Background: Adolescent unintended pregnancies can have detrimental effects on maternal and fetal health, impacting the social lives of young parents. Globally, there is an emphasis on preventing unintended pregnancies in adolescents through comprehensive contraceptive education. This study examined contraception practices and determinants among sexually active Korean adolescents. Methods: This study analyzed raw data from the 2018 and 2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The cohort consisted of 6,042 adolescents who reported sexual experience, categorized into those always practicing contraception and those not. We scrutinized factors related to sexual behavior, such as contraception and sex education, as well as other social and behavioral factors. Results: Among sexually active adolescents, 47.9% of males and 48.1% of females consistently used contraception. The most prevalent contraceptive method was condoms (male 58.1%; female 59.6%). However, a significant portion of adolescents were not using contraception (male 29.4%; female 21.7%). Females who did not consistently use contraception exhibited higher pregnancy rates (2.4% vs. 11.3%). Consistent contraceptive users tended to live with their families and reported less sexual experience after drinking alcohol. Despite a decline in sexual education in schools from 2018 to 2021, the proportion of adolescents consistently using contraception increased. Conclusion To prevent unintended pregnancies among sexually active adolescents, consistent use of appropriate contraceptive methods is crucial.Comprehensive education on contraception should be extended beyond schools to include homes and primary healthcare settings. Policymakers and healthcare providers should consider these consequences when devising strategies to reduce unintended pregnancies among adolescents.

Background: Adolescent unintended pregnancies can have detrimental effects on maternal and fetal health, impacting the social lives of young parents. Globally, there is an emphasis on preventing unintended pregnancies in adolescents through comprehensive contraceptive education. This study examined contraception practices and determinants among sexually active Korean adolescents. Methods: This study analyzed raw data from the 2018 and 2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The cohort consisted of 6,042 adolescents who reported sexual experience, categorized into those always practicing contraception and those not. We scrutinized factors related to sexual behavior, such as contraception and sex education, as well as other social and behavioral factors. Results: Among sexually active adolescents, 47.9% of males and 48.1% of females consistently used contraception. The most prevalent contraceptive method was condoms (male 58.1%; female 59.6%). However, a significant portion of adolescents were not using contraception (male 29.4%; female 21.7%). Females who did not consistently use contraception exhibited higher pregnancy rates (2.4% vs. 11.3%). Consistent contraceptive users tended to live with their families and reported less sexual experience after drinking alcohol. Despite a decline in sexual education in schools from 2018 to 2021, the proportion of adolescents consistently using contraception increased. Conclusion To prevent unintended pregnancies among sexually active adolescents, consistent use of appropriate contraceptive methods is crucial.Comprehensive education on contraception should be extended beyond schools to include homes and primary healthcare settings. Policymakers and healthcare providers should consider these consequences when devising strategies to reduce unintended pregnancies among adolescents.

Background: Adolescent unintended pregnancies can have detrimental effects on maternal and fetal health, impacting the social lives of young parents. Globally, there is an emphasis on preventing unintended pregnancies in adolescents through comprehensive contraceptive education. This study examined contraception practices and determinants among sexually active Korean adolescents. Methods: This study analyzed raw data from the 2018 and 2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The cohort consisted of 6,042 adolescents who reported sexual experience, categorized into those always practicing contraception and those not. We scrutinized factors related to sexual behavior, such as contraception and sex education, as well as other social and behavioral factors. Results: Among sexually active adolescents, 47.9% of males and 48.1% of females consistently used contraception. The most prevalent contraceptive method was condoms (male 58.1%; female 59.6%). However, a significant portion of adolescents were not using contraception (male 29.4%; female 21.7%). Females who did not consistently use contraception exhibited higher pregnancy rates (2.4% vs. 11.3%). Consistent contraceptive users tended to live with their families and reported less sexual experience after drinking alcohol. Despite a decline in sexual education in schools from 2018 to 2021, the proportion of adolescents consistently using contraception increased. Conclusion To prevent unintended pregnancies among sexually active adolescents, consistent use of appropriate contraceptive methods is crucial.Comprehensive education on contraception should be extended beyond schools to include homes and primary healthcare settings. Policymakers and healthcare providers should consider these consequences when devising strategies to reduce unintended pregnancies among adolescents.

