[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between handgrip strength and mild cognitive impairment in elderly adults. [Subjects] Study participants included 2,982 adults (1,366 males and 1,616 females), aged 65 years or older. [Methods] This population-based cross-sectional study used the baseline database from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. [Results] The odds ratio for mild cognitive impairment showed a significant linear decrease in relation to the quartile of handgrip strength, independent of potential covariates, in both men and women. Moreover, after excluding incident cases of mild cognitive impairment, the results showed that greater handgrip strength was associated with higher cognitive function scores in the elderly. [Conclusion] The findings presented here suggest that handgrip strength is associated with a risk of mild cognitive impairment in the Korean elderly. Moreover, greater handgrip strength is associated with higher cognitive function in cognitively normal elderly individuals.

Prolonged sedentary time and sleep deprivation are associated with mental health problems such as depression and stress symptoms. Moreover, mental illness is linked with suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. However, it is not clear whether sedentary time and sleep duration are associated with stress symptoms and suicidal thoughts independent of physical activity. Thus, our study aimed to identify if sedentary time and sleep duration were associated with both stress symptoms and suicidal thoughts. The participants in present cross-sectional study were 4,674 general Korean adults (1,938 male; 2,736 female), aged ≥ 20 years. Prolonged sedentary time (≥ 420 min/day) was significantly associated with the increased risk of stress symptoms (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.04-1.62) compared with sedentary time of < 240 min/day. The OR for stress symptoms was significant for individuals who had ≤ 5 h/day of sleep time (OR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.48-2.38) compared with sleep duration of ≥ 7 h/day. Moreover, prolonged sedentary time (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.01-2.42 in ≥ 420 min/day vs. < 240 min/day) and short sleep duration (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.17-2.62 in ≤ 5 h/day vs. ≥ 7 h/day) were significantly associated with an increased risk for suicidal thoughts after adjusting for confounding factors including physical activity. Thus, prolonged sedentary time and sleep deprivation are independently associated with both the risk of stress symptoms and suicidal thoughts. From a public health perspective, reducing sedentary time and improvement of sleep deprivation may serve as an effective strategy for preventing mental illness.

Treatment with topical cyclosporine A 0.05% can improve ocular discomfort and increase tear film BUT during the early postoperative period, especially in patients with preoperative dry eye.

No abstract

The cognitive functional decline is observed in most elderly people. Previous epidemiological studies suggested that cognitive decline is associated with development of dementia. Annually, 10-15% of older people with mild cognitive impairment progress to dementia compared with 1-2% of older people with normal cognition [2,3]. Previous studies suggests that higher physical activity are associated with prevention of the decline in cognitive function and reduced risk of dementia with aging [4][5][6]. In addition, changes in physical activity may contribute to age-related changes in biological vitality and physical function. Moreover, higher levels of physical activity is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, physical function decline, and frailty [7][8][9][10]. Therefore, physical activity may also have an effect on the risk of cognitive dysfunction.Previous studies have investigated the association between physical activity and cognitive functions. However, only a few examined the associations between physical activity and cognitive function in the Korean population. Additionally, to our knowledge, physical activity level recommended by current guidelines for Korean adults has not been reported as a potential predictor of cognitive OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to investigate the association of physical activity and cognitive function in the Korean population. METHODS: This study included 9,177 adults aged 45 years and older who completed the baseline survey of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Physical activity was assessed using a questionnaire. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini Mental Status Evaluation. RESULTS: The odds ratio for the cognitive dysfunction was significantly and linearly decreased according to the levels of physical activity independent of confounding factors. We also found consistent results when investigated these associations using stratified model by sex and age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that physical activity is associated with lower risk of cognitive dysfunction in the middle-aged and older Korean adults. ABSTRACT KEY

No abstract

Purpose:To investigate the correlation between Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) genes and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: In this case-control study, 131 patients who were diagnosed with DR, 105 diabetic patients who did not have DR, and 45 nondiabetic controls were examined from January 2013 to November 2015. To analyze deletion of the GSTT1 and GSTM1 genes, polymerase chain reactions of DNA in a buffy coat from peripheral blood were performed via electrophoresis. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in age, sex, or spherical equivalent between the 236 type 2 diabetic patients and the 45 normal controls (p > 0.05). In both univariate and multivariate analyses, the duration of type 2 DR was longer (p = 0.004, p = 0.013), and HbA1c was higher (p = 0.004, p = 0.007) in the DR group than in the non-DR group. Presence of a GSTM1 deletion is associated with a lower frequency of DR (p = 0.017, p = 0.012). Conclusions: Deletion of the GSTT1 gene is not associated with an increased risk of DR, whereas GSTM1 deletion is associated with a lower risk of DR in patients with type 2 DM in the Korean population. Additional studies with larger sample sizes and different types of GST genes are needed to confirm this study. J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2017;58(3):313-320

Purpose:We evaluated the short-term clinical outcomes of patients who underwent modified scleral fixation of an intraocular lens (IOL) using a scleral tunnel and groove. Methods: From June 2016 to May 2017, 34 eyes of 34 patients who underwent modified scleral fixation of an IOL using a scleral tunnel and groove were retrospectively studied. We evaluated the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), corneal endothelial cell density, intraocular pressure (IOP), spherical equivalent, and postoperative complications at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery. Results: The BCVA was 0.85 ± 0.83 logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) before surgery and 0.38 ± 0.61 logMAR at 6 months (p = 0.001). The corneal endothelial cell count was 1,955.12 ± 217/mm 2 and 1,852.59 ± 190/mm 2 , before and after surgery, respectively, which was not significantly different (p = 0.186). Postoperative complications occurred in eight eyes (23.5%); IOP elevation in one eye (2.9%), IOL tilt or decentration in two eyes (5.7%), optic capture in four eyes (11.4%), and cystic macular edema in one eye (2.9%). The spherical equivalent showed myopic changes after surgery and decreased significantly over time (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Modified scleral fixation of the IOL using a scleral tunnel and groove improved the BCVA, but did not significantly affect corneal endothelial cell loss. This procedure can be a good alternative to conventional scleral fixation of an IOL, which has advantages in shortened surgical time and easy surgical manipulation. J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2019;60(3):246-252