OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of nutrition education on the nutritional status, including eating habits and quality of life in gastric cancer patients undergoing a gastrectomy. METHODS: Thirty one out-gastric resection patients at C University Hospital in Gwangju, Korea were enrolled in this study. The patients received an individualized nutritional counseling session, and the effects were assessed before and after a 3-month nutrition education intervention. Nutrition education for gastric cancer outpatients included the dietary guidelines (e.g., food intake), the level of nutrient intake, and nutrition support. RESULTS: The patients had significantly improved serum albumin and hematocrit levels after nutrition education. Of the dietary habits, the meal time and amount of food compared to the first education were increased significantly. Of the changes in the food intake frequency, fish and meat, and vegetables and fruits intake were increased, but not at a statistically significant level. The score of eating habits related to the gastrectomy was improved significantly after nutrition education from 31.7 to 34.5. The composite scores for the quality of life were also improved significantly after the nutrition education program. CONCLUSIONS: The nutrition education for gastric cancer outpatients may be crucial and efficient for improving their lifestyle.
Counseling ; Eating ; Education ; Food Habits ; Fruit ; Gastrectomy ; Gwangju ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Meals ; Meat ; Nutrition Policy ; Nutritional Status ; Outpatients ; Quality of Life ; Serum Albumin ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Vegetables

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of nutrition education on the nutritional status, including eating habits and quality of life in gastric cancer patients undergoing a gastrectomy. METHODS: Thirty one out-gastric resection patients at C University Hospital in Gwangju, Korea were enrolled in this study. The patients received an individualized nutritional counseling session, and the effects were assessed before and after a 3-month nutrition education intervention. Nutrition education for gastric cancer outpatients included the dietary guidelines (e.g., food intake), the level of nutrient intake, and nutrition support. RESULTS: The patients had significantly improved serum albumin and hematocrit levels after nutrition education. Of the dietary habits, the meal time and amount of food compared to the first education were increased significantly. Of the changes in the food intake frequency, fish and meat, and vegetables and fruits intake were increased, but not at a statistically significant level. The score of eating habits related to the gastrectomy was improved significantly after nutrition education from 31.7 to 34.5. The composite scores for the quality of life were also improved significantly after the nutrition education program. CONCLUSIONS: The nutrition education for gastric cancer outpatients may be crucial and efficient for improving their lifestyle.
Counseling ; Eating ; Education ; Food Habits ; Fruit ; Gastrectomy ; Gwangju ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Meals ; Meat ; Nutrition Policy ; Nutritional Status ; Outpatients ; Quality of Life ; Serum Albumin ; Stomach Neoplasms ; Vegetables

OBJECTIVES: A citation analysis of biomedical and health sciences journals was conducted based on their enlistment in journal databases to identify the factors contributing to the citation metrics. METHODS: Among the 1,219 academic journals managed by the National Center for Medical Information and Knowledge at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 556 journals were included for analysis as of July 2016. The characteristics of the journals include history years, publication media, language, open-access policy as well as the status enlisted in international and domestic databases, such as Science Citation Index (SCI), Scopus, Medline, PubMed Central, Embase, and Korea Citation Index (KCI). Six bibliometric measures were collected from SCI, Scopus, and KCI as of 2015, the most recent disclosure year. Analyses of group differences and influential factors were conducted using t-tests, Mann-Whitney tests, and multiple regression. RESULTS: Journal characteristics, such as history years, publication media, and open-access policy, were not significant factors influencing global or domestical citation of the journals. However, global citations were higher for SCI and Medline enlisted journals than for their counterparts. Among KCI journals, the KCI impact factors of journals published in English only were lower. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts by journals to be enlisted in international databases, especially in SCI and Medline, are critical to enhance their global circulation. However, articles published in English only hinder the use of domestic researchers. Different strategies are required for enhancing international and domestic readerships.
Access to Information ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Disclosure ; Journal Impact Factor ; Korea* ; Medical Subject Headings ; Publications ; Regression Analysis ; Republic of Korea