Background: Adolescent unintended pregnancies can have detrimental effects on maternal and fetal health, impacting the social lives of young parents. Globally, there is an emphasis on preventing unintended pregnancies in adolescents through comprehensive contraceptive education. This study examined contraception practices and determinants among sexually active Korean adolescents. Methods: This study analyzed raw data from the 2018 and 2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The cohort consisted of 6,042 adolescents who reported sexual experience, categorized into those always practicing contraception and those not. We scrutinized factors related to sexual behavior, such as contraception and sex education, as well as other social and behavioral factors. Results: Among sexually active adolescents, 47.9% of males and 48.1% of females consistently used contraception. The most prevalent contraceptive method was condoms (male 58.1%; female 59.6%). However, a significant portion of adolescents were not using contraception (male 29.4%; female 21.7%). Females who did not consistently use contraception exhibited higher pregnancy rates (2.4% vs. 11.3%). Consistent contraceptive users tended to live with their families and reported less sexual experience after drinking alcohol. Despite a decline in sexual education in schools from 2018 to 2021, the proportion of adolescents consistently using contraception increased. Conclusion To prevent unintended pregnancies among sexually active adolescents, consistent use of appropriate contraceptive methods is crucial.Comprehensive education on contraception should be extended beyond schools to include homes and primary healthcare settings. Policymakers and healthcare providers should consider these consequences when devising strategies to reduce unintended pregnancies among adolescents.

The objective of this study was to investigate factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke. The subjects of this study consisted of patients who participated in a large-scale multi-objective cohort study of initial stage stroke patients who were admitted to 9 representative hospitals in Korea. We analyzed the distribution of the subjects who had experienced stroke a year earlier by distinguishing the group who returned home and the other group that was hospitalized in rehabilitation hospitals. Based on this distribution, we evaluated the demographic, environmental, clinical, and psychological factors that can affect the return home. Overall, there were 464 subjects in the ‘Return home’ group and 99 subjects in the ‘Rehabilitation hospitalization’ group. job status, inconvenient housing structures, residential types, diagnosis, Functional Ambulation Categories, modified Rankin Scale, Korea-Modified Barthel Index, Function Independence Measure, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination, Korean version of Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form, Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, EuroQol-five Dimensional showed a significant difference between the 2 groups one year after the stroke. The factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke include functional status, activities of daily living, cognition, depression, stress, quality of life, job status. It is expected that factors affecting the rehabilitation of patients with stroke can be considered as basic data for establishing rehabilitation goals and treatment plans.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aphasia ; Cognition ; Cohort Studies ; Depression ; Diagnosis ; Housing ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Patient Discharge ; Psychology ; Quality of Life ; Rehabilitation ; Stroke ; Walking

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the technical performance of ElastQ Imaging compared with ElastPQ and to investigate the correlation between liver stiffness (LS) values obtained using these two techniques. Methods: This retrospective study included 249 patients who underwent LS measurements using both ElastPQ and ElastQ Imaging equipped on the same machine. The applicability, repeatability (coefficient of variation [CV]), acquisition time, and LS values were compared using the chi-square or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. In the development group, the correlation between the LS values obtained by the two techniques was assessed with Spearman correlation coefficients and linear regression analysis. In the validation group, the agreement between the estimated and real LS values was evaluated using a Bland-Altman plot. Results: ElastQ Imaging had higher applicability (94.0% vs. 78.3%, P<0.001) and higher repeatability, with a lower median CV (0.127 vs. 0.164, P<0.001) than did ElastPQ. The median acquisition time of ElastQ Imaging was significantly shorter than that of ElastPQ (45.5 seconds vs. 96.5 seconds, P<0.001). The median LS value obtained using ElastQ Imaging was significantly higher than that obtained using ElastPQ (5.60 kPa vs. 5.23 kPa, P<0.001). The LS values between the two techniques exhibited a strong positive correlation (r=0.851, P<0.001) in the development group. The mean difference and 95% limits of agreement were 0.0 kPa (-3.9 to 3.9 kPa) in the validation group. Conclusion ElastQ Imaging may be more reliable and faster than ElastPQ, with strongly correlated LS measurements.

