Effectiveness of training program combining chakrayoga and meditation.

Background This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of program combining chakrayoga and meditation on the physical health and disease-related factors and psychological factors of people. Methods Ninety-seven subjects (32-83 years old) who had free from prior experiences in meditation programs or Chakrayoga training courses were assigned to either the experimental group (EXP) (45 subjects; 13 male subjects and 32 female subjects; average age of 60.67 years, SD=11.09 years) or the control group (CONT) of remaining subjects (52 subjects; 14 male subjects and 38 female subjects; average age of 61.58 years, SD=9.70 years). Subjects in the EXP participated in the Chakrayoga Meditation Program for twice a week for 2 h during 6 weeks in each session consisted of 1 h of Chakrayoga and 1 h of meditation. The measurements in this study included the mindfulness, stress response, subjective quality of life, medical symptom checklist, difficulty in emotional regulation and objective of life and sense of control. Results Results revealed that participants in the EXP reported significantly more relief of mindfulness, stress response, subjective quality of life and medical symptom checklist than those in the CONT. Conclusions These findings provide evidence that the Chakrayoga Meditation Program can help relieve the physical health and disease-related factors and psychological factors.

Prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and its Comorbidity among Korean Children in a Community Population.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) in children according to socio-demographic factors and the distribution of ADHD subtypes in a community in Korea. A screening survey using the Korean version of ADHD Rating Scale (K-ARS) was conducted between 2007 and 2008, and clinical interviews by a pediatric psychiatrist were performed for selected children between 2009 and 2010. A total of 49,573 elementary school students, between ages of 7 and 12, constituted the target population, among which 38,365 students (77.2%) and respective parents gave consent to participate. Of the participants, 200 screened children were clinically examined to confirm the diagnosis of ADHD. We estimated the prevalence of ADHD and its comorbidity in the population, after adjusting for nonresponse and nonparticipation. The prevalence of ADHD was 11.7% in boys and 5.2% in girls, with an overall prevalence of 8.5%. The combined type of inattentive and hyperactive was the most frequent at 4.7% of the whole population. Children were more likely to have ADHD if their parents were separated and had less education. Most commonly combined comorbidity was autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (10.1%). The prevalence of ADHD in the school-aged population is an essential information for improving the quality of public health mental services for evaluation and treatment of ADHD.

Differences in end-of-life care decision making between patients with and without cancer.

BACKGROUND: Most patients and families do not want invasive life-sustaining procedures when recovery is unlikely. We compared the clinical features of advance directives (ADs) of patients with and without cancer. METHODS: The ADs were obtained from retrospectively reviewing electronic medical records of 699 consecutive patients who died from April 2011 to July 2012. RESULTS: Patients with cancer were more likely to have written ADs: 265 (85.8%) patients with cancer and 277 (71.0%) noncancer patients (P < .001). Significantly more noncancer patients were in the intensive care unit, indicating that they had received or were receiving invasive treatments. Noncancer patients requested life-sustaining treatment more frequently but symptom control less frequently than patients with cancer. CONCLUSION: Advance care planning in patients with incurable, noncancer disease is important to guarantee patient autonomy at the end of life.

A randomized phase II study to assess the effectiveness of fluid therapy or intensive nutritional support on survival in patients with advanced cancer who cannot be nourished via enteral route.

BACKGROUND: Experts advise against parenteral nutrition (PN) for patients with advanced cancer at the end of life. But because many patients and families fear starvation, many physicians administer PN to patients with terminal cancer in Korea. OBJECTIVE: We designed this study to investigate the effect of PN on survival in patients with terminal cancer at the end of life. DESIGN: We planned a randomized phase II study enrolling 116 patients randomized to receive either fluid or PN. SETTING/SUBJECTS: Eligible patients are who could not tolerate enteral feeding and had short life expectancies (<3 months) due to progressive cancer. Patients with functioning bowels were excluded. MEASUREMENTS: The primary end point was overall survival and the secondary end point was total administered calories. RESULTS: We prospectively enrolled 31 consecutive patients and 16 patients were assigned to the PN group. The study ended early because many patients and families were extremely concerned about starvation. The baseline characteristics, including nutritional parameters, were not significantly different between the two groups. The mean administered calories was 374.7 (± 71.7) kcal/d for the fluid group and 1286.8 (± 108.3) kcal/d for the PN group (p<0.001). Median survival was 8 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-10.3 days) in the fluid group and 13 days (95% CI: 3.1-22.9 days) in the PN group, and this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.982 by Log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: This study did not conclusively determine the role of PN for patients with advanced cancer, however, PN support failed to significantly prolong survival in these patients compared to similar patients receiving only fluid.

Monitoring and risk assessment of pesticide residues in commercially dried vegetables.

We tested for residual pesticide levels in dried vegetables in Seoul, Korea. A total of 100 samples of 13 different types of agricultural products were analyzed by a gas chromatography-nitrogen phosphate detector (GC-NPD), an electron capture detector (GC-µECD), a mass spectrometry detector (GC-MSD), and a high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV). We used multi-analysis methods to analyze for 253 different pesticide types. Among the selected agricultural products, residual pesticides were detected in 11 samples, of which 2 samples (2.0%) exceeded the Korea Maximum Residue limits (MRLs). We detected pesticide residue in 6 of 9 analyzed dried pepper leaves and 1 sample exceeded the Korea MRLs. Data obtained were then used for estimating the potential health risks associated with the exposures to these pesticides. The estimated daily intakes (EDIs) range from 0.1% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for bifenthrin to 8.4% of the ADI for cadusafos. The most critical commodity is cadusafos in chwinamul, contributing 8.4% to the hazard index (HI). This results show that the detected pesticides could not be considered a serious public health problem. Nevertheless, an investigation into continuous monitoring is recommended.

Characterization of norovirus infections in Seoul, Korea.

The present study has determined the detection rate of norovirus (NoV) with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in hospitalized children and describes the molecular epidemiology of NoV circulating in Seoul, Korea. Six hundred and eighty-three (9.8%) of samples were positive for NoV. Of these, the NoV GII genogroup was the most commonly found, with a prevalence of 96.2% (683 of 710). Only 27 samples were positive for the NoV GI genogroup. Ten kinds of GI genotype (GI/1, GI/2, GI/3, GI/4, GI/5, GI/6, GI/7, GI/9, GI/12, and GI/13) and eight kinds of GII genotype (GII/2, GII/3, GII/4, GII/8, GII/14, GII/15, GII/16, and GII/17) were identified in children with AGE during the years 2008-2011.