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is an essential cytokine for T cells. However, IL-7 is not produced by T cells themselves such that T cells are dependent on extrinsic IL-7. In fact, in the absence of IL-7, T cell development in the thymus as well as survival of naive T cells in the periphery is severely impaired. Furthermore, modulating IL-7 availability in vivo either by genetic means or other experimental approaches determines the size, composition and function of the T cell pool. Consequently, understanding IL-7 expression is critical for understanding T cell immunity. Until most recently, however, the spatiotemporal expression of in vivo IL-7 has remained obscured. Shortage of such information was partly due to scarce expression of IL-7 itself but mainly due to the lack of adequate reagents to monitor IL-7 expression in vivo. This situation dramatically changed with a recent rush of four independent studies that describe the generation and characterization of IL-7 reporter mice, all utilizing bacterial artificial chromosome transgene technology. The emerging consensus of these studies confirmed thymic stromal cells as the major producers of IL-7 but also identified IL-7 reporter activities in various peripheral tissues including skin, intestine and lymph nodes. Strikingly, developmental and environmental cues actively modulated IL-7 reporter activities in vivo suggesting that IL-7 regulation might be a new mechanism of shaping T cell development and homeostasis. Collectively, the availability of these new tools opens up new venues to assess unanswered questions in IL-7 biology in T cells and beyond.
Animals ; Biology ; Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial ; Consensus ; Cues ; Homeostasis ; Indicators and Reagents ; Interleukin-7 ; Intestines ; Lymph Nodes ; Mice ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Skin ; Stromal Cells ; T-Lymphocytes ; Thymus Gland ; Transgenes

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to investigate the job stress factors, psychosocial stress and their associations in workers engaged in the research and development of vehicles, and according to job role. METHODS: We recruited 4,066 subjects from workers at a research and development center of an automobile company. A total of 2,764 workers answered the questionnaire about socio-demographic factors, health behaviors, work-related factors, subjective labor intensity, KOSS, and SF-PWI. The final analysis included 2,282 male manufacturing and research workers. Univariate analyses and multiple logistic analyses were conducted on the complete questionnaire data to compare the job stress factors, psychosocial stress and their associations between research and manufacturing workers. RESULTS: The adjusted Odds ratios comparing the high risk group to the low risk group regarding PWI group were 2.23(95%CI=1.63-3.04) in "Lack of rewards", 1.64(95%CI=1.20-2.24) in "Interpersonal conflict", 1.59(95%CI=1.15- 2.20) in "Organizational injustice", 1.58(95%CI=1.17-2.14) in "Occupational climate" and 1.43(95%CI=1.05-1.94) in "Job insecurity" among research workers, and 2.46(95%CI=1.59 -3.80) in "Lack of rewards" and 1.94(95%CI=1.17-3.22) in "Organizational injustice" among manufacturing workers. CONCLUSIONS: There are differences in job stress factors between research and manufacturing workers. Further studies and discussions based on quantitative methodology for seeking more fundamental causes of these differences are required to establish job stress intervention plans and policies.
Automobiles ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Questionnaires

Eccrine angiomatous hamartoma (EAH) is a benign, uncommon, combined vascular and eccrine malformation. Most cases of this disorder have been single or multiple nodules or plaques that appear red, yellow, blue, violaceous, or skin colored. EAH may be congenital or appear later in childhood; it rarely arises during puberty or adulthood. A 52-year-old female patient visited our department for tender subcutaneous cystic tumor on the right sole with a one month history. Histopathologic examination confirmed EAH. During excisional biopsy procedure, mucinous discharges were observed which were histopathologically diagnosed as ganglion.
Biopsy ; Female ; Foot ; Ganglion Cysts ; Hamartoma ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Mucins ; Puberty ; Skin

BACKGROUND: Projection of future trends in disease burden can facilitate setting of priorities for health policies and resource allocation. We report here projections of disease-specific mortality and the burdens of various diseases in Korea from 2016 to 2030. METHODS: Separate age- and sex-specific projection models for 21 major cause clusters from 2016 to 2030 were developed by applying coherent functional data models based on historical trends from 2002 to 2015. The age- and sex-specific years of life lost (YLL) for each cause cluster were projected based on the projected number of deaths. Years lived with disability (YLD) projections were derived using the 2015 age- and sex-specific YLD to YLL ratio. The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) was the sum of YLL and YLD. RESULTS: The total number of deaths is projected to increase from 275,777 in 2015 to 421,700 in 2030, while the age-standardized death rate is projected to decrease from 586.9 in 2015 to 447.3 in 2030. The largest number of deaths is projected to be a result of neoplasms (75,758 deaths for males; 44,660 deaths for females), followed by cardiovascular and circulatory diseases (34,795 deaths for males; 48,553 deaths for females). The three leading causes of DALYs for both sexes are projected to be chronic respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). CONCLUSION We demonstrate that NCDs will continue to account for the majority of the disease burden in Korea in the future.

