PURPOSE: Frequent changes in chronic urticaria (CU) activity over time can cause psychological stress, which also serves as a trigger of CU. To measure the control status of CU, the Urticaria Control Test (UCT) was developed in Germany. This study aimed to investigate the validity, reliability and responsiveness to changes in CU for the Korean version of the UCT (K-UCT) and its relation with salivary cortisol and cortisone levels. METHODS: Linguistic adaptation of the UCT into Korean was conducted. A total of 96 CU patients were enrolled, and 80 of them completed the study. The K-UCT and other outcome scores for CU were measured and repeated after 4 weeks of treatment. Control status was classified by physicians into well-controlled, partly-controlled, and uncontrolled CU. Salivary cortisol and cortisone were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Excellent internal consistency and intra-class reliability were obtained. Strong correlations between the K-UCT and disease severity, reflected in the Urticaria Activity Score (UAS)/global assessment of urticaria control by physicians/patient assessment of symptom severity/CU-specific quality of life were noted. K-UCT scores ≥12 were found to be optimal for determining well-controlled CU (sensitivity, 75.0%; specificity, 758%; area under the curve, 0.824). Perceived stress scale scores were significantly correlated with the UAS and the K-UCT. Salivary cortisone levels were significantly correlated with K-UCT (r = 0.308, P = 0.009) and differed significantly according to control status determined by a K-UCT ≥12. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the K-UCT can be a valid instrument with which to gauge CU control status in Korean patients. Further studies are needed to validate salivary cortisone as a biomarker for CU control.
Cortisone* ; Germany ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Korea ; Linguistics ; Mass Spectrometry ; Quality of Life ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Stress, Psychological ; Urticaria*

PURPOSE: In recent years, the importance of patient satisfaction and quality of life—referred to as patient-related outcomes— has been emphasized, in addition to the evaluation of symptoms and severity through questionnaires. However, the questionnaires that can be applied to Korean patients with neurogenic bladder are limited. Therefore, the current study linguistically validated the Intermittent Self-Catheterization Questionnaire (ISC-Q) as an instrument to evaluate the quality of life of Korean patients with neurogenic bladder who regularly perform clean intermittent catheterization (CIC). METHODS: The validation process included permission for translation, forward translations, reconciliation, backward translation, cognitive debriefing, and proofreading. Two bilingual translators independently translated the original version of the ISC-Q into Korean and then combined the initial translations. A third bilingual translator performed a backward translation of the reconciled version into English. Five Korean-speaking patients with neurogenic bladder carried out the cognitive debriefing. RESULTS: During the forward translation process, the 24 questions of the ISC-Q were translated into 2 Korean versions. The terms used in each version were adjusted from the original version to use more conceptually equivalent expressions in Korean. During the backward translation process, several changes were involving substitutions of meaning. In the cognitive debriefing process, 5 patients were asked to complete the questionnaire. All patients agreed that the questionnaire explained their situation well. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a successful linguistic validation of the Korean version of the ISC-Q, which could be a useful tool for evaluating treatment satisfaction in patients with neurogenic bladder performing CIC regularly.
Catheterization ; Catheters ; Humans ; Intermittent Urethral Catheterization ; Linguistics ; Patient Satisfaction ; Quality of Life ; Translations ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic ; Urination

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pediatric vocal health problems are relatively common. However, it is not yet well studied whether uniform diagnosis and treatment is done properly in South Korea. The purpose of this study was to investigate the methods that the Korean speech therapists use to diagnose and treat pediatric voice problem. MATERIALS AND METHOD: An anonymous online questionnaire was administered to 32 speech language therapists registered at the Korean laryngeal speech linguistics society detailing demographics, employment institution, general management of pediatric patients with vocal problem including assessment and treatment procedures. RESULTS: Current practice patterns were analyzed on 32 speech language therapists providing services in South Korea mostly working at tertiary university hospital. One third of pediatric patients were assessed without proceeding to treatment. One fifth of patients were treated without assessment. Perceptual assessment was the main pre-treatment assessment methods used. Treatment was done in the following order : Voice rest, SOVT, yawn-sigh and resonant voice. Post-treatment evaluation was used in the following order : Instrumental assessment, clinical judgment, and recording comparison. CONCLUSION: Speech language therapists practice in South Korea mostly follows the ASHA practice guidelines. However, there are still great amount of cases in which only the evaluation was done without appropriate treatment. Further research is needed to make SPLs more systematic and efficient for evaluating and treating pediatric vocal patients.
Anonyms and Pseudonyms ; Clothing ; Demography ; Diagnosis ; Employment ; Humans ; Judgment ; Korea ; Linguistics ; Methods ; Voice

