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Objectives This study aimed to identify the survival rate and explore factors affecting survival among early COVID-19 patients in South Korea. Methods Data reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), up to 15 July, when COVID-19 was confirmed were used as research data in connection with the National Health Insurance Service’s (NHIS) national health information database. The final analysis targets were 12,646 confirmed patients and 303 deaths. The survival rate of patients with COVID-19 was estimated through Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed to search for factors affecting survival. Results When looking at the survival rate by age group for men and women, the 28-day survival rate for men aged >80 years was 77% and 73% at 42 days, while 83% and 81% for women. Men had a worse survival rate than women. For chronic diseases, the highest risk of mortality was observed in malignant neoplasms of the respiratory and urogenital systems, followed by diseases of the urinary system and diabetes. Conclusions The number of COVID-19 deaths was highest the next day after initial diagnosis. The case fatality rate was high in males, older age, and chronic diseases.

Researchers have been interested in probing how the environmental factors associated with allergic diseases affect the use of medical services. Considering this demand, we have constructed a database, named the Allergic Disease Database, based on the National Health Insurance Database (NHID). The NHID contains information on demographic and medical service utilization for approximately 99% of the Korean population. This study targeted 3 major allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and asthma. For the target diseases, our database provides daily medical service information, including the number of daily visits from 2013 and 2017, categorized by patients’ characteristics such as address, sex, age, and duration of residence. We provide additional information, including yearly population, a number of patients, and averaged geocoding coordinates by eup, myeon, and dong district code (the smallest-scale administrative units in Korea). This information enables researchers to analyze how daily changes in the environmental factors of allergic diseases (e.g., particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and ozone) in certain regions would influence patients’ behavioral patterns of medical service utilization. Moreover, researchers can analyze long-term trends in allergic diseases and the health effects caused by environmental factors such as daily climate and pollution data. The advantages of this database are easy access to data, additional levels of geographic detail, time-efficient data-refining and processing, and a de-identification process that minimizes the exposure of identifiable personal information. All datasets included in the Allergic Disease Database can be downloaded by accessing the National Health Insurance Service data sharing webpage (https://nhiss.nhis.or.kr).

Background Mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major concern for quarantine departments in all countries. This is because the mortality of infectious diseases determines the basic policy stance of measures to prevent infectious diseases. Early screening of high-risk groups and taking action are the basics of disease management. This study examined the correlation of comorbidities on the mortality of patients with COVID-19. Methods We constructed epidemiologic characteristics and medical history database based on the Korean National Health Insurance Service Big Data and linked COVID-19 registry data of Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC) for this emergent observational cohort study. A total of 9,148 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included. Mortalities by sex, age, district, income level and all range of comorbidities classified by International Classification of Diseases-10 based 298 categories were estimated. Results There were 3,556 male confirmed cases, 67 deaths, and crude death rate (CDR) of 1.88%. There were 5,592 females, 63 deaths, and CDR of 1.13%. The most confirmed cases were 1,352 patients between the ages of 20 to 24, followed by 25 to 29. As a result of multivariate logistic regression analysis that adjusted epidemiologic factors to view the risk of death, the odds ratio of death would be hemorrhagic conditions and other diseases of blood and blood-forming organs 3.88-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52–9.88), heart failure 3.17-fold (95% CI, 1.88–5.34), renal failure 3.07-fold (95% CI, 1.43–6.61), prostate malignant neoplasm 2.88-fold (95% CI, 1.01–8.22), acute myocardial infarction 2.38-fold (95% CI, 1.03–5.49), diabetes was 1.82-fold (95% CI, 1.25–2.67), and other ischemic heart disease 1.71-fold (95% CI, 1.09–2.66). Conclusion We hope that this study could provide information on high risk groups for preemptive interventions. In the future, if a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed, it is expected that this study will be the basic data for recommending immunization by selecting those with chronic disease that had high risk of death, as recommended target diseases for vaccination., Graphical Abstract

