• Title/Summary/Keyword: health misinformation

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Analysis of Some Online Questions with High Frequency about Dental Treatment in Korea

  • Kang, A-Reum;Go, Ye-Eun;Kim, Ka-Eun;Kim, Min-Joo;Kim, Seon-Jeong;Hwang, SooJeong
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.190-197
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    • 2019
  • Background: The Internet has advantages in terms of accessibility and amount of information, and the search for health information over the Internet is increasing exponentially. The purpose of this study is to analyze the information generated about some dental treatment on the internet by year. Methods: Naver Knowledge (JisikIn in Korean) which is an interactive search service was selected as the first search site in Korea. Scaling, wisdom tooth extraction, and endodontic treatment that can be paid by Korean health insurance were selected. Finally, 4,729 questions about scaling, 23,963 wisdom teeth extraction questions and 17,733 endodontic treatment questions were extracted. The question contents, the information about the questioner and the answerer, and an error of answers were investigated. Frequency analysis was used and chi-square test was used if necessary. Results: The most frequently asked questions were discomfort and dissatisfaction after the treatment. The need for treatment was the second in questions of the wisdom tooth extraction and endodontic treatment, but the health insurance benefit was the second in dental scaling. Most of the questioners didn't disclose personal information. The public answered the most in 2013~2014, but the highest percentage of the respondents was experts in 2017. Responses were mostly personal experience, but showed a tendency to decrease with years, and professional knowledge showed an increasing tendency. The error of the answer has also gradually decreased. Conclusion: Questions about dental care over the Internet are increasing exponentially, experts are responding increasingly, and errors in answers are decreasing. Nevertheless, it is necessary to pay attention to the related expert group to prevent misinformation.

Sansam of South Korea (한국 산삼의 형태학적 연구)

  • Shin Soon Shik;Kim Gyeong Cheol;Kim Chang Shik
    • Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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    • v.16 no.6
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    • pp.1260-1262
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    • 2002
  • A particular type of ginseng that grows in mountainous regions of Korea is known as Sansam, a term meaning literally mountain grown ginseng. Sansam has recently gained a reputation among some Korean people who believe its health benefits are superior to that of other types of ginseng. Misuse of Sansam has resulted from misinformation that has circulated about the health benefits of its use. Due to insufficient study and research, Korean Oriental Medicine academia does not presently have enough credible information about Sansam to properly educate the public in its use. However, we do have a responsibility to perform adequate study and research so that correct information may be provided. To date, only cursory investigation of the physical characteristics of the Sansam plant have been conducted. This limited investigation was performed in July 2002, at Sobaek Mountain. The branches, leaves, stems, peduncles, fruits, and roots (head, main and fine roots) were observed. The fine roots grew and spread in a large area around the main roots so that harvesting the plants required digging out the soil a considerable distance from the main roots. The plants grew in a northwesterly direction, with a gradient of 40 degrees. They had four branches. Three of the branches had six leaves, while one had five leaves. Each plant had 40 fruits. The roots of the plants grew in a shape similar the Chinese character for mountain. The roots were milky in color. The average weight of the plants was 42.5 grams.

Public Perception and Routes of Acquiring Information on Drug Safety (소비자의 의약품안전성 인식정도 및 관련정보 획득경로)

  • Ji, Eun-Hee;Kim, Su-Kyeong;Oh, Jung-Mi;Lee, Suk-Hyang
    • Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.311-318
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    • 2011
  • Misinformation and inappropriate use of medication has become one of the most pressing concerns in drug safety. The purpose of this study was to survey public perception on drug safety as well as the channels most relied upon providing such information. The survey was performed for patients or their families visiting pharmacies in a local city in Korea. Analysis was performed from 367 respondents to the survey. The contents of this survey revealed that consumers were aware of the fact that medications should not be taken at any higher dosage or more often than directed by their prescriptions. The survey revealed a general awareness that symptoms might not be relieved immediately by their medications. However, the perception that there could be adverse drug reaction (ADR) at therapeutic dose was low except among the young or highly educated members. Respondents recognized that skin rashes were the most whereas drowsiness was the least common ADR symptom. There was a high awareness of drug-food or drug-drug interactions except in the case of certain nutraceuticals. Doctors and pharmacists were ranked as the most reliable resources to the consumer for providing drug related information. However, public relations or education programs were in need since there were still not negligible numbers of consumers depending on personal experience rather than health professionals.