Objectives: Public health workers have been at the forefront of treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and managing the pandemic. The redeployment of this workforce has limited or interrupted other public health services, including testing for humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on HIVtesting and diagnosis in the Republic of Korea from 2016 to 2021, comparing data before and after the onset of COVID-19. Methods: Annual HIV testing data were collected from each institution through direct communication or from open-source databases. The annual number of new HIV cases was obtained from the official report of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Data on healthcare visits for HIV diagnosis or treatment were extracted from the open-source database of the National Insurance Health Service of Korea. Interrupted time series regression was conducted, stratified by institution type. Results: In 2020, HIV tests, diagnoses, and visits decreased. Notably, public health centers experienced a substantial reduction in 2020−2021 compared to previous years. The annual percentage change in HIV tests was −53.0%, while for HIV diagnoses, it was −31.6%. The decrease in visits for HIV was also most pronounced for public facilities: −33.3% in 2020 and −45.6% in 2021 relative to 2019. Conclusion The numbers of tests, diagnoses, and healthcare visits for HIV at public healthcenters in the Republic of Korea substantially decreased in 2020 and 2021. The impacts of thesechanges on the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV necessitate further monitoring.

Objectives: Public health workers have been at the forefront of treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and managing the pandemic. The redeployment of this workforce has limited or interrupted other public health services, including testing for humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on HIVtesting and diagnosis in the Republic of Korea from 2016 to 2021, comparing data before and after the onset of COVID-19. Methods: Annual HIV testing data were collected from each institution through direct communication or from open-source databases. The annual number of new HIV cases was obtained from the official report of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Data on healthcare visits for HIV diagnosis or treatment were extracted from the open-source database of the National Insurance Health Service of Korea. Interrupted time series regression was conducted, stratified by institution type. Results: In 2020, HIV tests, diagnoses, and visits decreased. Notably, public health centers experienced a substantial reduction in 2020−2021 compared to previous years. The annual percentage change in HIV tests was −53.0%, while for HIV diagnoses, it was −31.6%. The decrease in visits for HIV was also most pronounced for public facilities: −33.3% in 2020 and −45.6% in 2021 relative to 2019. Conclusion The numbers of tests, diagnoses, and healthcare visits for HIV at public healthcenters in the Republic of Korea substantially decreased in 2020 and 2021. The impacts of thesechanges on the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV necessitate further monitoring.

Objectives: Public health workers have been at the forefront of treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and managing the pandemic. The redeployment of this workforce has limited or interrupted other public health services, including testing for humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on HIVtesting and diagnosis in the Republic of Korea from 2016 to 2021, comparing data before and after the onset of COVID-19. Methods: Annual HIV testing data were collected from each institution through direct communication or from open-source databases. The annual number of new HIV cases was obtained from the official report of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Data on healthcare visits for HIV diagnosis or treatment were extracted from the open-source database of the National Insurance Health Service of Korea. Interrupted time series regression was conducted, stratified by institution type. Results: In 2020, HIV tests, diagnoses, and visits decreased. Notably, public health centers experienced a substantial reduction in 2020−2021 compared to previous years. The annual percentage change in HIV tests was −53.0%, while for HIV diagnoses, it was −31.6%. The decrease in visits for HIV was also most pronounced for public facilities: −33.3% in 2020 and −45.6% in 2021 relative to 2019. Conclusion The numbers of tests, diagnoses, and healthcare visits for HIV at public healthcenters in the Republic of Korea substantially decreased in 2020 and 2021. The impacts of thesechanges on the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV necessitate further monitoring.