Awareness of and Practice toward Cancer Prevention Recommendations: Results of the Korean Cancer Prevention Awareness and Practice Survey in 2021.

Objectives: To report data regarding the awareness and practice of cancer prevention among Koreans in 2021 and behavioral changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We collected Cancer Prevention Awareness and Practice Survey data through face-to-face interview surveys using a structured questionnaire, which was completed by 4,000 randomly selected men and women aged between 20 and 74 years in 17 provinces. We examined the awareness and practice of 10 cancer prevention recommendations. To evaluate the associations of potential risk factors with awareness and practice of cancer prevention, we used multiple logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, residence, marital status, education, and income. Results: Eighty percent of participants knew that cancer is preventable, while 45% practiced cancer prevention. The practice tended to be higher in older age (aOR: 1.4 per 10 years increment) and lower in rural (aOR: 0.7, 95% CI: 0.5-0.9) than in urban areas and in single people (aOR: 0.9, 95% CI: 0.5-0.7) than in married people. Practices were the highest for avoiding burned or charred foods (87.6%) and lowest for vaccination against human papillomavirus (14.5%). Refusal to follow recommendations was the highest for avoiding alcohol consumption (7.9%). The most difficult recommendations to follow were (1) regular exercise (57.7%); (2) maintaining healthy body weight (46.1%); and (3) avoiding alcohol (40.1%). The most significant COVID-19-related changes were less exercise (32.5%) and increased body weight (25.6). Conclusion: The awareness of cancer prevention is high, but the practice is low. Recommendations targeting awareness and practice need to be further promoted.

Effect of COVID-19 on Internet Usage of People with Disabilities: A Secondary Data Analysis.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led our society to lead a life different than before. People, including those with disabilities, have come to rely on information from the Internet. However, there is a lack of empirical studies on the impact of the pandemic on the Internet usage of people with disabilities. To address this gap, this study analyzed data from the 2020 Digital Divide Survey, which comprised data on 7000 non-disabled people and 2200 people with disabilities. This was used to compare the changes in usage of Internet services, and awareness and experience of COVID-19-related non-face-to-face services among non-disabled people and people with physical disabilities, brain lesions, visual impairments, hearing impairments, and language impairments. People with and without disabilities reported increased internet usage, but the increase was significantly higher in the non-disabled population than in people with disabilities (p < 0.05), except for people with language impairments. Specific changes to service usage, experience, and usefulness were different according to the type of disability. The non-disabled population showed a significantly greater increase in the use of social participation services than people with physical disabilities (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that digital services need to be developed flexibly to address the unique needs of people with different types of disabilities.

Effect of the Period From COVID-19 Symptom Onset to Confirmation on Disease Duration: Quantitative Analysis of Publicly Available Patient Data.

BACKGROUND: In general, early intervention in disease based on early diagnosis is considered to be very important for improving health outcomes. However, there is still insufficient evidence regarding how medical care that is based on the early diagnosis of confirmed cases can affect the outcome of COVID-19 treatment. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the effect of the duration from the onset of clinical symptoms to confirmation of COVID-19 on the duration from the onset of symptoms to the resolution of COVID-19 (release from quarantine). METHODS: For preliminary data collection, we performed data crawling to extract data from social networks, blogs, and official websites operated by local governments. We collected data from the 4002 confirmed cases in 33 cities reported up to May 31, 2020, for whom sex and age information could be verified. Subsequently, 2494 patients with unclear symptom onset dates and 1349 patients who had not been released or had no data about their release dates were excluded. Thus, 159 patients were finally included in this study. To investigate whether rapid confirmation reduces the prevalence period, we divided the duration from symptom onset to confirmation into quartiles of ≤1, ≤3, ≤6, and ≥7 days, respectively. We investigated the duration from symptom onset to release and that from confirmation to release according to these quartiles. Furthermore, we performed multiple regression analysis to investigate the effects of rapid confirmation after symptom onset on the treatment period, duration of prevalence, and duration until release from isolation. RESULTS: We performed multiple regression analysis to investigate the association between rapid confirmation after symptom onset and the total prevalence period (faster release from isolation). The time from symptom onset to confirmation showed a negative association with the time from confirmation to release (t1=-3.58; P<.001) and a positive association with the time from symptom onset to release (t1=5.86; P<.001); these associations were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The duration from COVID-19 symptom onset to confirmation date is an important variable for predicting disease prevalence, and these results support the hypothesis that a short duration of symptom onset to confirmation can reduce the time from symptom onset to release.

Cancer Patients' Willingness to Take COVID-19 Vaccination: A Nationwide Multicenter Survey in Korea.

Considering the high morbidity and mortality of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with malignancy, they are regarded as a priority for COVID-19 vaccination. However, general vaccine uptake rates among cancer patients are known to be lower than in their healthy counterparts. Thus, we aimed to investigate the attitude and acceptance rates for the COVID-19 vaccine in cancer patients and identify predictive factors for vaccination that could be modified to increase vaccine uptake rates, via a paper-based survey (58 items over six domains). A total of 1001 cancer patients participated in this nationwide, multicenter survey between February and April 2021. We observed that 61.8% of respondents were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Positive predictive factors found to be independently associated with vaccination were male gender, older age, obesity, previous influenza vaccination history, absence of cancer recurrence, time since cancer diagnosis over 5 years, and higher EuroQol Visual Analogue Scale scores. Along with the well-known factors that are positively correlated with vaccination, here, we report that patients' disease status and current health status were also associated with their acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccination. Moreover, 91.2% of cancer patients were willing to be vaccinated if their attending physicians recommend it, indicating that almost 30% could change their decision upon physicians' recommendation. Unlike other factors, which are unmodifiable, physicians' recommendation is the single modifiable factor that could change patients' behavior. In conclusion, we firstly report that Korean cancer patients' acceptance rate of the COVID-19 vaccination was 61.8% and associated with disease status and current health status. Physicians should play a major role in aiding cancer patients' decision-making concerning COVID-19 vaccines.

Beyond the fear: Nurses' experiences caring for patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome: A phenomenological study.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of Korean nurses who had directly cared for patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and to derive the structure and meaning of these experiences. BACKGROUND: In 2015, the MERS epidemic struck Korea, and ill-prepared nurses had to care for patients with MERS. Nurses experienced conflict between their fear of the disease and their work and professional ethic. DESIGN: We employed a phenomenological qualitative approach. METHODS: Inductive, qualitative, in-depth interviews were performed with 17 nurses. The study process followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist. RESULTS: The qualitative inductive content analysis generated seven theme clusters and 18 themes. The theme clusters were "Fear of Uncertainty," "Beyond Hesitation," "A Scene Like a Battlefield," "Chaotic Nursing Identity," "Buttresses for Sustainability," "Lingering Trauma" and "Expanded Horizon of Nursing." The final analysis revealed that the core theme was "Beyond the fear of uncertainty." CONCLUSIONS: This study contrives a more in-depth, holistic understanding by describing the experiences of nurses who directly cared for patients with MERS-the first large-scale infectious disease in Korea. Although nurses saw themselves as vital caregivers, they were frightened of the disease, had to work in a harsh environment, experienced various internal conflicts and had to deal with varying forms of uncertainty. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study sheds light on the nursing situation during crises involving serious infectious diseases; to combat these, more medical facilities are needed, and staff should be proactively guided on how to care for patients. It can serve as part of a good foundation for further study of medical staff during recurring epidemics.