End-of-Life Issues in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Ghosh, Deyashinee;Gupta, Bhavna
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.162-165
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    • 2020
  • Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the world to a standstill and has exposed the lack of preparedness of most nations' health care systems. Even in usual times, palliative care has not received its fair share of recognition as an important component of patient care; instead, the emphasis is often placed on aggressive patient management. Now, with the entire medical community and decision-making committees focussed on intensive patient care, end-of-life care has taken a backseat. Methods: This article is a brief communication. Results: COVID 19 infection has been shown to lead to greater mortality and morbidity in patients with pre-existing illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, renal failure, and cancer. Patients typically in need of end-of-life care, such as those with late-stage cancer or heart failure, are therefore at a higher risk of both contracting COVID-19 and suffering a more severe disease course. The strict nationwide lockdowns being imposed in most countries have deterred patients from seeking medical attention or hospice care. Every day new research is coming to light regarding COVID 19. This has helped significantly in creating awareness and limiting the spread of disease. However, misinformation is also rampant, leading to discrimination and mistreatment of infected patients. Conclusion: This pandemic has been a terrifying ordeal for all and has exposed our entire population physically, psychologically, emotionally, and financially to unimaginable stresses. In the present scenario, EOL care is as much a necessity as intensive care and should be given at least a fraction of its importance.

Assessment of Library and Information Professionals' Perception of COVID-19 and Its Impacts on Libraries in Nigeria

  • Adegbilero-Iwari, Idowu;Ikenwe, Iguehi Joy;Adegbilero-Iwari, Oluwaseun Eniola
    • International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.25-39
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    • 2022
  • Perceptions of Library and Information (LI) professionals in Nigeria and the impact of COVID-19 on libraries, librarians and library services, were studied. The significance of demographic factors on LI professionals' perception of COVID-19 and its impact on libraries was tested. Descriptive survey design and Purpose sampling technique were adopted. LIS professionals in Nigeria constituted the population, and an online questionnaire designed by the researchers through Microsoft Forms was used. Descriptive analysis of respondents' demographic data and their covid-19 perception were presented in frequencies and percentages using tables while multivariate regression technique was used to test the significance of relationship between variables at P < 0.05. Findings revealed that many (61.4%) of the respondents agreed that COVID-19 is real but have personal reservations. However, 47.5% indicated that COVID-19 is a scientific invention. On the impacts of COVID-19 on libraries, the study found that COVID-19 is a game changer that will enhance the creation of new services by libraries, cause the reconfiguration of library space for safe operations in post-COVID, establishment of new rules and regulations, and more reliance on e-resources. On the test of association, educational qualification of respondents had a significant impact on respondents' perceptions that COVID-19 will reduce the use of library print resources (P-value = 0.005, B: 0.38, [95% CI: 0.115 - 0.646]) and that library will create new services to address the changes caused by COVID-19. Also, educational qualification of respondents significantly influenced respondents' perception that COVID-19 is real. The study recommends that libraries should take advantage of the season to innovate, and that public health institutions should continually educate people on corona virus to disabuse people's mind of conspiracy theories.

A Study on Performance and Achievement of Village Health Workers in Rural Primary Health Care Program (농촌 일차 보건사업에 있어서 마을건강원 업무량 및 업적에 관한 연구)