PURPOSE: Malnutrition and a loss of muscle mass are frequent in cancer patients and have a negative effect on clinical outcome. Nutrition risk screening aims to increase awareness and allow early recognition and treatment of cancer cachexia. Therefore, screenings should be brief, inexpensive, highly sensitive, and have good specificity. Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) is a simple screening tool including four questions, and validated to predict weight loss within 6 months in community-dwelling adults and nursing home residents. Our study aimed to translate the SNAQ into Korean, and to assess the validity and reliability of the translated screening tool in advanced cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SNAQ was translated into Korean according to linguistic validation. The internal consistency of the SNAQ was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Concurrent validity was evaluated by measuring the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the SNAQ and Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). RESULTS: In the 194 patients included in full analysis set, cancer stage was predominantly metastatic (98.5%), the mean age was 60 years (range, 23 to 81 years), and the mean body mass index was 24 kg/m² (range, 15.6 to 39.6 kg/m²). According to MNA score ≤ 11, 57 patients (29.4%) were malnourished. The mean score (±standard deviation) of the Korean version of the SNAQ was 13.8±2.5 with a range of 6-19. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.737, and intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.869. The SNAQ was moderately correlated with MNA (r=0.404, p < 0.001) and PG-SGA (r=–0.530, p < 0.001). A significant weight loss of > 5% of the original bodyweightwithin 6 months occurred in 46 of the 186 patients (24.7%). SNAQ score ≤ 14 predicted > 5% weight loss with a sensitivity of 56.5% and a specificity of 44.3%. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of the SNAQ had high validity and reliability. SNAQ is useful for the screening tool for advanced cancer patients. The SNAQ had a limitation to predict impending weight loss in advanced cancer patients.
Adult ; Appetite ; Body Mass Index ; Cachexia ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Longitudinal Studies ; Malnutrition ; Mass Screening ; Nursing Homes ; Nutrition Assessment ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Weight Loss

In this paper, we investigate cross-platform interoperability for natural language processing (NLP) and, in particular, annotation of textual resources, with an eye toward identifying the design elements of annotation models and processes that are particularly problematic for, or amenable to, enabling seamless communication across different platforms. The study is conducted in the context of a specific annotation methodology, namely machine-assisted interactive annotation (also known as human-in-the-loop annotation). This methodology requires the ability to freely combine resources from different document repositories, access a wide array of NLP tools that automatically annotate corpora for various linguistic phenomena, and use a sophisticated annotation editor that enables interactive manual annotation coupled with on-the-fly machine learning. We consider three independently developed platforms, each of which utilizes a different model for representing annotations over text, and each of which performs a different role in the process.
Linguistics ; Machine Learning ; Natural Language Processing

PURPOSE: The prevalence of dementia has increased rapidly with an aging Korean population. Compared to those without dementia, individuals with dementia have more and complex needs. In this study, the Korean version of the Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE-K) was evaluated to determine its suitability for individuals with dementia in Korea. METHODS: The CANE-K was developed following linguistic validation. The reliability of the measurement was examined with Cronbach α coefficient. The factor structure and construct validity were evaluated by performing exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses. Pearson's correlation coefficients with related measures were used to ensure concurrent validity. RESULTS: Four factors extracted with exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses validated the model structure (χ² = 367.25, p < .001, goodness-of-fit index = .84, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = .80, root mean square error of approximation = .07, and comparative fit index = .83). Items on the CANE-K loaded on the four factors in a range between .40 and .80. The output of Pearson's correlation coefficient with cognitive impairment, behavioral problems, activities of daily living, and caregiver burden showed acceptable concurrent validity. CONCLUSION: The CANE-K showed a reasonable degree of reliability and validity. Therefore, it has good potential to appropriately measure the needs and unmet needs of those with dementia.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged* ; Aging ; Caregivers ; Cognition Disorders ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Korea ; Linguistics ; Needs Assessment ; Patient-Centered Care ; Prevalence ; Problem Behavior ; Psychometrics* ; Reproducibility of Results

This review mainly focuses on the academy and research group published on childhood asthma and aims to investigate the impact of Korean study results in this field. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaires have shown that the prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing worldwide. The ISAAC, which Korea joined in 1995, has enabled us to compare prevalence between countries. Korea has participated in three ISAAC surveys: 3 nationwide surveys in 1995, 2000, and 2010. The 12-month prevalence of asthma symptoms from the questionnaires was 4.9%–10.1% for children aged 6–7 years. In Korea, ISAAC surveys demonstrated that risk factors for asthma are obesity, secondhand smoking, diet patterns, raising pets, fever in infancy, and the use of antibiotics. However, because these were large-scale but cross-sectional studies, prospective cohort studies on growth patterns from prenatal through postnatal periods are needed to elucidate accurate risk factors. In 2016, 2 research groups were united to Korea childhood Asthma RESearch (KARES). Several studies were published from KARES. We reported prevalence of each asthma severity category and the controller prescription patterns according to asthma severity assessed by a Western (Global Initiative for Asthma) and an Asia-Pacific (Japanese Pediatric GuideLine) guideline were evaluated. And we translate the Test for Respiratory and Asthma Control in Kids instrument into Korean, with subsequent linguistic validation. The role of the Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease will be important for the prevent the child and adolescent asthma through the various Korean child data made.
Adolescent ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Asthma* ; Child ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diet ; Fever ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Korea* ; Linguistics ; Obesity ; Prescriptions ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution

