• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.667-682
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the changes in health behavior, mental health, and nutritional status of Korean adolescents before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. Methods: A total of 800 adolescents (12~18 years old) who participated in the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were included as study subjects and divided into four groups (204 middle school boys, 172 middle school girls, 219 high school boys, and 205 high school girls). The 2019 and 2020 KNHANES data were classified into data collected before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, respectively. Results: After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, middle school boys showed an increased tendency toward becoming overweight and obese, with significantly increased levels of diastolic blood pressure and insulin. While there was no major change in the subjective health status among adolescents, the high school boys showed a significantly decreased physical activity after COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, the proportion of middle school students feeling a little stressed significantly increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. The rate of skipping breakfast significantly increased in middle school girls, but the rate of having lunch with companions significantly increased among all adolescents after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the intake of milk, vegetables, fruits, seaweeds, and pulses significantly decreased, although the intake of sugars, beverages, and seasonings significantly decreased as well, during this period. These changes may lead to an increased proportion of adolescents with insufficient intake of nutrients, including potassium, vitamin C, and riboflavin. Conclusion: These results highlight the impact of COVID-19 on comprehensive changes in physical and mental health status, lifestyle behavior, and nutritional status in adolescents, suggesting the need for targeted prevention and intervention for physical and mental well-being during the pandemic.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.151-157
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• 2020

Objectives: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one of the main public health challenges currently facing the world. Because of its high transmissibility, COVID-19 has already caused extensive morbidity and mortality in many countries throughout the world. An accurate estimation of the basic reproduction number (R₀) of COVID-19 would be beneficial for prevention programs. In light of discrepancies in original research on this issue, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the pooled R₀ for COVID-19 in the current outbreak. Methods: International databases (including Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, and Scopus) were searched to identify studies conducted regarding the R₀ of COVID-19. Articles were searched using the following keywords: "COVID-19" and "basic reproduction number" or "R₀." The heterogeneity among studies was assessed using the I² index, the Cochran Q test, and T². A random-effects model was used to estimate R₀ in this study. Results: The mean reported R₀ in the identified articles was 3.38±1.40, with a range of 1.90 to 6.49. According to the results of the random-effects model, the pooled R₀ for COVID-19 was estimated as 3.32 (95% confidence interval, 2.81 to 3.82). According to the results of the meta-regression analysis, the type of model used to estimate R₀ did not have a significant effect on heterogeneity among studies (p=0.81). Conclusions: Considering the estimated R₀ for COVID-19, reducing the number of contacts within the population is a necessary step to control the epidemic. The estimated overall R₀ was higher than the World Health Organization estimate.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.105-113
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• 2020

As the COVID-19 outbreak has prolonged, social distancing movements are encouraged and non-face-to-face lifestyle trends are spreading. As a result, it is necessary for general restaurants and small marts to provide delivery services like large-scale distribution companies. Large distribution companies have also suffered significant economic losses from COVID-19 because epidemiological investigations were conducted after the distribution center was closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in several large domestic distribution companies. In this thesis, in order to examine whether COVID-19 actually affects distribution companies, we attempt to understand the relationship between the number of confirmed cases per month and the sales share and growth rate by categories of distribution companies.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.98-108
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• 2022

In this study, social network analysis was performed to compare and analyze changes in domestic tourism trends before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in a situation where the damage to the tourism industry due to COVID-19 is increasing. Using Textom, a big data analysis service, data were collected using the keywords "travel destination" and "travel trend" based on the collection period of 2019 and 2020, when the epidemic spread to the world and became chaotic. After extracting a total of 80 key words through text mining, centrality was analyzed using NetDraw of Ucinet6, and clustered into 4 groups through CONCOR analysis. Through this, we compared and analyzed changes in domestic tourism trends before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, and it is judged to provide basic data for tourism marketing strategies and tourism product development in the post-COVID-19.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.407-414
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• 2020

Objective : Since the first discovery of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), rapid and wide spread of the disease has been reported and the World Health Organization announced that a 'pandemic' has started. Up to date there is little known regarding the impact of this outbreak on spinal specialists' daily clinical practice. We intended to evaluate how COVID-19 has affected the number of spinal disease patients we meet and operate in daily practice. Methods : The de-identified data regarding number of patients visiting the spine clinic at a tertiary referral hospital and a secondary level hospital from January, February and March of 2017 to 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. The number of out-patient department (OPD) visits, number of emergency room (ER) visits as well as number of surgeries performed during the reviewed period were collected and analyzed, comparing 2020 to the previous 3 years. Results : The number of daily OPD visits showed a steady decrease starting from January, and presented a statistically significant decrease by early March 2020, compared to the previous 3 years. During the same period, decrease in number of daily ER visits was statistically significant as well. The number of elective surgeries or number of surgeries for patients admitted via ER during COVID-19 outbreak remained similar to that of 2017-2019 suggesting, despite the decrease of patients visiting the hospital for spinal diseases, those whom required surgery still visited the hospital. The results were consistant among other hospital level. Conclusion : The outbreak of COVID-19 affected our daily practice as OPD and ER visits reduced but did not affect the number of surgeries. We believe that this report will be informative to spinal specialists worldwide fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.264-272
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• 2022

