College student volunteers (n = 142) completed a 580 km road march for 21 consecutive days. Each volunteer carried a backpack that weighed 14.1 ± 1.4 kg on the average. We investigated the incidence and location of blisters associated with the road march using a foot map along with other injuries. Overall, 95.1% of the subjects (135 of 142) sustained one or more injuries. All injured subjects had foot blisters, and 18% had other foot injuries. The most common locations of blister development were the right 5th toe (61%) and the left 5th toe (57%). The little toes seem to have been subjected to the greatest friction and shearing forces. March-related injuries, excluding foot injuries, were ankle pain (12.7%), knee pain (12.7%) and Achilles tendon pain (7.7%). Six subjects (4.2%) needed extra medical treatment for more than 2 weeks prior to returning to their daily lives after completion of the march due to associated injuries. The present study observed a very high incidence rate of injuries (95.1%) associated with the 580 km university students grand road march. These injuries posed an obstacle against completion of the road march and against returning to daily life. Active preventive interventions such as physical therapy and customized reinforced shoes and education program are recommended for reducing incidence rate and severity of injuries.
Through the International Safe Community program, communities are able to realize a healthy community and achieve improved quality of lives for the people, which is the ultimate objective of the Safe Community model. In addition, it will contribute to the economic vitalization and gain through energy and enhancement of productivity of people.
ObjectiveThe injury-related disease burden in South Korea is relatively high compared to that in other nations. This study was conducted to identify the scale and causes of injury by severity, using an injury pyramid and analyzing the sex and age-dependent differences and the basic demographic characteristics.MethodsUnintentional injury was estimated for each group after classifying injury-related deaths, hospitalizations, and outpatient department (OPD) visits based on their severity. The injury pyramid was calculated by classifying the injury outcomes into deaths, hospitalizations, and outpatient visits.ResultsThe incidence of unintentional injury included 31.74 deaths, 1,715.27 hospitalizations, and 7,317.55 OPD visits per 100,000 persons. The incidence of injury was higher among males than that among females. There were more hospitalizations and OPD visits than deaths among females. The mortality and hospitalization rates due to injury per 100,000 persons were the highest among those ≥75 years old, and the OPD visit rate was the highest among preschool children aged 0 to 6 years. The injury mechanisms that caused most deaths and hospitalizations in South Korea were injuries related to traffic, falls, poisoning, and burns/fires.ConclusionThe scale of unintentional injury varies based on sex, age, and injury mechanism; additionally there are differences in the incidence of injuries between males and females depending on their age and injury mechanism. The high incidence of injury in elderly people could be a factor that increases the burden of injury in South Korea; hence, it is necessary to develop an injury prevention program that targets the elderly.
Older adults are vulnerable to drug overdose. We used a multi-method approach to prioritise risk factors for prescription drug overdose among older adults. The study was conducted in two stages. First, risk factors for drug overdose were classified according to importance and changeability through literature review, determined through 2-phase expert surveys. Second, prescription drug overdose cases during 2011–2015 were selected from a national cohort; the prevalence of ‘more important’ or ‘more changeable’ factors determined in stage one was investigated. Scores were assigned according to the Basic Priority Rating Scale formula, reflecting the problem size and seriousness and intervention effectiveness. In the first stage, polypharmacy, old-old age, female sex, chronic disease, psychiatric disease, and low socioeconomic status (SES) were selected as risk factors. In the second stage, 93.9% of cases enrolled had chronic medical disease; 78.3% were using multiple drugs. Low SES was more prevalent than other risk factors. As per the scoring formula, chronic medical disease, polypharmacy, psychiatric disease, low SES, female sex, and old-old age were the most important risk factors in order of priority. Patients with chronic medical disease and those using multiple medications should be prioritised in overdose prevention interventions among older adults.
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