  • Hur, Dal-Young;Lee, Myoung-Sook;Yum, Yong-Tae;Kim, Soon-Duck
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.36-53
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    • 1987
  • It is utmostly important to establish the efficient fitable way of peoples' active participation in primary health care especially in the areas where the public or governmental service input for the basic health care is insufficient like as in rural areas of Korea. In light of above reason, this study focused mainly on the evaluation of roles and activities of village health workers (VHWs) who were selected from grass- root level of village people in order to derive further motivation for active participation. This is believed to be a sort of feedback mechanisms. Actually, the authors collected the activity reports of VHWs who had been devoting themselves in the primary health care services of Jeomdong Area, of Yeoju Gun one of Korea University Community Health Action Programmes and survey record on the VHWs activity from correspondent people. 1 hose data were analyzed through computer programmed package. The activities performed by VHWs were limited to the performance in 1985 for conveniance. The summarized results were as follows; 1) General characteristics of VHWs. Among a total of 28 VHWs in the area, about 39.3g of them have been replaced up to the date since the implementation in 1983, because of moving out, occupational employment and of others. The age of majority (75.0%) lied between the range of 30-50, and educational background of 67.9% belonged to category of primary school graduation, about 50% of them experienced to be or were also entiled "chief of women club" of corresponding villages. 2) Work-load of VHWs. Each VHW was assigned for tasks of health care for average 55 households of 248 persons. They shared approximately 6 days a month for the activity in average and it covered 17 cases of basic health care in a month. A half of the VHWs performed home visits irregularly without solidified schedule. 3) Work performance analysis. Informations collected through VHWs were compared with data from official vital registration at local administration center "Myon Office" in 1985. VHWs collected 100.8 of new born, 116.2 of death, 58.3 of move in and 74.8 of move out in comparison with 100.0 of official registration each. Pregnant women of 79.8% of mothers among the total pregnancy of 94 which were confirmed as normally delivered or aborted cases by all means afterwards had been detected by VHWs as being pregnant and all of them received some of antenatal cares by VHWs. All(100%) of delivered women were detected by VHWs through home visits and they were cared postnatally. Whereas, according to the records of birth registration, the places of delivery were clinic in 33.7%, and mother's home in 66.3%, VHWs reported them to be clinic in 48.9%, midwifery in 20.2%. It was cleared that most of misinformation was caused by uncautious filling of birth registration at notification. Among the total of 717 eligible women under age 44 years, family planning status of 92.6% was reported by VHWs confirming practice of control to be 70.8% of reported fertile women. 4) Attitude of VHW on the roles and functions. Although 92.0% of VHWs expressed VHWs to be worthwhile, only 52.0% of them had dignity and satisfaction in their activity and 44.0% of them had passive attitude of working saying they followed direction regardlessly. Concerning difficulties in performance as a VHW, 60.7% of them pointed out lacking of medical and health related knowledge by themselves. Still, 64.0% of them thought visiting unfamilier house to be awful and 40.0% complained forms of activity to be difficult and hard. It was also revealed that 56.6% confessed lack of interest on community health service itself. Most of VHWs needed more educational training especially on clinical fields such as cares of gynecological diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseaes of the aged. Regular on-the-job basic trainings were said to be needed twice a year.

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Public Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling Regarding COVID-19's Three Waves of Total Lockdown: A Case Study on Movement Control Order in Malaysia

  • Alamoodi, A.H.;Baker, Mohammed Rashad;Albahri, O.S.;Zaidan, B.B.;Zaidan, A.A.;Wong, Wing-Kwong;Garfan, Salem;Albahri, A.S.;Alonso, Miguel A.;Jasim, Ali Najm;Baqer, M.J.
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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    • v.16 no.7
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    • pp.2169-2190
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    • 2022
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of human life. The pandemic not only caused millions of fatalities and problems but also changed public sentiment and behavior. Owing to the magnitude of this pandemic, governments worldwide adopted full lockdown measures that attracted much discussion on social media platforms. To investigate the effects of these lockdown measures, this study performed sentiment analysis and latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling on textual data from Twitter published during the three lockdown waves in Malaysia between 2020 and 2021. Three lockdown measures were identified, the related data for the first two weeks of each lockdown were collected and analysed to understand the public sentiment. The changes between these lockdowns were identified, and the latent topics were highlighted. Most of the public sentiment focused on the first lockdown as reflected in the large number of latent topics generated during this period. The overall sentiment for each lockdown was mostly positive, followed by neutral and then negative. Topic modelling results identified staying at home, quarantine and lockdown as the main aspects of discussion for the first lockdown, whilst importance of health measures and government efforts were the main aspects for the second and third lockdowns. Governments may utilise these findings to understand public sentiment and to formulate precautionary measures that can assure the safety of their citizens and tend to their most pressing problems. These results also highlight the importance of positive messaging during difficult times, establishing digital interventions and formulating new policies to improve the reaction of the public to emergency situations.