The use of semiquantitative food frequency to estimate dietary intake has become widespread in nutritional epidemiologic studies. It had been suggested that knowledge about a person's usual portion size of each meal in addition to consumption frequency will improve the accuracy of this method. This study was performed to investigate the dietary intake status(nutrient, food, and dish intake) and one portion size of commonly consumed food and dishes to develop a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire that will be used to expore the relationship between the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diet in Korean women after menopause. Intake of food or dish in 123 elderly women were measured by 3-day food records in March to May, 1996. The results obtained in this study were summarized as follow : 1) Calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin E intakes were less adequate than Recommended dietary allowances(RDA). 2) The subjects who consumed more than 20% of the energy from fat were 35% and the subjects consumed dietary cholesterol more than 300mg were 18%. 3) The most frequently consumed foods or dishes by the subjects were Korean cabbage kimchi Aged* ; Brassica ; Calcium ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol, Dietary ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diet ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Meals ; Menopause ; Portion Size* ; Soybeans ; Vitamin A ; Vitamin E ; Vitamins ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: To understand causes of abnormal reaction for the urinalysis, we analyze the interfering substances of clinical urine samples. We focused the effect of urinary vitamin C and fluorescein sodium to the urine chemistry especially glucose, hemoglobin, and leukocyte esterase. METHODS: Incidence of urinary vitamin C was determined for patients and people underwent a medical check–up. We decided dipstick results of glucose, hemoglobin, and leukocyte esterase as false negative based on urine sediment and serum glucose results. Dipstick urinalysis was tested by URiSCAN Pro III with URiSCAN 11 strip (YD Diagnostics, Korea). Urine sediments tests were performed by manual microscopic analysis or Sysmex UF–1000i (Sysmex Co., Japan). RESULTS: The incidence of vitamin C was 20.4% for all subjects. The positive rate of the medical check-up group (34.6%) was higher than others. When vitamin C was detected in clinical urine samples, 42.3%, 10.6%, and 8.2% were defined as false negative for glucose, hemoglobin, and leukocyte esterase dipstick tests, respectively. Fluorescein sodium also interfered on the results of hemoglobin and leukocyte esterase of the dipstick reagents. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin C was frequently found in the clinical urine samples, and its incidence was higher in the people who underwent medical check-up. The urinary vitamin C and fluorescein sodium can cause interferences in urine dipstick results. Thus, it is expected that present study will give useful information to predict false negative rates of urine dipstick tests by vitamin C and fluorescein sodium.
Ascorbic Acid ; Blood Glucose ; Chemistry ; Fluorescein ; Glucose ; Humans ; Incidence ; Indicators and Reagents ; Leukocytes ; Urinalysis*

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to explore the differences of general characteristics and nutritional factors such as anthropometry and dietary intake between alcohol-related cirrhosis and virus-related liver cirrhosis and to assess the nutritional status of both of these groups. METHODS: In this study, the nutritional status of 67 patients with liver cirrhosis (25 with alcohol-related and 42 with virus-related) was evaluated by using clinical assessment, anthropometric measurements, dietary intakes, and biochemical indices. RESULTS: Although anthropometric measurements were not significantly different between alcoholic cirrhosis and viral cirrhosis, anthropometry of patients with viral cirrhosis had a higher tendency than that of alcoholic cirrhotic patients. Alcohol intake factors such as amount, duration, and frequency in alcoholic cirrhotic patients were higher than those in patients with viral cirrhosis. Energy excluding alcohol and vitamin C were significantly different between patients with alcoholic and viral cirrhosis. All subjects had lower intake of energy excluding alcohol, protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, and iron as than recommended by the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for Koreans. Of special note was the fact that the intakes of energy excluding alcohol, vitamin A, riboflavin, and calcium were less than 75% of RDA for Koreans. Although the glucose and triglyceride levels were significantly different between alcoholic and viral cirrhotic patients, there were within normal range in both groups. There was an interaction effect in triceps skinfold thickness of the subjects according to both etiology and severity of liver disease. CONCLUSION: These data suggests that nutritional disorders are common in patients with both alcohol-and virus-related cirrhosis. It is necessary to educate patients with cirrhosis about the importance of a balanced dietary intake as well as its pattern, and quality of diet.
Alcoholics ; Anthropometry ; Ascorbic Acid ; Calcium ; Child ; Diet ; Fibrosis ; Glucose ; Humans ; Iron ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic ; Liver Diseases ; Liver* ; Niacin ; Nutrition Disorders ; Nutritional Status* ; Recommended Dietary Allowances ; Reference Values ; Riboflavin ; Skinfold Thickness ; Triglycerides ; Vitamin A

