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Background: The extent of postoperative pain following transoral thyroidectomy is not well-understood and remains a subject of debate. This study aims to analyze and compare postoperative pain levels between patients undergoing transoral and conventional transcervical thyroidectomy. Methods: A prospective evaluation on postoperative pain was conducted in 310 patients undergoing conventional thyroidectomy and 194 undergoing transoral thyroidectomy. Pain levels were evaluated using the numerical rating scale (NRS, ranging from 0 to 10) through preoperative and postoperative questionnaires at specified time points: 1, 3, and 6 days, and 1 and 3 months following surgery. Propensity score-matched analysis was carried out based on six covariates: sex, age, body mass index, extent of thyroidectomy, tumor size, and central neck dissection. Results: After propensity score matching based on the six covariates, 121 patient pairs were identified from each group. Within this matched cohort, postoperative pain scores significantly worsened 1 day after surgery but showed progressive recovery up to 3 months post-surgery in both groups. The transoral group exhibited higher postoperative pain scores than the conventional group from day 1 (4.43 ± 2.6 vs. 3.11 ± 2.5, p < 0.001) to day 6 (1.76 ± 1.9 vs. 1.13 ± 1.6, p = 0.016) post-surgery, with no significant difference noted at 1 month. Among transoral procedures, pain scores were significantly higher for the endoscopic approach compared to the robotic approach on days 1 (5.52 ± 2.3 vs. 4.29 ± 2.3, p = 0.028) and 3 (3.52 ± 2.5 vs. 2.64 ± 2.0, p = 0.047) post-surgery. Conclusions: Postoperative pain was significantly higher in transoral thyroidectomy compared to conventional thyroidectomy up to 6 days post-surgery. Within the transoral group, the robotic procedure resulted in lower pain levels than the endoscopic approach during the early postoperative period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of functional disabilities, including difficulties in performing activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), increased significantly in recent years and burdened the healthcare system. Methods: We analysed data from Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLOSA) surveys, including participants aged 65 or older at baseline (2008), and participated in all 4-year follow-up periods in 2012, 2016, and 2020. A 4-year follow-up cohort study was applied to specify the change in functional disability and its trend over time among older adults. The generalized estimation equation (GEE) model was used to verify the uptrend of functional disability. Logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the influence of demographic and health parameters on the change in functional disability. Results: The prevalence of ADL disability was 2.24% at baseline, increased to 3.10% after four years, 6.42% after eight years, and reached 11.12% after 12 years, five times higher than that at baseline. For IADL disability, they were 10.67%, 10.61%, 18.18%, and 25.57%, respectively. The uptrend of ADL disability in persons aged 65–74 (1.77% at baseline, increased to 7.65% in 2020, 12-year change of 5.88%) was slower than in those aged 75 or older (4.22% at baseline, increased to 25.90% in 2020, 12-year change of 21.68%). IADL disability were consistent with this. The high ADL/IADL disability rate was also present among persons with poor health status, physical inactivity, depression, dementia, and multiple chronic diseases. The relative risk of ADL/IADL disability in persons with a history of functional disability was significantly higher than in those without historical disabilities. Conclusion: The study verified the change in functional disability and its upward trend over time by older adults' demographic and health parameters. Functional disability was relatively flat tending to increase slowly during the early years but increased rapidly in the following years. Factors that strongly influenced the change in prevalence and the uptrend of functional disability were advanced age, living alone, being underweight or obese, poor health status, physical inactivity, depression, dementia, having multiple chronic diseases, and especially having a historical disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing is a useful technique to determine spatial variations in crop growth while crop modelling can reproduce temporal changes in crop growth. In this study, we formulated a hybrid system of remote sensing and crop modelling based on a random-effect model and the empirical Bayesian approach for parameter estimation. Moreover, the relationship between the reflectance and the leaf area index was incorporated into the statistical model. Plant growth and ground-based canopy reflectance data of paddy rice were measured at three study sites in South Korea. Spatiotemporal vegetation indices were processed using remotely-sensed data from the RapidEye satellite and the Communication Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS). Solar insulation data were obtained from the Meteorological Imager (MI) sensor of the COMS. Reanalysis of air temperature data was collected from the Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS). We report on a statistical hybrid approach of crop modelling and remote sensing and a method to project spatiotemporal crop growth information. Our study results show that the crop growth values predicted using the hybrid scheme were in statistically acceptable agreement with the corresponding measurements. Simulated yields were not significantly different from the measured yields at p = 0.883 in calibration and p = 0.839 in validation, according to two-sample t tests. In a geospatial simulation of yield, no significant difference was found between the simulated and observed mean value at p = 0.392 based on a two-sample t test as well. The fabricated approach allows us to monitor crop growth information and estimate crop-modelling processes using remote sensing data from various platforms and optical sensors with different ground resolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]