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Background: The relationship between young-onset dementia and peripheral vestibular disorders remained largely unknown although this association was observed in the older population. Objective: This case-control study aims to investigate the association of young-onset dementia with a pre-existing diagnosis of peripheral vestibular disorders using a population-based data from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010. Methods: This study included 989 patients with young-onset dementia and 2967 propensity-score-matching controls. Differences in baseline characteristic between patients with young-onset dementia and controls were investigated using chi-square tests or t-tests. Multiple logistic regression models were employed to assess the association of young-onset dementia (outcome) with pre-existing peripheral vestibular disorders (predictor). Results: Compared to patients without young-onset dementia, those affected by this condition exhibited a statistically significantly higher rate of peripheral vestibular disorders (18.3% versus 8.2%, p < 0.001). Furthermore, our analysis found notable between-group disparities in the rates of Meniere's Disease (3.5% versus 2.0%, p= 0.015), benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (2.4% versus 1.1%, p= 0.006), and vestibular neuritis (2.4% versus 1.1%, p= 0.003). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of prior peripheral vestibular disorders increased the odds of young-onset dementia [2.603 (95% CI = 2.105∼3.220)] after adjusting for age, sex, monthly income, geographic location, urbanization level, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, coronary heart disease, hearing loss, and hypertension. Conclusions: The study findings demonstrate a notable association between young-onset dementia and pre-existing peripheral vestibular disorders, suggesting that vestibular malfunction could play a role in the development of young-onset dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study is the first to illuminate a previously underexplored dimension in the intricate interplay between environmental factors, specifically dust storms (DSs), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) outcomes. An Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) time-series estimation model was employed to analyze rheumatoid arthritis outpatient visits, dust storms, air pollution, and meteorology data in Taiwan from 2006 to 2012. The results show that females are three times more likely to experience RA-related issues and seek medical attention. Percentage analysis revealed a 10–15% increase in daily RA outpatient visits on post-event days 1 and 2 compared to non-DS days. However, the time-series estimation indicated a delayed and statistically significant (p < 0.05) increase in RA outpatient visits on post-event day 1 for males but not females. Additionally, a significant increase in RA outpatient visits (p < 0.05) was observed on post-event day 1 among individuals aged 61 and above. Environmental factors such as temperature and SO2 showed strong significance across all genders and age groups (p < 0.001). The findings highlight distinct gender and age disparities regarding the impacts of DS on RA outpatient visits, emphasizing the heightened sensitivity of males to environmental pollutants and the vulnerability of the elderly population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to investigate the association of peripheral vestibular disorders with type 1 and type 2 diabetes using a population-based dataset. Methods: The data for this study were obtained from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010. The sample consisted of 150,916 patients who were newly diagnosed with peripheral vestibular disorders as cases and 452,748 propensity-score-matching controls without peripheral vestibular disorders. We utilized multivariate logistic regression models to quantitatively evaluate the association between peripheral vestibular disorders and diabetes while considering factors such as sex, age, geographic location, monthly income, urbanization level of the patient's residence, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Results: The chi-squared test indicates that diabetes was more common in the peripheral vestibular disorder group compared to controls (20.6% vs. 15.1%, p < 0.001). Of all sampled patients, the adjusted odds ratio for diabetes was 1.597 (95% CI = 1.570~1.623) for those with peripheral vestibular disorders when compared to controls, while patients with Ménière's disease, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, unilateral vestibulopathy, and other peripheral vestibular disorders had respective adjusted odds ratios of diabetes at 1.566 (95% CI = 1.498~1.638), 1.677 (95% CI = 1.603~1.755), 1.592 (95% CI = 1.504~1.685), and 1.588 (95% CI = l.555~1.621) in comparison to controls. Conclusions: Our research has revealed an association between diabetes and an increased susceptibility to peripheral vestibular disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the impact of the voucher-based economic stimulus policy and market strategy on museum traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. We apply a univariate time-series model (ARMAX) to daily-visit data of the National Palace Museums in Taiwan during 2016–2021, showing results that the consumption voucher program effectively did boost the number of visitors amid overall declines in tourists due to the lockdown. A comparison among the National Palace Museum branches further reveals that holding more outdoor art events by one branch induced a more potent effect of the stimulus policy. The findings suggest that outdoor art events can be a helpful strategy for museums, which traditionally rely on indoor art exhibitions, to mitigate the impact of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate prevalences of head and neck cancers in patients with and those without Sjögren's syndrome using a population‐based dataset. Methods: We retrieved sampled patients from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. This study included 38 930 patients with Sjögren's syndrome and 155 720 propensity‐score matched comparison patients without Sjögren's syndrome. Results: Chi‐squared tests revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in the prevalences of head and neck cancers between patients with Sjögren's syndrome and comparison patients (1.77% vs. 1.22%, p < 0.001). The odds ratio for head and neck cancers for patients with Sjögren's syndrome relative to the comparison group was 1.452 (95% CI = 1.325–1.592). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that patients with Sjögren's syndrome face increased odds of head and neck cancers, encompassing several sites including the oral cavity, oropharynx, nasopharynx, and thyroid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risks of tracheitis have been widely studied, but no investigation has yet to assess the impact of air pollutants on tracheitis hospital admissions. This research explores the relationship between Asia dust storm (ADS) and tracheitis hospital admissions, by using a Poisson time-series model on the 2000–2012 National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRB) from Taiwan and linking air pollutants and temperature data. From a total of 126,013 tracheitis hospital admissions, the average number of daily tracheitis hospital admissions is 26.53 and increases 10% notably one day after ADS. The empirical result shows that ADS does significantly affect tracheitis hospital admissions 3 and 5 days after an event for the overall sample and 2–4 days after it for females. For the age group <45, the number significantly increases 3–4 days after ADS, revealing that ADS has a prolonged effect on tracheitis hospital admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]