Cause-of-death statistics in 2020 in the Republic of Korea.

Background: This study analyzed the causes of death in the Korean population in 2020. Method(s): Cause-of-death data for 2020 from Statistics Korea were examined based on the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death, 7th revision and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision. Result(s): In total, 304,948 deaths occurred, reflecting an increase of 9,838 (3.3%) from 2019. The crude death rate (the number of deaths per 100,000 people) was 593.9, corresponding to an increase of 19.0 (3.3%) from 2019. The 10 leading causes of death, in descending order, were malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, intentional self-harm, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer disease, liver diseases, hypertensive diseases, and sepsis. Cancer accounted for 27.0% of deaths. Within the category of malignant neoplasms, the top 5 leading organs of involvement were the lung, liver, colon, stomach, and pancreas. Sepsis was included in the 10 leading causes of death for the first time. Mortality due to pneumonia decreased to 43.3 (per 100,000 people) from 45.1 in 2019. The number of deaths due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was 950, of which 54.5% were in people aged 80 or older. Conclusion(s): These changes reflect the continuing increase in deaths due to diseases of old age, including sepsis. The decrease in deaths due to pneumonia may have been due to protective measures against SARS-CoV-2. With the concomitant decrease in fertility, 2020 became the first year in which Korea's natural total population decreased.Copyright © Korean Medical Association.

Cause-of-death statistics in 2020 in the Republic of Korea

Background: This study analyzed the causes of death in the Korean population in 2020.Methods: Cause-of-death data for 2020 from Statistics Korea were examined based on the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death, 7th revision and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision.Results: In total, 304,948 deaths occurred, reflecting an increase of 9,838 (3.3%) from 2019. The crude death rate (the number of deaths per 100,000 people) was 593.9, corresponding to an increase of 19.0 (3.3%) from 2019. The 10 leading causes of death, in descending order, were malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, intentional self-harm, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer disease, liver diseases, hypertensive diseases, and sepsis. Cancer accounted for 27.0% of deaths. Within the category of malignant neoplasms, the top 5 leading organs of involvement were the lung, liver, colon, stomach, and pancreas. Sepsis was included in the 10 leading causes of death for the first time. Mortality due to pneumonia decreased to 43.3 (per 100,000 people) from 45.1 in 2019. The number of deaths due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was 950, of which 54.5% were in people aged 80 or older.Conclusion: These changes reflect the continuing increase in deaths due to diseases of old age, including sepsis. The decrease in deaths due to pneumonia may have been due to protective measures against SARS-CoV-2. With the concomitant decrease in fertility, 2020 became the first year in which Korea's natural total population decreased.

Topic Models to Analyze Disaster-Related Newspaper Articles: Focusing on COVID-19

Major media outlets have run many articles on the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the public suffers cognitive and emotional effects related to COVID-19 from such reports, we analyzed and reviewed the topics of news reports. We searched newspaper articles with the term ‘COVID-19' term in four Korean daily newspapers from January 20, 2020, when the first patient in Korea was found, to June 15, 2020. Topic modeling analysis was conducted through text mining using R. Five themes were found: "Changes in people's everyday life,” "Socio-economic shock,” "Trends in infection,” "Role of the government and business,” and "Increased psychological anxiety,” which all showed sharp increases in articles from mid-February to early March and then decreased. Despite the increased psychological anxiety people suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, this topic showed the fewest articles. "Changes in people's everyday life” showed the most, focusing attention on stimulating lifestyle articles of general interest. Since the COVID-19 pandemic can lead to mental health problems due to severe changes and isolation in everyday life, a comprehensive response to the news focusing on the impact on the mental health of the population around the world should be made. © 2023, Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Effects of visual information on the face masked speech communication in Covid-secure classrooms

