The relationship between stress and oral health-related quality of life in public officials during the COVID-19 pandemic / 대한구강보건학회지

Objectives@#The purpose of this study was to identify whether stress experienced by those working in the local civil service was related to their oral health during the COVID-19 pandemic. @*Methods@#A survey was conducted on 431 civil servants from eight districts, currently working in the Daegu City Hall had COVID-19 related work duties during the pandemic. @*Results@#Several factors associated with oral health related quality of life were explored. Demographic details revealed that men had significantly better oral health related life quality as compared to women; further, being younger, being unmarried, and having a lower position had better outcomes for oral health related quality of life. Regarding the relationship between oral health behavior and oral health related quality of life, it was found that the better the subjective oral health, the higher the rate of not visiting the dentist in the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a particularly important time to explore in order to understand how the stress experienced by local government officials is related to their oral health. It has been especially noted that the higher the work stress, the worse the oral health related quality of life amongst individuals. @*Conclusions@#Results of this study emphasize that at a time when fatigue among civil servants is increasing due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, oral conditions caused by stress should be identified and greater awareness should be created about oral health care.

Disruption of the Gut Ecosystem by Antibiotics

The intestinal microbiota is a complex ecosystem consisting of various microorganisms that expands human genetic repertoire and therefore affects human health and disease. The metabolic processes and signal transduction pathways of the host and intestinal microorganisms are intimately linked, and abnormal progression of each process leads to changes in the intestinal environment. Alterations in microbial communities lead to changes in functional structures based on the metabolites produced in the gut, and these environmental changes result in various bacterial infections and chronic enteric inflammatory diseases. Here, we illustrate how antibiotics are associated with an increased risk of antibiotic-associated diseases by driving intestinal environment changes that favor the proliferation and virulence of pathogens. Understanding the pathogenesis caused by antibiotics would be a crucial key to the treatment of antibiotic-associated diseases by mitigating changes in the intestinal environment and restoring it to its original state.

Treatment-Seeking Behaviors and Related Epidemiological Features in Korean Acne Patients

Little is known about the treatment-seeking behaviors of acne patients, especially Asian acne patients. This study was performed to obtain detailed information about the treatment-seeking behaviors in Korean acne patients. Patients who visited the dermatology departments at 17 university hospitals completed a self-administered questionnaire. Most patients obtained information about acne from doctors or the Internet. The most important criteria for selecting a treatment method or choosing a particular clinic were effectiveness and accessibility. Patients used traditional medicine, visited beauty clinics, drank more water, and used over-the-counter topical agents more frequently than they sought doctors during the worsening period. The degree of satisfaction in treatment was found to depend on the total cost of treatment, number of places visited, site affected by acne, and emotional stress. Those who had experienced a side effect tended to have been treated for longer, to have paid more for treatment, and to have an associated skin disease. Treatments prescribed by dermatology clinics had the lowest aggravating rate, although improvement rates for family medicine clinics were also fairly high. This is the first study to investigate in detail the demographic features and characteristics of the treatmentseeking behaviors of acne patients in Asia.