Factors influencing the consumption of convenience foods among Korean adolescents: analysis of data from the 15th (2019) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey / 한국영양학회지

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence the consumption of convenience foods among Korean adolescents. @*Methods@#This study had a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the 15th (2019) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, which involved a nationwide representative sample of 57,303 middle- and high-school students. Convenience-food consumption was defined by frequency of adolescents consuming convenience foods obtained from convenience stores, supermarkets, and cafeterias over the previous 7 days. The analyzed variables were related to sociodemographic, mental health, and health behavior. The Rao-Scott χ2 test was applied to examine the difference in the rate of consuming convenience foods obtained from convenience stores according to each factor. Hierarchical logistic regression was conducted to examine the factors that influence convenience-food consumption among Korean adolescents. @*Results@#It was found that 29.1% of Korean adolescents consumed convenience foods obtained from convenience store more than three times per week. The significant influencing factors were female sex; low subjective academic achievement, and subjective household economic status; high perceived stress; low subjective sleep sufficiency; experience of depression; suicidal ideation; lower physical activity; skipping breakfast; lower consumptions of fruit, milk, and vegetables; higher consumptions of soda drinks, sweet drinks, caffeine, and fast food; lower water intake; current smoking and drinking; drug use; and experience of violence. @*Conclusion@#These findings provide a better understanding of the sociodemographic, mental-health, and health-behavior factors that influence the consumption of convenience foods among Korean adolescents. We suggest that differentiated policies, strategies, and nutrition education need to be developed and implemented, in order to address the above-mentioned factors and thereby reduce such behaviors among Korean adolescents.

Development and Evaluation of Electronic Health Record Data-Driven Predictive Models for Pressure Ulcers

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop predictive models for pressure ulcer incidence using electronic health record (EHR) data and to compare their predictive validity performance indicators with that of the Braden Scale used in the study hospital. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital in Korea. Data of 202 pressure ulcer patients and 14,705 non-pressure ulcer patients admitted between January 2015 and May 2016 were extracted from the EHRs. Three predictive models for pressure ulcer incidence were developed using logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and decision tree modeling. The predictive validity performance indicators of the three models were compared with those of the Braden Scale. RESULTS: The logistic regression model was most efficient with a high area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) estimate of 0.97, followed by the decision tree model (AUC 0.95), Cox proportional hazards regression model (AUC 0.95), and the Braden Scale (AUC 0.82). Decreased mobility was the most significant factor in the logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models, and the endotracheal tube was the most important factor in the decision tree model. CONCLUSION: Predictive validity performance indicators of the Braden Scale were lower than those of the logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and decision tree models. The models developed in this study can be used to develop a clinical decision support system that automatically assesses risk for pressure ulcers to aid nurses.

Development and Evaluation of Electronic Health Record Data-Driven Predictive Models for Pressure Ulcers

PURPOSE@#The purpose of this study was to develop predictive models for pressure ulcer incidence using electronic health record (EHR) data and to compare their predictive validity performance indicators with that of the Braden Scale used in the study hospital.@*METHODS@#A retrospective case-control study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital in Korea. Data of 202 pressure ulcer patients and 14,705 non-pressure ulcer patients admitted between January 2015 and May 2016 were extracted from the EHRs. Three predictive models for pressure ulcer incidence were developed using logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and decision tree modeling. The predictive validity performance indicators of the three models were compared with those of the Braden Scale.@*RESULTS@#The logistic regression model was most efficient with a high area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) estimate of 0.97, followed by the decision tree model (AUC 0.95), Cox proportional hazards regression model (AUC 0.95), and the Braden Scale (AUC 0.82). Decreased mobility was the most significant factor in the logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models, and the endotracheal tube was the most important factor in the decision tree model.@*CONCLUSION@#Predictive validity performance indicators of the Braden Scale were lower than those of the logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and decision tree models. The models developed in this study can be used to develop a clinical decision support system that automatically assesses risk for pressure ulcers to aid nurses.

Digital Epidemiology: Use of Digital Data Collected for Non-epidemiological Purposes in Epidemiological Studies / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: We reviewed digital epidemiological studies to characterize how researchers are using digital data by topic domain, study purpose, data source, and analytic method. METHODS: We reviewed research articles published within the last decade that used digital data to answer epidemiological research questions. Data were abstracted from these articles using a data collection tool that we developed. Finally, we summarized the characteristics of the digital epidemiological studies. RESULTS: We identified six main topic domains: infectious diseases (58.7%), non-communicable diseases (29.4%), mental health and substance use (8.3%), general population behavior (4.6%), environmental, dietary, and lifestyle (4.6%), and vital status (0.9%). We identified four categories for the study purpose: description (22.9%), exploration (34.9%), explanation (27.5%), and prediction and control (14.7%). We identified eight categories for the data sources: web search query (52.3%), social media posts (31.2%), web portal posts (11.9%), webpage access logs (7.3%), images (7.3%), mobile phone network data (1.8%), global positioning system data (1.8%), and others (2.8%). Of these, 50.5% used correlation analyses, 41.3% regression analyses, 25.6% machine learning, and 19.3% descriptive analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Digital data collected for non-epidemiological purposes are being used to study health phenomena in a variety of topic domains. Digital epidemiology requires access to large datasets and advanced analytics. Ensuring open access is clearly at odds with the desire to have as little personal data as possible in these large datasets to protect privacy. Establishment of data cooperatives with restricted access may be a solution to this dilemma.