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly disrupted cancer screening services worldwide. We aimed to measure the impact of COVID-19 on gastric cancer screening rates based on age, sex, household income, and residential area. Materials and Methods: We analyzed data from the Korean National Cancer Screening Survey from 2017 to 2021 for adults aged 40-74 years. We evaluated the gastric cancer screening rate within two years in accordance with the National Cancer Screening Program protocol recommendations and that within the previous year. We compared the trends in the pre- and post-COVID-19 outbreak periods. Results: Before the COVID-19 outbreak, there was little change in the gastric cancer screening rates until 2019. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the screening rate as per recommendation decreased from 70.8% in 2019 to 68.9% in 2020 and that for one year decreased from 32.7% in 2019 to 27.2% in 2020. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued after 2020, both gastric cancer screening rates as per recommendations and for one year rebounded. Although a similar trend was observed for the upper endoscopy screening rate, the upper gastrointestinal series screening rate decreased from 7.8% in 2020 to 3.1% in 2021. During the pandemic, the screening rate decreased among younger adults (40-49), those residing in metropolitan regions, and those with high incomes. Conclusions: Despite a decline in gastric cancer screening rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate surged in 2021. Further studies are needed to estimate the impact of cancer screening delays on future cancer-related mortalities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.108-119
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• 2024

Objectives: Abrupt changes in air pollution levels associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak present a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of air pollution on influenza risk, at a time when emission sources were less active and personal hygiene practices were more rigorous. Methods: This time-series study examined the relationship between influenza cases (n=22 874) and air pollutant concentrations from 2018 to 2021, comparing the timeframes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in and around Thailand's Khon Kaen province. Poisson generalized additive modeling was employed to estimate the relative risk of hospitalization for influenza associated with air pollutant levels. Results: Before the COVID-19 outbreak, both the average daily number of influenza hospitalizations and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 ㎛ or less (PM_2.5) concentration exceeded those later observed during the pandemic (p<0.001). In single-pollutant models, a 10 ㎍/m³ increase in PM_2.5 before COVID-19 was significantly associated with increased influenza risk upon exposure to cumulative-day lags, specifically lags 0-5 and 0-6 (p<0.01). After adjustment for co-pollutants, PM_2.5 demonstrated the strongest effects at lags 0 and 4, with elevated risk found across all cumulative-day lags (0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, and 0-6) and significantly greater risk in the winter and summer at lag 0-5 (p<0.01). However, the PM_2.5 level was not significantly associated with influenza risk during the COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusions: Lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic could mitigate the risk of PM_2.5-induced influenza. Effective regulatory actions in the context of COVID-19 may decrease PM_2.5 emissions and improve hygiene practices, thereby reducing influenza hospitalizations.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2022

This paper presents a social network analysis of changes in Home Economics education content loaded on YouTube before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. From January 1, 2008 to June 30, 2021, a basic analysis was conducted of 761 Home Economics education videos loaded on YouTube, using NetMiner 4.3 to analyze important keywords and the centrality of video titles and full texts. Before COVID-19, there were 164 Home Economics education videos posted on YouTube, increasing significantly to 597 following the emergence of the pandemic. In both periods, there was more middle school content than high school content. The content in the child-family field was the most, and the main keywords were youth and family. Before COVID-19, a performance evaluation indicated that the proportion of student content was high, whereas after the outbreak of the disease, teacher content increased significantly due to the effect of distance learning. However, compared with video use, the self-expression and participation of users were lower in both periods. The centrality analysis indicated that in the title, 'family' exhibited a high degree of both centrality and eigenvector centrality over the entire period. Degree centrality of the video title was found to be high in the order of class, online, family, management, etc. after the outbreak of COVID-19, and the connection of keywords was strong overall. Eigenvector centrality indicated that career, search, life, and design were influential keywords before COVID-19, while class, youth, online, and development were influential keywords after COVID-19.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.84 no.3
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• pp.176-181
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• 2021

At the beginning of February 2020, Daegu faced a serious situation due to the rapid outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. The healthcare system in Daegu Metropolitan City was ill-prepared for this sudden disaster situation. The COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing in South Korea. Daegu has limited medical resources compared to the Seoul Metropolitan Area, and it is hypothesized that a review of the outbreak therein could provide information that will be valuable for dealing with future outbreaks. The likelihood of death due to COVID-19 depends on the capacity of the area for the treatment of critically ill patients. This report reviews the overall treatment process followed for critically ill patients in Daegu.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.158-169
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• 2020

Modern people live in the age of plastics. It has been widely used due to its easy molding processing, mass production, and excellent durability. However, over-produced plastics for convenience cause plastic disasters and adversely affect the ecosystem. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the use of single-use plastic waste due to the use of delivery services has increased. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a plastic pandemic. Currently, domestic recycling policies depend only on recycling collection companies and market prices of recyclable resources. This paper confirms whether the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the price of plastic waste. It also shows that the price of plastic waste is more unstable than metals with a high recycling rate. This urges businesses to share the cost of recycling on plastic waste, no longer being dependent on market prices for recyclable resources.