Acoustical measurements and speech intelligibility tests were carried out to investigate the effects of masks on speech communication experienced in real Covid-secure university classrooms during the pandemic. Face-masked speech levels and noise levels were measured to understand the acoustical effects of masks on speech sounds during 15 multiple lectures in 3 university classrooms. The speech intelligibility scores were also evaluated for lower and higher SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) conditions, and for with and without the presence of visual information conditions to investigate the effects of both the acoustic and visual signals in understanding speech communication in actual classroom situations. In the 3 active university classrooms the students experienced on average: speech levels of 55.1 dBA (σ = 5.5 dBA), noise levels of 42.3 dBA (σ = 3.9 dBA), and a speech-to-noise ratio of 12.8 dBA σ = 5.2 dBA). The mean SNR values at the listener's position for the 15 lectures varied from 3.6 dBA to 20.0 dBA. The use of a portable sound amplification system increases the face-masked speech levels mostly at mid and high frequencies (500–4 kHz), thus it can be more useful for achieving higher SNR values in classrooms. The presence of visual cues have little effect on achieving more higher speech intelligibility scores in higher SNR conditions. The present results show that visual obstruction of the talker's mouth decreases speech intelligibility scores by a maximum of 10% in lower SNR conditions, particularly at a SNR of 6 dBA or lower. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

The Early Emotional Responses and Central Issues of People in the Epicenter of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis from Twitter Text Mining

This study aimed to explore citizens’ emotional responses and issues of interest in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The dataset comprised 65,313 tweets with the location marked as New York State. The data collection period was four days of tweets when New York City imposed a lockdown order due to an increase in confirmed cases. Data analysis was performed using R Studio. The emotional responses in tweets were analyzed using the Bing and NRC (National Research Council Canada) dictionaries. The tweets’central issue was identified by Text Network Analysis. When tweets were classified as either positive or negative, the negative sentiment was higher. Using the NRC dictionary, eight emotional classifications were devised: “trust,” “fear,” “anticipation,” “sadness,” “anger,” “joy,” “surprise,” and “disgust.” These results indicated that citizens showed negative and trusting emotional reactions in the early days of the pandemic. Moreover, citizens showed a strong interest in overcoming and coping with other people such as social solidarity. Citizens were concerned about the confirmation of COVID-19 infection status and death. Efforts should be made to ensure citizens’ psychological stability by promptly informing them of the status of infectious disease management and the route of infection. © 2023, Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Misinfo Reaction Frames: Reasoning about Readers' Reactions to News Headlines

Even to a simple and short news headline, readers react in a multitude of ways: cognitively (e.g. inferring the writer's intent), emotionally (e.g. feeling distrust), and behaviorally (e.g. sharing the news with their friends). Such reactions are instantaneous and yet complex, as they rely on factors that go beyond interpreting factual content of news. We propose Misinfo Reaction Frames (MRF), a pragmatic formalism for modeling how readers might react to a news headline. In contrast to categorical schema, our free-text dimensions provide a more nuanced way of understanding intent beyond being benign or malicious. We also introduce a Misinfo Reaction Frames corpus, a crowdsourced dataset of reactions to over 25k news headlines focusing on global crises: the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and cancer. Empirical results confirm that it is indeed possible for neural models to predict the prominent patterns of readers' reactions to previously unseen news headlines. Additionally, our user study shows that displaying machine-generated MRF implications alongside news headlines to readers can increase their trust in real news while decreasing their trust in misinformation. Our work demonstrates the feasibility and importance of pragmatic inferences on news headlines to help enhance AI-guided misinformation detection and mitigation.

Trends in body mass index changes among Korean adolescents between 2005-2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic period: a national representative survey of one million adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on weight gain in children and adolescents remains unknown. We aimed to identify an estimated 15-year trend in mean body mass index (BMI) changes and prevalence of obesity and overweight among Korean adolescents from 2005 to 2020, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data taken from a nationwide survey (Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey), between 2005 and 2020. Representative samples of one million Korean adolescents aged 13-18 years (n=1,057,885) were examined. The 15-year trends in mean BMI and proportion of obesity or overweight, and the changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed. RESULTS: The data of 1,057,885 Korean adolescents were analyzed (mean age: 14.98 years; females, 48.4%). The estimated weighted mean BMI was 20.5 kg/m2 [95% confidence interval (CI), 20.4-20.5] from 2005 to 2008 and 21.5 kg/m2 (95% CI, 21.4-21.6) in 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic). Although the 15-year trend of mean BMI gradually increased, the change in mean BMI before and during the pandemic significantly lessened (ßdiff, -0.027; 95% CI, -0.028 to -0.026). The 15-year (2005-2020) trend changes in the prevalence of obesity and overweight were similar (obesity prevalence from 2005-2008, 3.2%; 95% CI, 3.1-3.3 vs. obesity prevalence in 2020, 8.6%; 95% CI, 8.2-9.0; ßdiff, -0.309; 95% CI, -0.330 to -0.288). CONCLUSIONS: The 15-year trend of overall mean BMI and obesity and overweight prevalence demonstrated a significant increase; however, its slope decreased during the pandemic. These landmark results suggest the need for the development of precise strategies to prevent pediatric obesity and overweight during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 in CHILDREN: WORSENING OUTCOMES during DELTA VARIANT WAVE