2016 Year-in-Review of Clinical and Consumer Informatics: Analysis and Visualization of Keywords and Topics / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to review and visualize the medical informatics field over the previous 12 months according to the frequencies of keywords and topics in papers published in the top four journals in the field and in Healthcare Informatics Research (HIR), an official journal of the Korean Society of Medical Informatics. METHODS: A six-person team conducted an extensive review of the literature on clinical and consumer informatics. The literature was searched using keywords employed in the American Medical Informatics Association year-in-review process and organized into 14 topics used in that process. Data were analyzed using word clouds, social network analysis, and association rules. RESULTS: The literature search yielded 370 references and 1,123 unique keywords. ‘Electronic Health Record’ (EHR) (78.6%) was the most frequently appearing keyword in the articles published in the five studied journals, followed by ‘telemedicine’ (2.1%). EHR (37.6%) was also the most frequently studied topic area, followed by clinical informatics (12.0%). However, ‘telemedicine’ (17.0%) was the most frequently appearing keyword in articles published in HIR, followed by ‘telecommunications’ (4.5%). Telemedicine (47.1%) was the most frequently studied topic area, followed by EHR (14.7%). CONCLUSIONS: The study findings reflect the Korean government's efforts to introduce telemedicine into the Korean healthcare system and reactions to this from the stakeholders associated with telemedicine.

Oligonol promotes anti-aging pathways via modulation of SIRT1-AMPK-Autophagy Pathway

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Oligonol, mainly found in lychee fruit, is an antioxidant polyphenolic compound which has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. The detailed mechanisms by which oligonol may act as an anti-aging molecule have not been determined. MATERIALS/METHODS: In this study, we evaluated the ability of oligonol to modulate sirtuin (SIRT) expression in human lung epithelial (A549) cells. Oligonol was added to A549 cells and reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial superoxide formation, and p21 protein levels were measured. Signaling pathways activated upon oligonol treatment were also determined by western blotting. Furthermore, the anti-aging effect of oligonol was evaluated ex vivo in mouse splenocytes and in vivo in Caenorhabditis elegans. RESULTS: Oligonol specifically induced the expression of SIRT1, whose activity is linked to gene expression, metabolic control, and healthy aging. In response to influenza virus infection of A549 cells, oligonol treatment significantly up-regulated SIRT1 expression and down-regulated viral hemagglutinin expression. Oligonol treatment also resulted in the activation of autophagy pathways and the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Furthermore, oligonol-treated spleen lymphocytes from old mice showed increased cell proliferation, and mRNA levels of SIRT1 in the lungs of old mice were significantly lower than those in the lungs of young mice. Additionally, in vivo lethality assay revealed that oligonol extended the lifespan of C. elegans infected with lethal Vibrio cholerae. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrated that oligonol may act as an anti-aging molecule by modulating SIRT1/autophagy/AMPK pathways.

Effects of Short Term Antioxidant Cocktail Supplementation on the Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Response of Renal Inflammation in Diabetic Mice

Diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial disease. Particularly, diabetic nephropathy is a serious complication for diabetic patients, yet the precise mechanisms that underline the initial stage of diabetic renal inflammation remain unknown. However, oxidative stress induced by hyperglycemia in diabetes is implicated in diabetic renal disease. We hypothesized that dietary supplementation of antioxidants either VCE (0.5% VC + 0.5% VE) or Comb (0.5% VC + 0.5% VE + 2.5% N-acetylcysteine) improves acute diabetic renal inflammation through modulation of blood glucose levels and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory responses. Experimental animals (5.5 weeks old female ICR) used were treated with alloxan (180 mg/kg) once. When fasting blood glucose levels were higher than 250 mg/dL, mice were divided into 3 groups fed different levels of antioxidant supplementation, DM (diabetic mice fed AIN 93G purified rodent diet); VCE (diabetic mice fed 0.5% vitamin C and 0.5% vitamin E supplemented diet); Comb (diabetic mice fed 0.5% vitamin C, 0.5% vitamin E and 2.5% N-acetylcysteine supplemented diet), for 10 days and then sacrificed. Body weights were measured once a week and blood glucose levels were monitored twice a week. Lipid peroxidation products, thiobarbituric acid reacting substances were measured in kidney. NF-kappaB activation was indirectly demonstrated by pIkappaB-alpha and expressions of selective inflammatory and oxidative stress markers including antioxidant enzymes were also determined. Dietary antioxidant supplementation improved levels of blood glucose as well as kidney lipid peroxi-dation. Dietary antioxidant supplementation improved NF-kappaB activation and protein expression of HO-1, but not mRNA expression levels in diabetic mice fed Comb diet. In contrast, the mRNA and protein expression of CuZnSOD was decreased in diabetic mice fed Comb diet. However, antioxidant supplementation did not improve mRNA and protein expressions of IL-1beta and MnSOD in diabetic mice. These findings demonstrate that acute diabetic renal inflammation was associated with altered inflammatory and antioxidant responses and suggest that antioxidant cocktail supplementation may have beneficial effects on early stage of diabetic nephropathy through modulation of blood glucose levels and antioxidant enzyme expressions.