PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of medical staffing level as bed-to-medical staff ratio on patient outcomes as length of stay (LOS) among hospitals in Korea. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty one hospitals participated in the study between January and March 2008. Data for the study was requested by an electronic data interchange from the Health Insurance Review Agency in 2008. In data analysis, SPSS WIN 15.0 program was utilized for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. RESULTS: The mean score for length of stay was 13.6 days. The mean of operating bed-to-nurse ratio was 7.93:1. The predicting factors for LOS were bed-to-nurse's aide ratio, bed-to doctor's ratio, severely ill patient rate, and hospital type. These factors explained 28.9% of the variance in patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study results indicate that the relationship between medical staffing level and patient outcomes is important in the improvement of the quality of patient care. Thus, improvements in the quality of the nurse practice environment could improve patient outcomes for hospitalized patients.
Electronics ; Electrons ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Length of Stay ; Patient Care ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the effects of solution-focused group counseling on the general stress, stress response and coping in the delinquent juveniles. METHOD: The subjects consisted of a convenience samlple of 60 delinquent juveniles who had been placed under probation in Kwang-ju, and recruited from Oct., 2000 to Dec., 2000. Solution-focused group counseling was conducted for the experimental group once a week for 120 to 180 minutes for 6 week. The control group received no group session. For both groups the level of general stress, stress response and coping were measured before and after the experiment. RESULT: General stress significantly decreased in the experimental group and increased in the control group, but showed no significant difference between the two groups. Stress response decreased significantly in the experimental group and increased in the control group, but showed no significant difference between the two groups. The problem-focused coping significantly increased in the experimental group and decreased in the control group, and showed a significant difference between the two groups. The emotion-focused coping significantly decreased in the experimental group and increased in the control group, and showed no significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: This study showed that solution-focused group-counselling has a positive effect on variables like the general stress, stress response, emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Further study needs to be conducted to verify results.

BACKGROUND: Although adult immunization is as important as childhood immunization, is being inadequately performed. However, previous studies concerning adult immunization could not be sufficiently evaluate because studies were restricted to the residents in rural area or those who have visited a doctor. METHOD: We conducted a study by telephone interview which included 201 household(375 adult family members) selected by systematic sampling from the yellow pages of Kangnam-gu and Sungbuk-gu districts of Seoul. The types of immunization covered in this study were immunizations against hepatitis B, influenza, pneumococcus, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS). Immunization status of all adult household members, cognition of the feed for immunization and of interviewees were surveyed. Sex, age, area of residency, education medical history of study subjects were considered as factors related to the cognition of the need for immunization and immunization performance. RESULT: The cognition rates of immunization were as follows: hepatitis B 85.1%, influenza 45.8% pneumonra 38.3%, and HFRS 38.3%. In the people over 65 years old, the cognition rate against influenza and pneumococeus were 6.25%, 6.25% respectively and for those she have chronic disease.80.0%, 20.0%, respectively. The cognition rates of immunization was significantly higher among those subject who were young, well educated, and those residing in Kangnam-gu district. The immunization performance rate of hepatitis B was 6.5%, influenza 5.6%, pneumonia 0.8%, and HFRS 1.1%. 75.5% of subjects vaccinated against hepatitis B had received at least three titles. The immunization performance rate of influenza and pneumococcus by the immunization indication are as follows 8.0%, 0.0%, respectively in the subjects over 65 years old, and 11.1%, 0.0,% respectively in the people who have chronic disease. The immunization performance rate of hepatitis B was higher among young, well educated subjects living in Kangnam-gu district. But age, education, area of residency played no apparent role in the case of other types of immunization. The immunization performance rate of those who felt the need for immunization as significant1y higher then that of those who did not. To assess the factors which re]ate to the correct cognition for immunization necessity, we used a multiple logistic regression test. For all types of immunization surveyed, sex(femals) and age (young) seemed to be significantly related to the correct necessity cognition. Medical history of chronic disease was also related to the correct necessity cognition for immunization against hepatitis B and influenza. CONCLUSION: This study reveals that among living in urban area the immunization performance rate and the correct cognition rate concerning the necessity for adult immunization was generally very low. Therefore, an active publicity and pubic education will be needed to increase the level of correct necessity cognition for immunization in which the disease status, sex, and age of vaccinee are considered. And more active effort to increase the cognition for immunization necessity performance is required.
Adult* ; Aged ; Chronic Disease ; Cognition* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Fever ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Hepatitis B ; Humans ; Immunization* ; Influenza, Human ; Internship and Residency ; Interviews as Topic ; Logistic Models ; Pneumonia ; Seoul ; Streptococcus pneumoniae

