Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives最新文献

Background: No study has yet analyzed risk factors to determine whether students with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections may affect students at neighboring schools. Therefore, this study aimed to determine risk factors for COVID-19 transmission among schools within a community in the Republic of Korea.

Methods: An epidemiological investigation was conducted among 696 students and school staff members at 3 schools where COVID-19 clusters began on October 15, 2021. Interviews, visit history surveys, a facility risk assessment, and closed-circuit television were used to identify risk factors. The statistical significance of risk factors was also evaluated.

Results: We confirmed 129 cases (18.5%) among the individuals exposed to COVID-19 at the 3 schools, many of whom had a history of visiting the same multi-use facilities. The odds ratio of having visited multi-use facilities such as karaoke rooms was 1.90 (95% confidence interval, 1.03-3.50); the number of visits to a karaoke room and the visit durations were significantly higher among confirmed cases than non-confirmed cases (p=0.02 and p=0.03, respectively).

Conclusion: Having a history of visiting karaoke rooms often and spending a long time there were risk factors for COVID-19 infection and inter-school transmission. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the status of multi-use facilities frequently visited by adolescents and consider incorporating them into the scope of school quarantine to prevent infectious diseases at schools in a community.

Background: 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 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on HIV testing 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 health centers in the Republic of Korea substantially decreased in 2020 and 2021. The impacts of these changes on the early diagnosis and treatment of HIV necessitate further monitoring.

Background: This study compared the research output of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to understand research trends and clarify past, present, and future patterns using scientometric techniques.

Methods: This scientometric study systematically mined health and social science publications from the Web of Science and Scopus databases using keywords associated with infectious disease. The analysis included only English-language articles and review articles by authors from any ASEAN country. Publication, citation, and text co-occurrence network analyses were performed. R Studio and VOSviewer enabled data management, analysis, and visualization.

Results: Searches identified 12,511 articles published between 1925 and 2022, with a notable increase in research publications since 2003. The leading journals on infectious disease were associated with established publishing houses, including BMC, BMJ, and The Lancet. The most-cited articles were primarily global burden of disease studies, with 7,367 citations. Among ASEAN countries, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore had the most publications and collaborative efforts on the topic. Analysis of keyword co-occurrence revealed clusters related to global health, dengue, bacterial studies, non-dengue viral topics, and diagnostics. Most early studies examined diagnostics, gene and sequencing methodologies, and virology; later, the focus shifted toward herbal and alternative medicine.

Conclusion: Recently, the research capacity of Southeast Asia has expanded dramatically, with substantial contributions from high-income countries. Intense cooperation between member states is essential, emphasizing the role of HICs in supporting their neighbors. Increased research efforts and collaboration must be dedicated to innovative approaches to combat persistent health conditions, along with emerging issues like climate change.

The extensive history of pandemics has spanned many centuries, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and public health, and thereby shaping the course of history in various ways. Advances in medicine, science, and public health practices have played a pivotal role in mitigating the effects of pandemics over time. This review explores the scientific landscape of contemporary pandemics, examining their diverse and complex nature. It goes beyond the biological aspects of pandemics to consider socioeconomic, environmental, and technological factors. Through a scientific lens, this study aims to understand the complexities of pandemics and contribute to the expanding knowledge base that helps humanity strengthen its defenses against global health threats. By elucidating the enigmas of pandemics, the study hopes to foster a more resilient and prepared global health environment. Highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach, this exploration emphasizes the critical need to integrate biological, socioeconomic, environmental, and technological domains to develop more robust defenses against these global health challenges.

Background: The prevalence of hepatitis B in the Republic of Korea has declined, yet the disease burden persists. After various changes in targets and methods, the national hepatitis B surveillance system now exclusively monitors acute cases. We aimed to assess the alignment of this system with its intended purpose and to recommend improvements supporting the national strategic plan for viral hepatitis management.

Methods: This study assessed acute hepatitis B cases reported to the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency's mandatory surveillance system over a 10-year period (2013-2022). It evaluated 5 factors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems: simplicity, positive predictive value, data quality, timeliness, and usefulness.

Results: The nonspecific nature of acute hepatitis B symptoms, along with the complexity of diagnostic criteria, indicated a high potential for misreporting. The surveillance system demonstrated a high positive predictive value (94.4%), with data quality and timeliness also rated high. However, data following the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic indicate the need for improvement. Moreover, given the relative importance of specific characteristics of chronic infectious diseases, only limited interventions are implementable through the current surveillance system.

Conclusion: The evaluation of the Republic of Korea's acute hepatitis B surveillance system revealed high positive predictive value, data quality, and timeliness. However, improvements can be made in the misreporting of chronic cases and the system's usefulness. More accurate reflection of the characteristics of acute hepatitis B cases is essential for better management of viral hepatitis.

