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The outbreaks of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 resulted in unprecedented impacts on people's daily life. One of the most significant impacts to people is the fear of contacting the SARS virus while engaging daily routine activity. Here we use data from daily underground ridership in Taipei City and daily reported new SARS cases in Taiwan to model the dynamics of the public fear of the SARS virus during the wax and wane of the SARS period. We found that for each reported new SARS case there is an immediate loss of about 1200 underground ridership (the fresh fear). These daily loss rates dissipate to the following days with an e-folding time of about 28 days, reflecting the public perception on the risk of contacting SARS virus when traveling with the underground system (the residual fear). About 50% of daily ridership was lost during the peak of the 2003 SARS period, compared with the loss of 80% daily ridership during the closure of the underground system after Typhoon Nari, the loss of 50–70% ridership due to the closure of the governmental offices and schools during typhoon periods, and the loss of 60% daily ridership during Chinese New Year holidays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: To evaluate the risk of depressive disorders among non-alcoholic patients by using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of a matched cohort of 52 725 participants (10 545 non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients and 42 180 control patients) who were selected from the NHIRD. Patients were observed for a maximum of 11 years to determine the rates of newly onset depressive disorders, and Cox regression was used to identify the risk factors associated with depressive disorders in cirrhotic patients. Results: During the 11-year follow-up period, 395 (3.75%) non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients and 1 183 (2.80%) control patients were diagnosed with depressive disorders. The incidence risk ratio of depressive disorders between non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients and control patients was 1.76 (95% CI, 1.57–1.98, P<.001). After adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities, non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients were 1.75 times more likely to develop depressive disorders (95% CI, 1.56–1.96, P<.001) compared with the control patients. The hazard ratios for patients younger than 60 years old (1.31) and female (1.25) indicated that each is an independent risk factor for depressive disorders in non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients. Conclusions: The likelihood of developing depressive disorders is greater among non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients than among patients without cirrhosis. Symptoms of depression should be sought in patients with cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are prone to develop dementia. Results from a recent study indicated that statin users had lower chance of developing incident dementia. However there is little information on the potential benefits of statin use on dementia in patients with T2DM cohort. Method: A population-based retrospective study using a nationwide cohort of National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan was performed. T2DM cohort with regular use of statins was followed up to 8 years. Multivariate cox-proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the association between statin use and incidence of dementia including Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer dementia after adjusting for several potential confounders. Results: Among 28,321 patients diagnosed with T2DM age above 50 and without history of dementia before 2000/1/1, 15,770 patients who had never used statin and 2,400 patients who regularly used statin drugs were enrolled. After adjusting for age group, gender, CCI (Charlson-Deyo comorbidity index) group, stroke types and anti-diabetic drugs, regular statin use was associated with a decreased risk of developing incident Alzheimer's disease dementia (adjusted HR: 0.48, 95% CI 0.30 – 0.76, p<0.001), but not in non-Alzheimer dementia (adjusted HR: 1.07, 95% CI 0.54–2.12 p = 0.844) in patients with T2DM. Further analysis showed significant protective effects of the use of atorvastatin and simvastatin. Conclusion: Regular use of statins might decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in patients with T2DM while no benefit was observed in non-Alzheimer dementia. Among statins, both atorvastatin and simvastatin showed significant benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of the cyber bullying prevention WebQuest course implementation. Methodology/Findings: The study adopted the quasi-experimental design with two classes made up of a total of 61 junior high school students of seventh grade. The study subjects comprised of 30 students from the experimental group and 31 students from the control group. The experimental group received eight sessions (total 360 minutes) of the teaching intervention for four consecutive weeks, while the control group did not engage in any related courses. The self-compiled questionnaire for the student’s knowledge, attitudes, and intentions toward cyber bullying prevention was adopted. Data were analysed through generalized estimating equations to understand the immediate results on the student’s knowledge, attitudes, and intentions after the intervention. The results show that the WebQuest course immediately and effectively enhanced the knowledge of cyber bullying, reduced the intentions, and retained the effects after the learning. But it produced no significant impact on the attitude toward cyber bullying. Conclusions/Significance: The intervention through this pilot study was effective and positive for cyber bulling prevention. It was with small number of students. Therefore, studies with large number of students and long experimental times, in different areas and countries are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study estimates the risk of stroke within 5 years of newly diagnosed dementia among elderly persons aged 65 and above. We examined the relationship between antipsychotic usage and development of stroke in patients with dementia. Methods: We conducted a nationwide 5-year population-based study using data retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 (LHID2005) in Taiwan. The study cohort comprised 2243 patients with dementia aged ≥65 years who had at least one inpatient service claim or at least 2 ambulatory care claims, whereas the comparison cohort consisted of 6714 randomly selected subjects (3 for every dementia patient) and were matched with the study group according to sex, age, and index year. We further classified dementia patients into 2 groups based on their history of antipsychotic usage. A total of 1450 patients were classified into the antipsychotic usage group and the remaining 793 patients were classified into the non-antipsychotic usage group. Cox proportional-hazards regressions were performed to compute the 5-year stroke-free survival rates after adjusting for potentially confounding factors. Results: The dementia patients have a 2-fold greater risk of developing stroke within 5 years of diagnosis compared to non-dementia age- and sex-matched subjects, after adjusting for other risk factors (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.58–3.08; P<.001). Antipsychotic usage among patients with dementia increases risk of stroke 1.17-fold compared to patients without antipsychotic treatment (95% CI = 1.01–1.40; P<.05). Conclusions: Dementia may be an independent risk factor for stroke, and the use of antipsychotics may further increase the risk of stroke in dementia patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]