• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.5119-5124
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• 2015

Background: HPV vaccination in Singapore is voluntary and physician prescription-based. This study investigated the current status and intention for HPV vaccination among Singapore nurses. Materials and Methods: All female nurses in a general hospital were given an anonymous questionnaire on HPV vaccination experience and intention of vaccinating their daughters. The influence of age, knowledge and perceived-risk of cervical cancer, and cultural background on mother's intention of vaccinating their daughters was analyzed. Results: Of 2,000 nurses, 1,622 (81.1%) responded and analysis was performed on 1,611 with valid data. They showed good awareness on association of cervical cancer with multiple sexual partners (81.9%), history of sexually transmissible diseases (78.2%), and history of genital warts/HPV infection (73.5%), and on cervical cancer preventive effects of HPV vaccination (54.6%). The prevailing misconceptions of the vaccines were: investigational nature (38.9%), side effects (27.9%) and indicated for women at high risk for cervical cancer (20.5%). Conclusions: Misconceptions on the nature, role and safety of HPV vaccines low vaccine up-take rates and daughters. Dissemination of adequate and accurate HPV vaccine information and a review for school-based vaccination are needed for optimal delivery of HPV vaccines in Singapore.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.141-148
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• 2011

Annual epidemics of seasonal influenza occur during autumn and winter in temperate regions and have imposed substantial public health and economic burdens. At the global level, these epidemics cause about 3-5 million severe cases of illness and about 0.25-0.5 million deaths each year. Although annual vaccination is the most effective way to prevent the disease and its severe outcomes, influenza vaccination coverage rates have been at suboptimal levels in many countries. For instance, the coverage rates among the elderly in 20 developed nations in 2008 ranged from 21% to 78% (median 65%). In the U.S., influenza vaccination levels among elderly population appeared to reach a "plateau" of about 70% after the late 1990s, and levels among child populations have remained at less than 50%. In addition, disparities in the coverage rates across subpopulations within a country present another important public health issue. New approaches are needed for countries striving both to improve their overall coverage rates and to eliminate disparities. This review article aims to describe a broad conceptual framework of vaccination, and to illustrate four potential determinants of influenza vaccination based on empirical analyses of U.S. nationally representative populations. These determinants include the ongoing influenza epidemic level, mass media reporting on influenza-related topics, reimbursement rate for providers to administer influenza vaccination, and vaccine supply. It additionally proposes specific policy implications, derived from these empirical analyses, to improve the influenza vaccination coverage rate and associated disparities in the U.S., which could be generalizable to other countries.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.239-261
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• 2022

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore and compare changes in tourist opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak has caused changes in all areas of our lives, the conditions related to confinement during a lockdown have led to changes in tourists' habits and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach To analyze opinion changes about tourist attractions, this study performed topic modeling by summarizing topics into five dimensions: management, scenery, price, suggestion, and safety; then, based on the topic modeling results, sentiment analysis and emotion analysis were conducted to explore the change of tourists' opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings According to the results, this study confirmed the pandemic's positive effect on tourists' opinions about attractions after the COVID 19 outbreak. Presumably due to the absence of lines and crowed. Moreover, the dimension 'Safety' started to appear in US tourists' attractions reviews only in the period after the outbreak and during the mass vaccination. These results mean that tourists started to care more about safety due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.62 no.11
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• pp.416-421
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• 2019

Background: The seropositivity rate of hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) antibodies is known to be ≥95% after hepatitis B virus vaccination during infancy. However, a low level or absence of anti-HBs in healthy children is discovered in many cases. Recent studies in adults reported that a reduced anti-HBs production rate is related to obesity. Purpose: To investigate whether body mass index (BMI) affects anti-HBs levels in healthy children following 3 serial dose vaccinations in infancy. Methods: We recruited 1,200 healthy volunteers aged 3, 5, 7, or 10 years from 4-day care centers and 4 elementary schools. All subjects completed a questionnaire including body weight, height, and vaccine type received. Levels of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HBs in all subjects were analyzed using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. The standardized scores (z score) for each sex and age were obtained using the lambda-mu-sigma method in the 2017 Korean National Growth Charts for children and adolescents. Results: Our subjects (n=1,200) comprised 750 males (62.5%) and 450 females (37.5%). The overall anti-HBs seropositivity rate was 57.9% (695 of 1,200). We identified significant differences in mean BMI values between seronegative and seropositive groups (17.45 vs. 16.62, respectively; P<0.001). The anti-HBs titer was significantly decreased as the BMI z score increased adjusting for age and sex (B=-15.725; standard error=5.494; P=0.004). The probability of anti-HBs seropositivity based on BMI z score was decreased to an OR of 0.820 after the control for confounding variables (95% confidence interval, 0.728-0.923; P=0.001). Conclusion: There was a significant association between anti-HBs titer and BMI z score after adjustment for age and sex. Our results indicate that BMI is a potential factor affecting anti-HBs titer in healthy children.