scholarly journals Clinical outcomes and healthcare costs of inpatients with tetanus in Korea, 2011–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohyun Bae ◽  
Minsik Go ◽  
Yoonjung Kim ◽  
Soyoon Hwang ◽  
Shin-Woo Kim ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Tetanus is a rare, vaccine-preventable but extremely serious disease. We investigated the recent trend of the clinical outcomes and medical costs for inpatients with tetanus in South Korea over 10 years. Methods We conducted a retrospective review to determine the clinical factors and medical costs associated with tetanus at two national university hospitals in South Korea between January 2011 and October 2019. Results Forty-nine patients were admitted for tetanus (mean age, 67.0 years [range, 53.0–80.0 years]; 32 women [57.1%]). All the patients had generalized tetanus, and 5 (10.2%) died during hospitalization. The median duration from symptom onset to hospital admission was 4 days. Trismus (85.7%) was the most common symptom, and the median hospital stay was 39 days. Thirty-two patients (65.3%) required mechanical ventilation, and 20 (40.8%) developed aspiration pneumonia. The median total healthcare cost per patient was US $18,011. After discharge, 35 patients (71.4%) recovered sufficiently to walk without disability. Conclusions Tetanus requires long hospital stays and high medical expenditures in South Korea; however, the vaccination completion rate is low. Medical staff should therefore promote medical advice and policies on the management of tetanus to the general South Korean population.

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S777-S777
Author(s):  
Sohyun Bae ◽  
Hyun-Ha Chang ◽  
Sook In Jung ◽  
Shin-Woo kim ◽  
Yoonjung Kim

Abstract Background We aimed to investigate the recent trend of clinical outcomes and medical costs of inpatients with tetanus, which is a rare, vaccine-preventable but extremely grave disease, in Korea, in 2011–2019 for the first time. Methods From January 2011 to October 2019, this study examined 49 patients with tetanus admitted in 2 national university hospitals in Gwangju and Daegu of South Korea. Patients’ medical records were retrospectively reviewed to determine the clinical factors and medical cost for tetanus management. Results The mean age was 65.3 ± 16.1 years and 32 (65.3%) of them were female. All patients (100.0%) had generalized tetanus, and 5 (10.2%) died during admission. The median duration from symptom onset to hospital visit was 4 days. Trismus (85.7%) was the most common symptom, and wound of the lower extremities (24.5%) was the most frequent presumed entry site of toxin. Only 6 (15.0%) patients were operated for wound management. The median hospital stay was 39 (9; 49) days. Furthermore, 32 (65.3%) needed mechanical ventilation, and 20 (40.8%) patients developed aspiration pneumonia. The median total healthcare cost was 21,072 KRW(Korean Republic Won) (17,560 USD(United States Dollar); 1 USD = 1200 KRW) per person. After discharge, 35 (79.5%) patients fully recovered without any disability. Conclusion Tetanus remains a grave disease that requires long duration of admission and huge medical cost in Korea. The completion rate of 3-time tetanus toxoid (Td) or tetanus toxoid, acellular pertussis and diphtheria vaccine (Tdap) vaccination was low; thus, the medical staff needs to establish more medical advice or policies to the general population of Korea Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


2020 ◽  

Introduction: As the elderly comprise 14.3% of the South Korean population, suicide among the elderly has become a significant public concern. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed data from the Emergency Department-Based Injury In-depth Surveillance nationwide of South Korea. Patients aged ≥ 65years old who intentionally caused self-injury were included. These elderly patients were subdivided into age groups, and their associated characteristics and correlation between suicide attempt methods and the clinical outcomes were analyzed. Results: A total of 5,333 cases were analyzed. The mean age of the subjects was 75.1 years old, comprising 3,039 males (57.0%) and 2,294 females (43.0%). Substance exposure was the most frequent method across all age groups. In terms of risk factors of admission, drowning, hanging, and asphyxia showed the following results: OR 2.372 for the first group; OR 2.224 for the second group; and OR 5.606 for the third group. Fall/slip was identified as a risk factor of admission in the first and second groups (OR 5.016 for the first group; OR 5.101 for the second group). In terms of risk factors of mortality, drowning, hanging, and asphyxia showed the following results: OR 9.066 for the first group; OR 7.320 for the second group; and OR 7.135 for the third group. With regard to fall/slip, the results were OR 14.596 for the first group; OR 10.096 for the second group; and OR 24.167 for the third group. Conclusions: This study showed that clinical outcomes were different according to the suicide-related characteristics and chosen suicide method. Based on these results, it is necessary to prepare measures to prevent suicide of the elderly in the future.


