mobile phone network data (1.8%), global positioning system data (1.8%), and others (2.8%). Of these, 50.5% used correlation analyses, 41.3% regression analyses, 25.6% machine learning, and 19.3% descriptive analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Digital data collected for non-epidemiological purposes are being used to study health phenomena in a variety of topic domains. Digital epidemiology requires access to large datasets and advanced analytics. Ensuring open access is clearly at odds with the desire to have as little personal data as possible in these large datasets to protect privacy. Establishment of data cooperatives with restricted access may be a solution to this dilemma.
Cell Phones ; Communicable Diseases ; Data Collection ; Dataset ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Epidemiological Monitoring ; Epidemiology* ; Geographic Information Systems ; Humans ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Internet ; Life Style ; Machine Learning ; Mental Health ; Methods ; Privacy ; Public Health Surveillance ; Social Media

No abstract available.
Fistula*

PURPOSE: To report a case of recovery of bilateral cortical blindness in a patient with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome. CASE SUMMARY: A 46-year-old female visited the ophthalmology department due to abrupt visual acuity decrease. Ten days earlier, she had received conservative management due to anemia caused by menorrhagia and uterine prolapse. She underwent a gynecological operation to remove a uterine myoma two days previously, and was given a blood transfusion postoperatively because of excessive bleeding. After the transfusion, she complained of acute blurred vision. Her best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was hand motion 10 cm in both eyes. There were no abnormal specific findings except retinal dot hemorrhage at the temporal side in the left eye on fundus examination. Her pupillary light reflex was normal and optical coherence tomography examination was unremarkable in both eyes. However, flash visual evoked potential findings showed reduced P100 amplitude in both eyes and she was diagnosed with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome based on brain magnetic resonance imaging. After close observation without any treatment, the symptoms gradually improved. Finally, her BCVA recovered to 1.0 and P1 and P100 amplitudes were restored to normal range in both eyes at 16 weeks from the first diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: A patient complained of bilateral visual loss without other neurological symptoms after chronic blood loss and blood transfusion. She recovered visual acuity completely with prompt diagnosis of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome and close observation only.
Anemia ; Blindness, Cortical ; Blood Transfusion ; Brain ; Diagnosis ; Evoked Potentials, Visual ; Female ; Hand ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Leiomyoma ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Menorrhagia ; Middle Aged ; Ophthalmology ; Posterior Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome* ; Reference Values ; Reflex ; Retinaldehyde ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Uterine Prolapse ; Vision Disorders* ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: We evaluated the surgical prognoses of patients with advanced cataract who were unable to be evaluated by fundus imaging and their satisfaction with daily life.METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 748 eyes of 480 patients who underwent cataract surgery from January 2015 to December 2017. Preoperative factors, surgical technique, degree of cataract, and the best-corrected visual acuity for 1 and 6 months after surgery were analyzed. Among 91 eyes of 78 patients with advanced cataract who were unable to be evaluated by fundus imaging, the degree of discomfort before surgery and postoperative satisfaction were evaluated.RESULTS: Hypertension was positively correlated with visual acuity after cataract surgery (p = 0.004). Low corneal endothelial cell count, primary open-angle glaucoma, a history of trabeculectomy due to glaucoma, corneal dystrophy or corneal opacity, advanced cataract unable to be evaluated by fundus imaging, hypermature cataract, extracapsular cataract extraction, and intracapsular cataract extraction and visual acuity <0.5 after 1 month showed negative correlations with the visual outcomes after 6 months (p = 0.019, p = 0.002, p = 0.037, p = 0.001, p = 0.004, p = 0.012, p = 0.00, and p = 0.00, respectively). The risk of a final visual acuity <0.5 after cataract surgery was 3.18-fold higher in cases of advanced cataract, unable to be evaluated by fundus imaging (p = 0.003). Ten patients with 10 eyes postponed surgery due to poor prognoses, which was expected, and six patients (60%) had a best-corrected visual acuity <0.5 after 6 months. Six patients (60%), expected to have a poor prognosis were satisfied after surgery and the postoperative satisfaction was high when compared with a poor visual outcome.CONCLUSIONS: Poor surgical prognoses were expected in advanced cataract patients unable to be evaluated by fundus imaging. However, advanced cataract patients, who postponed surgery due to an unfavorable visual prognosis, showed a higher subjective satisfaction when compared with the postoperative visual acuity.