External quality assessment (EQA) is a commonly used tool to track the performance of laboratory tests. In Korea, EQA participation is not mandatory, and even basic data about EQA participation are not available. We used data of a 10-year period extracted from two databases (2009&ndash, 2018): (1) the database of the National Health Insurance Service to calculate the number of medical institutions that claimed health insurance benefits, and (2) the database of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service to calculate the number of medical institutions participating in EQA. The proportion of institutions that made claims for the performance of laboratory testing throughout the 10 years were 73.6%&ndash, 76.0% for clinics, 91.9%&ndash, 97.5% for long-term care hospitals, 97.9%&ndash, 99.5% for small to medium hospitals, 99.6%&ndash, 100% for general hospitals, and 100% for tertiary hospitals. The mean EQA participation rate of institutions that performed laboratory testing for the 10 years was 1.9% for clinics, 3.1% for long-term care hospitals, 27.7% for small to medium hospitals, 96.6% for general hospitals, and 100% for tertiary hospitals. The mean EQA participation of clinics, long-term care hospitals, and small to medium hospitals are increasing but is still not sufficient. Regulatory approaches are needed to increase participation rates. This result would be used for health policymaking on the quality improvement of laboratory tests.

We constructed the family tree database (DB) by using a new family code system that can logically express interpersonal family relationships and by comparing and complementing health insurance eligibility data and resident register data of the National Health Information Database (NHID). In the family tree DB, Parents and grandparents are matched for more than 95% of those who were born between 2010 and 2017. Codes for inverse relationships and extended relationships are generated using sequences of the three-digit basic family codes. The family tree DB contains variables such as sex, birth year, family relations, and degree of kinship (maximum of 4) between subjects and family members. Using the family tree DB, we find that prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer are higher for those with family history. The family tree DB may omit some relationships due to incomplete past data, and some family relations cannot be uniquely determined because the source data only contain relationships between head and members of the household. The family tree DB is a part of the NHID, and researchers can submit requests for data on the website at http://nhiss.nhis.or.kr. Requested data will be provided after approval from the data service review board. However, the family tree DB can be limitedly provided for studies with high public value in order to maximize personal information protection.

This study was to analyze the gambling media system, one of important factors in horse racing industry. The purpose of this study is to show a vision in special field of horse racing industry, which is examined as comparative analysis on domestic and foreign gambling media system in terms of Large Technological Systems by Hughes(1987). This study approaches in two different viewpoints. First, this study is to conceptualize the subjects of study in Large Technological System. Second, this study is to show common factors and differences on domestic and foreign gambling media system through conceptualization. This paper shows vision and implications like faster decision-making by authority's direct operating, competitive content development, future policy in accordance with the international open-door policy and broadcasting convergence for the balanced development of horse industry through the gambling media system, analyzing reverse salient which is the barrier of domestic gambling media system from comparative study.

PurposeThe National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)-Senior was set up to provide high-quality longitudinal data that can be used to explore various aspects of changes in the socio-economical and health status of older adults, to predict risk factors and to investigate their health outcomes.ParticipantsThe NHIS-Senior cohort, a Korean nationwide retrospective administrative data cohort, is composed of older adults aged 60 years and over in 2002. It consists of 558 147 people selected by 10% simple random sampling method from a total of 5.5 million subjects aged 60+ in the National Health Information Database. The cohort was followed up through 2015 for all subjects, except for those who were deceased.Findings to dateThe healthcare utilisation and admission rates were the highest for acute upper respiratory infections and influenza (75.2%). The age-standardised (defined with reference to the world standard population) mortality rate for 10 years (through 2012) was 4333 per 100 000 person-years. Malignant neoplasms were the most common cause of death in both sexes (1032.1 per 100 000 person-years for men, 376.7 per 100 000 person-years for women). A total of 34 483 individuals applied for long-term care service in 2008, of whom 17.9% were assessed as grade 1, meaning that they were completely dependent on the help of another person to live daily life.Future plansThe data are provided for the purposes of policy and academic research under the Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data in Korea. The NHIS-Senior cohort data are only available for Korean researchers at the moment, but it is possible for researchers outside the country to gain access to the data by conducting a joint study with a Korean researcher. The cohort will be maintained and continuously updated by the NHIS.

Some digital signal processing applications, such as FFT's, request multiplications with a group (or, groups) of a few predetermined coefficients. In this paper, based on the variation of the modified Booth encoding method, an efficient modified Booth multiplier design method for predetermined coefficient groups is proposed. In the case of pulse-shaping filter design used in CDMA, it is shown that by the proposed method, area and power consumption can be reduced up to 44% and 48%, respectively, compared with the conventional designs. Also, it is shown that in the case of 128-point radix-24 FFT, the area and power consumption can be reduced by 18% and 36%, respectively.