BRAF inhibitors (e.g., vemurafenib) are widely used to treat metastatic melanoma with the BRAF V600E mutation. The initial response is often dramatic, but treatment resistance leads to disease progression in the majority of cases. Although secondary mutations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway are known to be responsible for this phenomenon, the molecular mechanisms governing acquired resistance are not known in more than half of patients. Here we report a genome- and transcriptome-wide study investigating the molecular mechanisms of acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitors. A microfluidic chip with a concentration gradient of vemurafenib was utilized to rapidly obtain therapy-resistant clones from two melanoma cell lines with the BRAF V600E mutation (A375 and SK-MEL-28). Exome and transcriptome data were produced from 13 resistant clones and analyzed to identify secondary mutations and gene expression changes. Various mechanisms, including phenotype switching and metabolic reprogramming, have been determined to contribute to resistance development differently for each clone. The roles of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, the master transcription factor in melanocyte differentiation/dedifferentiation, were highlighted in terms of phenotype switching. Our study provides an omics-based comprehensive overview of the molecular mechanisms governing acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of organizational justice on the relationship between self-efficacy and nursing performance among clinical nurses. Methods: In January 2021, a cross-sectional survey was conducted with 224 clinical nurses recruited from a university-affiliated hospital in Suwon, South Korea. Participants completed online-based, self-report structured questionnaires. Collected data were analyzed using multiple regression and a simple model of PROCESS macro with a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval. Results: Self-efficacy and organizational justice were found to be significant predictors of nursing performance. These two predictors explained the additional 34.8% variance of nursing performance in the hierarchical regression model, after adjusting the other covariates. In addition, organizational justice moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and nursing performance among the clinical nurses. In particular, at low self-efficacy level, participants with high organizational justice had higher nursing performance compared to those with low organizational justice. Conclusion Enhancing organizational justice can be used as an organizational strategy for improving the organizational culture in terms of distribution, procedure, and interaction. Ultimately, these efforts will contribute to the improvement of nursing performance through a synergistic effect on organizational justice beyond nurses’ individual competency and self-efficacy.

PURPOSE: This study was to systematically review the contents and effects of nurse-led transitional care programs for discharged patients from hospital to home. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials published between 2005 and 2015 were searched in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane(Central Register of Controlled Trials) and CINAHL. Data were analyzed using Cochrane Review Manager(Revman) software 5.3. RESULTS: Nine studies were selected and analyzed. Patient assessment, education and discharge planning were included in pre-discharge phase. Referring, communication and care planning were performed by nurses in transition phase. Home and phone visits, monitoring and multidisciplinary advices were included in post-discharge phase. Various outcome measures such as hospital utilization(30 days readmission and emergency department visit), quality of life, and cost were used to identify effectiveness of nurse-led transitional care programs. 30 days readmission(OR=.73, 95% CI 0.54, 0.98; p=.03) and emergency department visit(OR=.67, 95% CI 0.50, 0.88; p=.005) were statistically significant in meta-analysis. However, participant blinding was not done in seven studies which put at the risk of performance bias. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that nurse-led transitional care program is effective in reducing unnecessary hospital utilization. Nevertheless, small sample size and risk at performance bias are the limitation of this study. Thus, we suggest that well-designed randomized controlled trials need to be conducted.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Continuity of Patient Care ; Education ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Patient Discharge ; Quality of Life ; Sample Size ; Transitional Care