Genomics & Informatics (NLM title abbreviation: Genomics Inform) is the official journal of the Korea Genome Organization. Text corpus for this journal annotated with various levels of linguistic information would be a valuable resource as the process of information extraction requires syntactic, semantic, and higher levels of natural language processing. In this study, we publish our new corpus called GNI Corpus version 1.0, extracted and annotated from full texts of Genomics & Informatics, with NLTK (Natural Language ToolKit)-based text mining script. The preliminary version of the corpus could be used as a training and testing set of a system that serves a variety of functions for future biomedical text mining.
Data Mining ; Genome ; Genomics* ; Informatics* ; Information Storage and Retrieval* ; Korea ; Linguistics ; Natural Language Processing ; Semantics

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the consumption of Han-sik and its association with the years of residence in Korea and the socioeconomic status among Filipino immigrant women of the Filipino Women's Diet and Health Study (FiLWHEL). METHODS: A total of 474 Filipino women married to Korean men were included in the analysis. Their dietary intake was assessed using a single-day 24-hour recall. The participants provided information on the demographics, socioeconomic, and health-related factors through face-to-face interviews. The generalized linear model and logistic regression model were used to examine the association between the socioeconomic status and consumption of Han-sik. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 34.3 years old, and the average duration of residence in Korea was 8.2 years. Among 474 Filipino women, a total of 467 consumed Han-sik, with an average of 6.8 food items per day. The Han-sik foods that the participants consumed most frequently were rice, cabbage kimchi, mixed-grain rice, and fried eggs. The average ratio of Han-sik was 58.57%. The ratio of Han-sik showed no significant associations with the years of residence, years of living together with their husband, education levels, total annual family income, or linguistic competence of Korean. However, the ratio of Han-sik use was associated with cohabitation with parents-in-law; the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 2.41 (1.18–4.92, p-trend = 0.002) comparing the fourth quartile with the first quartile of the Han-sik ratio. CONCLUSIONS: Filipino immigrant women in the FiLWHEL study consumed a larger number of Han-sik than Philippine foods. In addition, cohabitation with their parents-in-law was associated with the consumption of Han-sik. Further epidemiologic studies will be needed to determine how the diet affects the health and wellbeing of immigrant women in Korea.
Brassica ; Demography ; Diet ; Education ; Eggs ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Linear Models ; Linguistics ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Mental Competency ; Odds Ratio ; Ovum ; Social Class ; Spouses

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the consumption of Han-sik and its association with the years of residence in Korea and the socioeconomic status among Filipino immigrant women of the Filipino Women's Diet and Health Study (FiLWHEL). METHODS: A total of 474 Filipino women married to Korean men were included in the analysis. Their dietary intake was assessed using a single-day 24-hour recall. The participants provided information on the demographics, socioeconomic, and health-related factors through face-to-face interviews. The generalized linear model and logistic regression model were used to examine the association between the socioeconomic status and consumption of Han-sik. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 34.3 years old, and the average duration of residence in Korea was 8.2 years. Among 474 Filipino women, a total of 467 consumed Han-sik, with an average of 6.8 food items per day. The Han-sik foods that the participants consumed most frequently were rice, cabbage kimchi, mixed-grain rice, and fried eggs. The average ratio of Han-sik was 58.57%. The ratio of Han-sik showed no significant associations with the years of residence, years of living together with their husband, education levels, total annual family income, or linguistic competence of Korean. However, the ratio of Han-sik use was associated with cohabitation with parents-in-law; the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 2.41 (1.18–4.92, p-trend = 0.002) comparing the fourth quartile with the first quartile of the Han-sik ratio. CONCLUSIONS: Filipino immigrant women in the FiLWHEL study consumed a larger number of Han-sik than Philippine foods. In addition, cohabitation with their parents-in-law was associated with the consumption of Han-sik. Further epidemiologic studies will be needed to determine how the diet affects the health and wellbeing of immigrant women in Korea.
Brassica ; Demography ; Diet ; Education ; Eggs ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Linear Models ; Linguistics ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Mental Competency ; Odds Ratio ; Ovum ; Social Class ; Spouses