The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature for scientific articles in selected databases to determine the effects of aging on Type II muscle fibers in human skeletal muscles. They found that aging of Type II muscle fibers is primarily associated with a loss of fibers and a decrease in fiber size. Morphological changes with increasing age particularly included Type II fiber grouping. There is conflicting evidence regarding the change of proportion of Type II fibers. Type II muscle fibers seem to play an important role in the aging process of human skeletal muscles. According to this literature review, loss of fibers, decrease in size, and fiber-type grouping represent major quantitative changes. Because the process of aging involves various complex phenomena such as fiber-type coexpression, however, it seems difficult to assign those changes solely to a specific fiber type.

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Underreporting work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) has been an issue in South Korea. The purpose of this survey was to figure out how many employees of a semiconductor and liquid crystal display company in South Korea experience WRMSDs and what the possible obstacles in reporting to the company are. A survey was developed with demographic questions, perceived WRMSD symptoms, and reasons for reporting or not reporting WRMSD. The survey was distributed via the company’s intranet to all employees (24,380) whose employee identification number ended with an odd number. A total of 2862 employees completed the survey and the response rate was 11.7%. A total of 55.2% of respondents had felt at least one musculoskeletal symptom during the past year. More than 40% of workers who had experienced pain or discomfort during the past year thought their symptoms were more than 50%. work-related. More than one-fourth of respondents answered that they did not report their symptoms to the company more than once. The open-ended answers for not reporting WRMSD were categorized into seven common reasons. The reasons for not reporting WRMSD in previous studies show a combination of personal, organizational, socioeconomical, and cultural factors. To encourage and manage WRMSD effectively, seven recommendations of authors are described.

1)Pediatric home-based physical therapy (PHBPT) provides professional rehabilitation programs at the patient's home, where the activities of daily life are actually performed. PHBPT also allows to avoid the difficulties of transporting children with disabilities to the clinic. Despite these advantages, PHBPT is not yet widely practiced in Korea. There is little objective information regarding the opinions of the main stakeholders on PHBPT. To investigate the awareness and demand of PHBPT among the main stakeholders, 41 pediatric physical therapists (PT) (of 60 contacted) were recruited from different regions of Korea on the basis of the regional population distribution. The recruited PTs completed their questionnaires and also participated in collecting questionnaires from 35 medical doctors (MD) with whom they worked and from randomly selected 201 parents of children with disabilities recruited. The overall response rate was 85.5%. The awareness of PHBPT differed between PTs (95.1%) and parents (67.2%) (p<.001). The survey showed that 82.9% of MDs had at least heard about PHBPT. Significantly more parents (83.5%) than MDs (57.1%), and 70.0% of PTs, wanted to start PHBPT service immediately (p<.001). Significantly more parents (90.0%) than PTs (73.2%) were willing to participate in PHBPT (p<.001). Opinions on the details of policies and procedures (i.e., necessity for prescription, treatment cost, and treatment frequency) differed among the respondent groups, but all favored a minimal qualification of 6∼10 years of pediatric experience and a treatment session duration of 1 hour. These findings provide objective information to support health service administrators to understand the current demand and develop feasible policies and procedures of PHBPT in Korea.