Objectives: This study examined the effect of out-of-pocket (OOP) payment reduction on the potential utilization of low-value magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) across income groups. Methods: We conducted an experimental vignette survey using a proportional quota-based sample of individuals in Korea (n=1229). In two hypothetical vignettes, participants were asked whether they would be willing to use MRI if they had uncomplicated headache and non-specific low back pain, each before and after OOP payment reduction. To account for the possible role of physician inducement, half of the participants were initially presented with vignettes that included a physician recommendation for low-value care. The predicted probability, slope index of inequality (SII), and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated using logistic regression. Results: Before OOP payment reduction, the lowest income quintile was least likely to use low-value MRI regardless of physician inducement (36.7-49.6% for low back pain; 30.5-39.3% for headache). After OOP payment reduction, almost all individuals in each income quintile were willing to use low-value MRI (89.8-98.0% for low back pain; 78.1-90.3% for headache). Absolute and relative inequalities concerning potential low-value MRI utilization decreased after OOP payments were reduced, even without physician inducement (SII: from 8.15 to 5.37%, RII: from 1.20 to 1.06 for low back pain; SII: from 6.99 to 0.83%, RII: from 1.20 to 1.01 for headache). Conclusions OOP payment reduction for MRI has the potential to increase low-value care utilization among all income groups while decreasing inequality in low-value care utilization.

BRAF inhibitors (e.g., vemurafenib) are widely used to treat metastatic melanoma with the BRAF V600E mutation. The initial response is often dramatic, but treatment resistance leads to disease progression in the majority of cases. Although secondary mutations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway are known to be responsible for this phenomenon, the molecular mechanisms governing acquired resistance are not known in more than half of patients. Here we report a genome- and transcriptome-wide study investigating the molecular mechanisms of acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitors. A microfluidic chip with a concentration gradient of vemurafenib was utilized to rapidly obtain therapy-resistant clones from two melanoma cell lines with the BRAF V600E mutation (A375 and SK-MEL-28). Exome and transcriptome data were produced from 13 resistant clones and analyzed to identify secondary mutations and gene expression changes. Various mechanisms, including phenotype switching and metabolic reprogramming, have been determined to contribute to resistance development differently for each clone. The roles of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, the master transcription factor in melanocyte differentiation/dedifferentiation, were highlighted in terms of phenotype switching. Our study provides an omics-based comprehensive overview of the molecular mechanisms governing acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy.

PURPOSE: Recently, concern of the college students' mental health has increased due to their continuous psychologic problems such as suicidal attempt. This study aimed to examine the correlation among depression, stress, self-esteem, and coping strategies of the medical students and also according to the academic year. METHODS: The subject was 384 medical students of K medical school in Korea. Self-rating depression scale, stress scale, self-esteem scale was used for the survey, and academic stress and coping strategies of the students were asked. Frequency analysis, one-way ANOVA, t-test, correlation analysis was carried out. RESULTS: Third year students were under most stress (F=5.67, p=0.000) and had the most students who were moderately (22.9%) and mildly depressed (6.3%). Stress form academic studies and grade was also the highest in third year students. For English fluency, freshmen students scored the top. Academic career stress and school culture stress were higher for year 3, 4, 5, 6 than year 1, 2 students. Differences of the coping strategies by academic year was significant in emotional display. Students who showed high level of depression and stress, also students with low self-esteem used emotional display as their major coping strategy. CONCLUSION: Depending on their academic year medical students' level of depression and stress was different, and they did not use a variety of coping strategies. Therefore, a program which can give a diverse access to variety of coping strategies to relieve students' stress should be developed taking their characteristics of academic year into consideration.
Depression ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical

One of the important purposes in population pharmacokinetic studies is to investigate the relationships between parameters and covariates to describe parameter variability. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the model's ability to correctly detect the parameter-covariate relationship that can be observed in phase I clinical trials. Data were simulated from a two-compartment model with zero-order absorption and first-order elimination, which was built from valsartan's concentration data collected from a previously conducted study. With creatinine clearance (CLCR) being used as a covariate to be tested, 3 different significance levels of 0.001 Absorption ; Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic* ; Creatinine ; Dataset ; Healthy Volunteers ; Hope