Background: Pediatric cases of COVID-19 surged in the summer/fall of 2021 coinciding with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. It is unclear whether the Delta variant caused more severe illness among pediatric patients. We leveraged the Children and COVID-19 in Colorado database to determine whether differences exist in demographics, underlying comorbidities, and outcomes among children requiring hospital admission due to the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant vs. wild type virus. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of children <21 years with symptomatic COVID-19 and detectable SARS-CoV-2 NAAT hospitalized at Children's Hospital Colorado during pre-Delta (Mar-Nov 2020) and Delta (Jun-Sep 2021) periods. We compared variables using Fisher's exact or Pearson's chi square tests for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank sum tests for continuous variables. Results: There were 119 children hospitalized with symptomatic COVID-19 during the pre-Delta and 137 in the Delta period. There was a slight male predominance in both periods. Children hospitalized during the Delta period were younger, with median (interquartile range) age of 5.9 (1.0-14.5) vs. 12.2 (1.5-16.9) years, p=0.02;and were less likely to identify as Hispanic and Spanish-speaking, compared to the pre-Delta period (Table). There was a trend toward decreasing proportions of hospitalized children with underlying comorbidities in the Delta vs. pre-Delta period (59.1% vs. 69.8%;p=0.07). The most prevalent types of comorbidities were similar between periods;but the proportion of hospitalized immunocompromised patients was lower in the Delta vs. pre-Delta period (p=0.005). Half of all children were overweight/obese in both periods. Similar proportions of hospitalized children required respiratory support in both periods, but more children required intensive care in the Delta vs. pre-Delta periods (36.5% vs. 23.5%, p=0.03). Conclusion: Children hospitalized with the Delta variant of COVID-19 were younger, less likely to be Hispanic, and had fewer comorbidities than children hospitalized with wild type SARS-CoV-2. Children hospitalized with the Delta variant were more likely to require ICU admission compared to children hospitalized with wild type SARS-CoV-2, which may indicate increased severity of the Delta variant in the pediatric population. Close monitoring of pediatric outcomes is needed as new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge.

From "new social risks" to "COVID social risks": the challenges for inclusive society in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Amid the pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created tremendous hazards to people worldwide. Incidence, hospitalization, and mortality rates have varied by individual and regional socioeconomic indicators. However, little is known about the indirect social and economic losses following the COVID-19 pandemic and to what extent they have disproportionately affected different groups of people. Building on the traditional conceptualizations of "old" and "new social risks," this article tracks and analyzes the emerging "COVID social risks" in five critical areas: physical health, employment and income, skills and knowledge, care, and social relationships. The article empirically examines to what extent the manifestations of "COVID social risks" describe the makings of a new class divide in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Finally, this article discusses whether "COVID social risks" present a temporary or lasting phenomenon and to what extent interactions with processes of digitization and de-globalization are likely to produce similar problem pressures for East Asian governments amid future crises. East Asian governments should facilitate individuals' ability to absorb "COVID social risks" and institutionalize a new welfare policy settlement that emphasizes complementarities between the social protection, social investment, and social innovation policy paradigms.