Background: In order to minimize the spread of seasonal influenza epidemic to communities worldwide, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has issued an influenza epidemic alert using the influenza epidemic threshold formula based on the results of the influenza-like illness (ILI) rate. However, unusual changes have occurred in the pattern of respiratory infectious diseases, including seasonal influenza, after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As a result, the importance of detecting the onset of an epidemic earlier than the existing epidemic alert system is increasing. Accordingly, in this study, the Time Derivative (TD) method was suggested as a supplementary approach to the existing influenza alert system for the early detection of seasonal influenza epidemics. Methods: The usefulness of the TD method as an early epidemic alert system was evaluated by applying the ILI rate for each week during past seasons when seasonal influenza epidemics occurred, ranging from the 2013–2014 season to the 2022–2023 season to compare it with the issued time of the actual influenza epidemic alert. Results: As a result of applying the TD method, except for the two seasons (2020–2021 season and 2021–2022 season) that had no influenza epidemic, an influenza early epidemic alert was suggested during the remaining seasons, excluding the 2017–2018 and 2022–2023 seasons. Conclusion The TD method is a time series analysis that enables early epidemic alert in real-time without relying on past epidemic information. It can be considered as an alternative approach when it is challenging to set an epidemic threshold based on past period information.This situation may arise when there has been a change in the typical seasonal epidemic pattern of various respiratory viruses, including influenza, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: This study investigated the characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among individuals with disabilities on a nationwide scale in the Republic of Korea, as limited research has examined this population. Methods: Between January 1 and November 30, 2021, a total of 5,687 confirmed COVID-19 cases among individuals with disabilities were reported through the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s COVID-19 web reporting system. Follow-up continued until December 24, and demographic, epidemiological, and clinical characteristics were analyzed. Results: Individuals with disabilities represented approximately 1.5% of confirmed cases, with a mean age of 58.1 years. Most resided in or near metropolitan areas (86.6%) and were male (60.6%). Frequent sources of infection included home (33.4%) and contact with confirmed cases (40.7%). Many individuals (75.9%) had underlying conditions, and 7.7% of cases were severe. People with disabilities showed significantly elevated risk of severe infection (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47–1.81) and mortality (aOR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.43–1.91). Vaccination against COVID-19 was associated with significantly lower risk of severe infection (aORs for the first, second, and third doses: 0.6 [95% CI, 0.42–0.85], 0.28 [95% CI, 0.22–0.35], and 0.16 [95% CI, 0.05–0.51], respectively) and death (adjusted hazard ratios for the first and second doses: 0.57 [95% CI, 0.35–0.93] and 0.3 [95% CI, 0.23–0.40], respectively). Conclusion Individuals with disabilities showed higher risk of severe infection and mortality from COVID-19. Consequently, it is critical to strenghthenCOVID-19 vaccination initiatives and provide socioeconomic assistance for this vulnerable population.