PURPOSE: This study analyzed iodine intake by establishing an iodine database of general Korean foods eaten by Korean adults based on the data from the 1998 ~ 2014 KNHANES (Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). METHODS: Data on 56,818 subjects aged 19 years and older were obtained from health behavior interviews and a 24-hour dietary recall survey. Iodine intake of subjects was analyzed according to general characteristics, dietary lifestyle, food groups, and cooking method. RESULTS: An iodine database was established for 312 food items. The mean iodine intake of Korean adults decreased from 641.6 μg in 1998 to 236.2 μg in 2014 per day. Iodine intake of women was higher than that of men. For age distribution, those aged 30 ~ 49 years constituted more than 39 ~ 46% of subjects by survey year. Regarding iodine intake according to dietary lifestyle, the highest iodine intake was 29.4 ~ 34.4% for lunch while that of breakfast decreased. The highest iodine contribution by food group was seaweed such as kelp, sea mustard, and laver. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that iodine intake of Korean adults has been decreasing, and iodine intake is associated with the prevalence of thyroid disease. This study provides basic data for the estimation of iodine intake in Korean adults.
Adult* ; Age Distribution ; Breakfast ; Cooking ; Female ; Functional Food ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Iodine* ; Kelp ; Korea* ; Life Style ; Lunch ; Male ; Methods ; Mustard Plant ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Prevalence ; Seaweed ; Thyroid Diseases

Background: To propose a deep learning architecture for automatically detecting the complex structure of the aortic annulus plane using cardiac computed tomography (CT) for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients who underwent TAVR between January 2017 and July 2020 at a tertiary medical center. Annulus Detection Permuted AdaIN network (ADPANet) based on a three-dimensional (3D) U-net architecture was developed to detect and localize the aortic annulus plane using cardiac CT. Patients (N = 72) who underwent TAVR between January 2017 and July 2020 at a tertiary medical center were enrolled. Ground truth using a limited dataset was delineated manually by three cardiac radiologists. Training, tuning, and testing sets (70:10:20) were used to build the deep learning model. The performance of ADPANet for detecting the aortic annulus plane was analyzed using the root mean square error (RMSE) and dice similarity coefficient (DSC). Results: In this study, the total dataset consisted of 72 selected scans from patients who underwent TAVR. The RMSE and DSC values for the aortic annulus plane using ADPANet were 55.078 ± 35.794 and 0.496 ± 0.217, respectively. Conclusion Our deep learning framework was feasible to detect the 3D complex structure of the aortic annulus plane using cardiac CT for TAVR. The performance of our algorithms was higher than other convolutional neural networks.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this prospective case-control study was to survey the detection rate of respiratory viruses in children with Kawasaki disease (KD) by using multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and to investigate the clinical implications of the prevalence of respiratory viruses during the acute phase of KD. METHODS: RT-PCR assays were carried out to screen for the presence of respiratory syncytial virus A and B, adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza viruses 1 to 4, influenza virus A and B, metapneumovirus, bocavirus, coronavirus OC43/229E and NL63, and enterovirus in nasopharyngeal secretions of 55 KD patients and 78 control subjects. RESULTS: Virus detection rates in KD patients and control subjects were 32.7% and 30.8%, respectively (P=0.811). However, there was no significant association between the presence of any of the 15 viruses and the incidence of KD. Comparisons between the 18 patients with positive RT-PCR results and the other 37 KD patients revealed no significant differences in terms of clinical findings (including the prevalence of incomplete presentation of the disease) and coronary artery diameter. CONCLUSION: A positive RT-PCR for currently epidemic respiratory viruses should not be used as an evidence against the diagnosis of KD. These viruses were not associated with the incomplete presentation of KD and coronary artery dilatation.
Adenoviridae ; Bocavirus ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Coronary Aneurysm ; Coronary Vessels ; Coronavirus ; Dilatation ; Enterovirus ; Humans ; Incidence ; Metapneumovirus ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Paramyxoviridae Infections ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Rhinovirus ; Viruses