Background: This study aimed to identify the optimal protein construction for designing a multi-epitope vaccine with both prophylactic and therapeutic effects against cervical cancer, utilizing an immunoinformatics approach. The construction process involved using capsid epitopes L1 and L2, as well as oncoproteins E5, E6, and E7 from human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18.

Methods: An experimental in silico analysis with an immunoinformatics approach was used to develop 2 multi-epitope vaccine constructs (A and B). Further analysis was then conducted to compare the constructs and select the one with the highest potential against cervical cancer.

Results: This study produced 2 antigenic, non-allergenic, and nontoxic multi-epitope vaccine constructs (A and B), which exhibited the ideal physicochemical properties for a vaccine. Further analysis revealed that construct B effectively induced both cellular and humoral immune responses.

Conclusion: The multi-epitope vaccine construct B for HPV 16 and 18, designed for both prophylactic and therapeutic purposes, met the development criteria for a cervical cancer vaccine. However, these findings need to be validated through in vitro and in vivo experiments.

Background: We analyzed the correlation between the infectivity and transmissibility of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Omicron sublineages BA.1, BA. 2, BA.4, and BA.5.

Methods: We assessed viral replication kinetics and infectivity at the cellular level. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal specimens were obtained from patients with coronavirus disease 2019, confirmed using whole-genome sequencing to be caused by the Omicron sublineages BA.1, BA.2, BA.4, or BA.5. These specimens were used to infect Vero E6 cells, derived from monkey kidneys, for the purpose of viral isolation. Viral stocks were then passaged in Vero E6 cells at a multiplicity of infection of 0.01, and culture supernatants were harvested at 12-hour intervals for 72 hours. To evaluate viral replication kinetics, we determined the cycle threshold values of the supernatants using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and converted these values to genome copy numbers.

Results: The viral load was comparable between BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5, whereas BA.1 exhibited a lower value. The peak infectious load of BA.4 was approximately 3 times lower than that of BA.2 and BA.5, while the peak load of BA.2 and BA.5 was about 7 times higher than that of BA.1. Notably, BA.1 demonstrated the lowest infectivity over the entire study period.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the global BA.5 wave may have been amplified by the higher viral replication and infectivity of BA.5 compared to other Omicron sublineages. These analyses could support the rapid assessment of the impact of novel variants on case incidence.

Background: This study investigated the association between living arrangements and healthrelated quality of life (HRQoL) in older people.

Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted of 6,153 participants (aged ≥60 years) from the seventh Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016 to 2018). HRQoL was measured using the 3-level version of the EuroQol 5-dimensional questionnaire. The chi-square test, t-test, and multiple regression were used, applying sampling weights for the analysis.

Results: The proportion of respondents living alone was 18.0%, with a higher prevalence among women and older age groups (p<0.001). The overall HRQoL was lower in groups living alone than in groups living with others (p<0.001). Older people living alone showed higher impairments in all dimensions of the 3-level version of the European Quality of Life 5-Dimensional Questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L) than those living with others, including mobility (p<0.001), self-care (p<0.001), usual activities (p<0.001), pain/discomfort (p<0.001), and depression/anxiety (p<0.001). Problems with mobility were most prevalent (42.8%), followed by pain/ discomfort (41.9%) in respondents living alone. Living alone was significantly associated with a lower HRQoL index score (b=-0.048, p<0.001) after adjusting for age, gender, education, exercise, perceived stress, and perceived health status.

Conclusion: Living alone was negatively associated with HRQoL. Based on this study, future care planning for older people should consider their living arrangements. The need to strengthen and expand care programs targeting those living alone should also be addressed.

Background: This study investigated the impacts of exercise on irisin and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) expression, as well as triiodothyronine (T3 ) and free fatty acid (FFA) levels in elderly women.

Methods: Thirty women aged 65 to 70 years (10 per group) were randomly assigned to aquatic exercise, land exercise, and control groups. The aquatic and land groups engaged in 3 exercise sessions per week (60 min/session) for 16 weeks. The intensity was progressively increased every 4 weeks.

Results: Irisin and FGF-21 levels significantly increased in the aquatic exercise group. In the posttest, the aquatic exercise group had the highest irisin levels. Significant findings were observed for irisin and FGF-21 for the main effect between aquatic and band exercise groups (p<0.05 for both), the main effect between measurement times (p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively), and the interaction effect (p<0.05 and p<0.001, respectively). The irisin level was significantly higher in the aquatic than in the land group 30 minutes after the last session (p<0.05). In both exercise groups, T3 levels were significantly higher 30 minutes after the final session (p<0.05) than before the program. The FFA level was significantly higher in the aquatic exercise group than the others. In the aquatic group, FFA levels were significantly higher 30 minutes after both the first (p<0.01) and the last (p<0.001) session compared to pre-program values.

Conclusion: Differences in exercise type and environment can promote fat metabolism by stimulating hormonal changes that induce brown fat activity and browning.