The objective of this study was to investigate factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke. The subjects of this study consisted of patients who participated in a large-scale multi-objective cohort study of initial stage stroke patients who were admitted to 9 representative hospitals in Korea. We analyzed the distribution of the subjects who had experienced stroke a year earlier by distinguishing the group who returned home and the other group that was hospitalized in rehabilitation hospitals. Based on this distribution, we evaluated the demographic, environmental, clinical, and psychological factors that can affect the return home. Overall, there were 464 subjects in the ‘Return home’ group and 99 subjects in the ‘Rehabilitation hospitalization’ group. job status, inconvenient housing structures, residential types, diagnosis, Functional Ambulation Categories, modified Rankin Scale, Korea-Modified Barthel Index, Function Independence Measure, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination, Korean version of Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form, Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, EuroQol-five Dimensional showed a significant difference between the 2 groups one year after the stroke. The factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke include functional status, activities of daily living, cognition, depression, stress, quality of life, job status. It is expected that factors affecting the rehabilitation of patients with stroke can be considered as basic data for establishing rehabilitation goals and treatment plans.

The objective of this study was to investigate factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke. The subjects of this study consisted of patients who participated in a large-scale multi-objective cohort study of initial stage stroke patients who were admitted to 9 representative hospitals in Korea. We analyzed the distribution of the subjects who had experienced stroke a year earlier by distinguishing the group who returned home and the other group that was hospitalized in rehabilitation hospitals. Based on this distribution, we evaluated the demographic, environmental, clinical, and psychological factors that can affect the return home. Overall, there were 464 subjects in the ‘Return home’ group and 99 subjects in the ‘Rehabilitation hospitalization’ group. job status, inconvenient housing structures, residential types, diagnosis, Functional Ambulation Categories, modified Rankin Scale, Korea-Modified Barthel Index, Function Independence Measure, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination, Korean version of Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form, Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, EuroQol-five Dimensional showed a significant difference between the 2 groups one year after the stroke. The factors affecting the return home one year after a stroke include functional status, activities of daily living, cognition, depression, stress, quality of life, job status. It is expected that factors affecting the rehabilitation of patients with stroke can be considered as basic data for establishing rehabilitation goals and treatment plans.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the concordant or discordant genomic profiling between primary and matched metastatic tumors in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and to explore the clinical implication. Materials and Methods: Surgical samples of primary and matched metastatic tissues from 158 patients (335 samples) with CRC at Korea University Anam Hospital were evaluated using the Ion AmpliSeq Cancer Hotspot Panel. We compared genetic variants and classified them as concordant, primary-specific, and metastasis-specific variants. We used a combination of principal components analysis and clustering to find genomic groups. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to appraise survival between genomic groups. We used machine learning to confirm the correlation between genetic variants and metastatic sites. Results: A total of 282 types of deleterious non-synonymous variants were selected for analysis. Of a total of 897 variants, an average of 40% was discordant. Three genomic groups were yielded based on the genomic discrepancy patterns. Overall survival differed significantly between the genomic groups. The poorest group had the highest proportion of concordant KRAS G12V and additional metastasis-specific SMAD4. Correlation analysis between genetic variants and metastatic sites suggested that concordant KRAS mutations would have more disseminated metastases. Conclusion Driver gene mutations were mostly concordant; however, discordant or metastasis-specific mutations were present. Clinically, the concordant driver genetic changes with additional metastasis-specific variants can predict poor prognosis for patients with CRC.