Author(s):  
John P. DiMoia

This chapter looks at the voluntary vasectomy campaigns headed by Dr. Lee Hui-Yong at Seoul National University hospital, concurrent with ongoing family planning campaigns for much of the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, the surgery was first tested on a range of civilian subjects before becoming specifically attached to the Home Reserve Army (Yebigun), a body created in the late 1960s in the aftermath of a North Korean incursion and direct assault on the Blue House, or presidential residence. In a wonderful bit of irony, the hyper-masculinist rhetoric of the period asked South Korean males to stand for the nation, to father children and nurture them, and at the same time, to curb their reproductive urges after a proscribed number of children. Carrying into the 1970s, reservists received additional incentives (access to apartments, education for children, reduced reserve periods) for compliance with the “voluntary program. The logic and zeal of the program was such that numbers continued to peak into the 1980s and early 1990s, even as South Korea underwent democratization and the transition to pro-natal initiatives.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 2303-2309 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL E. FURST ◽  
ANCILLA W. FERNANDES ◽  
SERBAN R. IORGA ◽  
WARREN GRETH ◽  
TIM BANCROFT

Objective.Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease. The objective of our study was to estimate the medical costs and healthcare resource use of subjects with SSc in a large US managed care plan.Methods.Subjects at least 18 years of age and with claims-based evidence of SSc (ICD-9-CM code 710.1x) were identified from a health plan database from 2003 through 2008. Subjects were matched to unaffected controls, based on index date, age, sex, geographic region, time on insurance, and comorbidity score. Costs and resource use were identified during the 12-month postindex period. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to estimate costs, controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics.Results.In this study, 1648 subjects with SSc were matched to 4944 controls. Mean overall annual medical costs were higher among SSc subjects than controls ($17,365 vs $5,508; p < 0.001). A GLM model supported these results. Evidence of lung disease, gastrointestinal bleeding, or renal disease increased costs (all p < 0.001). Compared to controls, significantly higher proportions of SSc subjects had postindex ambulatory visits, emergency department visits, and inpatient hospital stays (all p < 0.001).Conclusion.Our findings suggest that the medical costs and resource use associated with treating SSc are high (compared to matched controls), and as expected, subjects with serious disease complications experience the highest costs.


Author(s):  
Minjeong Kim

With the unprecedented number of foreign-born population, South Korea has tried to reinvent itself as a multicultural society, but the intense multiculturalism efforts have focused exclusively on marriage immigrants. At the advent and height of South Korea’s eschewed multiculturalism, Elusive Belonging takes the readers to everyday lives of marriage immigrants in rural Korea where the projected image of a developed Korea which lured marriage immigrants and the gloomy reality of rural lives clashed. The intimate ethnographic account pays attention to emotional entanglements among Filipina wives, South Korean husbands, in-laws, and multicultural agents, with particular focus on such emotions as love, intimacy, anxiety, gratitude, and derision, which shape marriage immigrants’ fragmented citizenship and elusive sense of belonging to their new country. This investigation of the politics of belonging illuminates how marriage immigrants explore to mold a new identity in their new home, Korea.


2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Maman

This paper examines the emergence of business groups in Israel and South Korea. The paper questions how, in very different institutional contexts, similar economic organizations emerged. In contrast to the political, cultural and market perspectives, the comparative institutional analysis adopted in this research suggests that one factor alone could not explain the emergence of business groups. In Israel and South Korea, business groups emerged during the 1960s and 1970s, and there are common factors underlying their formation: state-society relations, the roles and beliefs of the elites, and the relative absence of multinational corporations in the economy. To a large extent, the chaebol are the result of an intended creation of the South Korean state, whereas the Israeli business groups are the outcome of state policies in the economic realm. In both countries, the state elite held a developmental ideology, did not rely on market forces for economic development, and had a desire for greater economic and military self-sufficiency. In addition, both states were recipients of large grants and loans from other countries, which made them less dependent on direct foreign investments. As a result, the emerging groups were protected from the intense competition of multinational corporations.


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