Bilateral parietal lymphoma lesions responded differently to HD-MTX and rituximab/ temozolomide therapy

INTRODUCTION: Primary CNS lymphoma is a rare aggressive hematological malignancy. Current chemotherapy for induction phase is HD-MTX single agent or HD-MTX based combination regimen. We report a rare case whose left and right parietal lymphoma lesions in the brain responded to different induction therapy regimens during the induction phase. CASE REPORT: A 43-year-old female presented with seizure and her brain MRI showed bilateral parietal brain lesions in January of 2020. Biopsy and work-up revealed primary CNS diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The patient underwent HD-MTX therapy. Brain MRI showed clear progression of left parietal lymphoma but stable right parietal lymphoma after two cycles of HD-MTX at 8 g/m2. The treatment was switched to a rituximab 750 mg/m2 weekly and temozolomide 150 mg/m2 daily one-week-on and one-week-off regimen. After 8 weeks, her brain MRI showed nearly complete response of her left parietal lymphoma to rituximab/temozolomide but progression of her right parietal lymphoma. She was switched back to HD-MTX and completed total 8 cycles. Her right parietal lymphoma lesion showed complete response to HD-MTX. The patient is doing well and has been off the treatment over the past 10 months and is waiting for consolidation therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation that has been postponed due to the COVID pandemic. DISCUSSION: Our case highlights the very rare heterogenous feature of primary CNS lymphoma responding to different treatment regimen. Biopsy of bilateral heterogeneous lesions may be indicated to compare the different molecular features of the lymphoma to find underlying mechanism if they respond to treatment differently. Specific treatment regimen should be selected based on the responsiveness of CNS lymphoma lesions or combination therapy is selected to cover the heterogeneous susceptibility to chemotherapy regimens.

Types of COVID-19 clusters and their relationship with social distancing in Seoul Metropolitan area in South Korea

BACKGROUND: Complete contact tracing of COVID-19 patients in Korea allows a unique opportunity to investigate cluster characteristics. This study aimed to investigate all the reported COVID-19 clusters in Seoul Metropolitan area from January 23 to September 24, 2020. METHODS: Publicly available COVID-19 data was collected from the Seoul Metropolitan city and Gyeonggi Province. Community clusters with >= 5 cases were characterized by size and duration and then categorized using K-means clustering, and the correlation between the types of clusters and the level of social distancing was investigated. RESULTS: A total of 134 clusters including 4,033 cases were identified. The clusters were categorized into small (Type I, II), medium (type III), and large (type IV) clusters. With the same number of daily confirmed cases, cases were composed of different types of clusters by different periods of time. Raising social distancing was related with shifting types of clusters from large to small sized clusters. CONCLUSIONS: Classification of clusters may provide opportunities to better portray the pattern of COVID-19 outbreaks and implement more effective strategies. Social distancing administered by the government may be effective in suppressing large clusters but may not be effective in controlling small and sporadic clusters.

0062 In the midst of COVID-19: challenges and creative solutions to conduct a randomized trial with immigrant religious leaders to prevent intimate partner violence

Statement of purposeDue to cultural and psychosocial barriers, immigrant women prefer to exhaust informal resources, including religious leaders, before seeking professional help for intimate partner violence (IPV). Based on research and theory, we used Intervention Mapping to create a virtual simulation training (4 modules, 20 minutes each) for Korean American religious leaders on primary, secondary, and tertiary IPV prevention in their congregation. This presentation discusses the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to study participation and the evaluation of this intervention.Methods/ApproachDuring 2020, we evaluated the intervention in a randomized trial (n=100) using online surveys (baseline, 3-month, 6-month). When the first stay-at-home order was issued in mid-March, 95% of participants had finished the baseline survey. However, 53% of the intervention group was still completing the intervention with others at various study stages. The 6-month survey included questions about the impact of COVID-19.ResultsThe online survey and intervention facilitated participation in the study—47%, and some participants had extra time because church services were closed—27%. However, COVID-19 had numerous adverse effects on program participation and emotional functioning: difficulty answering application questions due to lack of interaction with parishioners—33%, being too busy to participate fully—11%, overwhelmed—23%, uncertain about their church’s future—51%, financial strain—30%, unable to invite community organizations to educate the congregation on family violence—60%, reduced opportunities to apply new skills learned from the intervention—45%.ConclusionsThe virtual simulation and online data collection facilitated the trial’s completion, but the toll of the pandemic reduced opportunities to demonstrate new skills.SignificanceOnline interventions and evaluations are a safe way to deliver an intervention during a pandemic. The information gathered about the pandemic’s emotional and practical impact was fundamental to understanding the program‘s impact.