BACKGROUND: Although intravenous acyclovir therapy is recommended for varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection in immunocompromised children, the clinical characteristics and outcomes of VZV infection in the acyclovir era have rarely been reported. METHODS: The medical records of children diagnosed with varicella or herpes zoster virus, who had underlying hematologic malignancies, were retrospectively reviewed, and the clinical characteristics and outcomes of VZV infection were evaluated. RESULTS: Seventy-six episodes of VZV infection (herpes zoster in 57 and varicella in 19) were identified in 73 children. The median age of children with VZV infection was 11 years (range, 1-17), and 35 (46.1%) episodes occurred in boys. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the most common underlying malignancy (57.9%), and 90.8% of the episodes occurred during complete remission of the underlying malignancy. Acyclovir was administered for a median of 10 days (range, 4-97). Severe VZV infection occurred in 16 (21.1%) episodes. Although the finding was not statistically significant, a previous history of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) appeared to be associated with the development of more severe episodes of herpes zoster (P=0.075). CONCLUSION: Clinical characteristics of VZV infection in immunocompromised children were not significantly different from those without it, and clinical outcomes improved after the introduction of acyclovir therapy. However, risk factors for severe VZV infection require further investigation in a larger population and a prospective setting.
Acyclovir* ; Cell Transplantation ; Chickenpox* ; Child* ; Hematologic Neoplasms* ; Herpes Zoster ; Herpesvirus 3, Human* ; Humans ; Leukemia ; Lymphoma ; Medical Records ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; Prospective Studies ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Transplants

Acupuncture therapy has been widely performed by staffs of oriental medicine in Korea, and intramuscular stimulation (IMS) therapy has been introduced recently and used for controlling myofascial pain in the field of orthopedics, rehabilitation, and pain clinics. To penetrate human tissues, relatively long needles are used in both procedures and these these may have some risks to puncture blood vessels. However, there were few reports about sequelae or complications after such procedures in Korean literatures. Recently, we experienced two cases of perirenal hematoma in patients without blood coagulation abnormalities (one case induced by acupuncture in oriental medicine clinic, and the other case induced by IMS in orthopedic clinic and was also accompanied by perirenal abscess).
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Blood Coagulation ; Blood Vessels ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Kidney ; Korea ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Needles ; Orthopedics ; Pain Clinics ; Punctures

PURPOSE: This study was done to analyze how a death preparation education program have the effects on awareness of hospice palliative care and withdrawing life sustaining treatment in older adults. METHODS: This study employed a non-equivalent control group design among quasi-experimental designs. The experimental group was comprised with 35 adults and the control group with 40 adults. The death preparation program consisted of five two-hour sessions and was administered once a week for five straight weeks. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi2 test, Fisher's exact test, and ANCOVA using SPSS version 18.0. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 66.2 years. A significant difference between the experimental and control groups was observed in withdrawing life sustaining treatment (F=3.380, P=0.040). However, no significant difference was found in awareness of hospice palliative care (F=0.163, P=0.850). CONCLUSION: The study results indicate that death preparation training could positively affect people's awareness of withdrawing life sustaining treatment. More studies should be conducted to explore effects of death preparation education for all ages and help people better understand hospice palliative care.
Adult ; Education* ; Hospices* ; Humans ; Life Support Care ; Palliative Care*

Background: The management of cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules is challenging for clinicians. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of the Korean Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (K-TIRADS) with that of the American College of Radiology (ACR)-TIRADS for predicting the malignancy risk of indeterminate thyroid nodules. Methods: Thyroid nodules diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) followed by surgery or core needle biopsy at a single referral hospital were enrolled. Results: Among 200 thyroid nodules, 78 (39.0%) nodules were classified as indeterminate by FNA (Bethesda category III, IV, and V), and 114 (57.0%) nodules were finally diagnosed as malignancy by surgery or core needle biopsy. The area under the curve (AUC) was higher for FNA than for either TIRADS system in all nodules, while all three methods showed similar AUCs for indeterminate nodules. However, for Bethesda category III nodules, applying K-TIRADS 5 significantly increased the risk of malignancy compared to a cytological examination alone (50.0% vs. 26.5%, P=0.028), whereas applying ACR-TIRADS did not lead to a change. Conclusion K-TIRADS and ACR-TIRADS showed similar diagnostic performance in assessing indeterminate thyroid nodules, and K-TIRADS had beneficial effects for malignancy prediction in Bethesda category III nodules.