Influenza is a global public health problem causing considerable morbidity and mortality. Although vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infection, vaccination coverage is insufficient in people with chronic disease under 65 years, especially diabetes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate influenza vaccination coverage and identify factors associated with influenza vaccination in Korean diabetic adults under 65 years.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to conceptualize and clarify a concept of "preparatory grief" in terminal cancer patients. METHOD: A hybrid model of concept development was applied to develop a concept of preparatory grief, which included a field study carried out in Busan, Korea. Participants of this study were 8 cancer patients. RESULTS: On the basis of our literature, research and clinical experience, the concept of preparatory grief emerged as a complex phenomenon playing an important role in five areas; physical, emotional, interpersonal, religious, and transcendental dimensions. Two new attributes were defined through a field phase; trust of the post-mortal world and a serene state of mind. Indicators reflected attitudes of sadness, worry, regret, capability to adapt and hope. The results of preparatory grief were loss of energy and interest, emotional chaos, contemplation, taciturnity and restoration. CONCLUSIONS: Differentiating among preparatory grief and other symptoms in cancer patients is essential because of therapeutic implications. Understanding preparatory grief is necessary in order to manage cancer patients for promoting quality of life so that its application may have a positive impact on the patient's life.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Aged ; *Concept Formation ; Counseling/*methods ; Female ; *Grief ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplasms/nursing/*psychology ; Quality of Life ; *Terminal Care

The incidence of a primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma in western countries is about 1% of all the intracranial tumors and has increased 2.2% over the last decade. A similar pattern of increased frequency is observed in Korea. Although most CNS lymphomas in western countries are high grade tumors carrying poor prognosis, the clinicopathologic features of the Korean CNS lymphoma have not been well studied. We report clinicopathological features of 18 cases of histologically proven primary brain lymphoma. The mean age of the patients was 50 years and there was no sex difference. The clinical and radiological characteristics included multiple site of occurrence, infrequent extracranial spread, and frequent seeding via cerebrospinal fluid. No patients were immune-compromised host. Of 18 cases, 15 cases were of B-lineage and 2 cases were of T-lineage. According to REAL classification, there were 12 cases of diffuse large B cell lymphoma, two cases of B cell lymphomas of small lymphoid cell, and two cases of peripheral T cell lymphoma, unspecified. The remaining subtypes were not subclassified because of inadequate material. Pleomorphic cytologic features and necrosis of varying extent were frequent in the cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These results suggest that overall clinicopathologic features of primary malignant lymphomas of the central nervous system in Korea are similar to those of western countries.
Brain ; Central Nervous System* ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Classification ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphoma* ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral ; Necrosis ; Prognosis ; Sex Characteristics

Malignant epithelial neoplasm usually occurs in postmenopausal women, with less than 10% of cases occurring in women under the age of 20. In patients below this age, the majority of ovarian tumors are of germ cell origin and malignant ovarian epithelial tumors are uncommon. We report US & CT imaging in a case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma in a 17-year-old nullipara who complained of amenorrhea for 45 days and a palpable mass.
Adolescent* ; Amenorrhea ; Carcinoma ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Mucinous* ; Female* ; Germ Cells ; Humans ; Mucins*