Post-stroke depression (PSD) constitutes an important complication of stroke, leading to great disability. After stroke, the prevalence rate of depression is about 30%. Depression also affects rehabilitation motivation, delays function recovery, and increases family and social burden. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of social support on depression in chronic stroke patients and the relationship between demographic and disease characteristics. Total samples were randomly divided into an intervention group (n = 31) and a control group (n = 31). Sixteen social support interventions were performed over 8 weeks. Social support programs were implemented 2 times a week. Depressive symptoms were assessed at the second week, 4th week, 8th week, and 4 weeks after the end of the study using the 10-item Center for the Epidemiological Studies of Depression Short Form (CES-D10). There was a significant correlation between depression and the economic status of the patients with chronic stroke, satisfaction in leisure, the presence or absence of caregivers, the duration of stroke, and with or without pain. A significant difference was found between two groups after social support for 8 weeks. Our findings suggest that remission of PSD needs at least 8 weeks of social support.

The chain of survival has been shown to improve the chances of survival for victims of cardiac arrest. Post-cardiac arrest care has been demonstrated to significantly impact the survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). How post-cardiac arrest care influences the survival of OHCA patients has been a main concern in recent years. The objective of this study was to assess the survival outcome of hospitalized OHCA patients and determine the factors associated with improved survival in terms of survival to discharge. We conducted a retrospective observational study by analyzing records from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan from 2007 to 2013. We collected cases with an International Classification of Disease Clinical Modification, 9^th revision primary diagnosis codes of 427.41 (ventricular fibrillation, VF) or 427.5 (cardiac arrest) and excluded patients less than 18 years old, as well as cases with an unknown outcome or a combination of traumatic comorbidities. We then calculated the proportion of survival to discharge among hospitalized OHCA patients. Factors associated with the dependent variable were examined by logistic regression. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 22 (IBM, Armonk, NY). Of the 11,000 cases, 2,499 patients (22.7%) survived to hospital discharge. The mean age of subjects who survived to hospital discharge and those who did not was 66.7±16.7 and 71.7±15.2 years, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, neurological failure, cardiac comorbidities, hospital level, intensive care unit beds, transfer to another hospital, and length of hospital stay were independent predictors of improved survival. Cardiac rhythm on admission was a strong factor associated with survival to discharge (VF vs. non-VF: adjusted odds ratio: 3.51; 95% confidence interval: 3.06–4.01). In conclusion, cardiac comorbidities, hospital volume, cardiac rhythm on admission, transfer to another hospital and length of hospital stay had a significant positive association with survival to discharge in hospitalized OHCA patients in Taiwan.

Background and Objectives: Amebiasis remains an important public health problem worldwide, and immigration and increased international travel have affected incident disease cases. This study assesses the prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica in Taiwan between 2011 and 2020 by analyzing data from surveillance programs conducted by the Centers for Disease Control of Taiwan (TCDC) on laboratory-confirmed cases. Materials and Methods: The E. histolytica infection-related data reported to the National Infectious Diseases Statistics System at the TCDC from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2020 were collected, including age, gender, place of residence, and the geographic season of exposure for each case. Results: In total, 3066 cases with E. histolytica infections were included in our analysis. Among them, 1735 (57%) cases were imported, and 1331 (43%) were locally acquired. The average annual incidence rate of E. histolytica infections in Taiwan between 2011 and 2020 was 10.6 and 16.1 per 1,000,000 patients. There were statistical differences in gender, age group, and place of residence (p < 0.001) by the source distribution of cases. Also, these differences were found every year (p < 0.05). There were statistical differences in gender and age group (p < 0.001) by place of residence (p < 0.001). The only difference between the distribution of cases and age group was in gender (p < 0.001). Eight patients with amebiasis died, and the fatality rate was 0.3% (8/3066), of whom 75% (6/8) were male, and 75% (6/8) were over 45 years old. This study demonstrates that multiple linear regression analysis shows positive associations between NO₂ concentration and amebiasis cases (B value = 2.569, p = 0.019), O₃ concentration and amebiasis cases (B value = 0.294, p = 0.008), and temperature and amebiasis cases (B value = 1.096, p = 0.046). Conclusions: This study is the first report of confirmed E. histolytica cases from TCDC surveillance data between 2011 and 2020. This study showed the importance of long periods, air pollutants, and geographically comprehensive analysis for estimating the effect of amebiasis transmission in Taiwan’s populations.

The risk of the geographic transmission of emerging infectious diseases through air travel varies greatly. In this study, we collected data on cases of food-borne diseases between the years 2011 and 2020 in Taiwan to access the epidemiological features, differences, and trends in domestic and imported cases of typhoid and paratyphoid in terms of patient sex, age, month of confirmation, and area of residence. In this study, we made use of the open data website provided by Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (TCDC) to extract the reported numbers of cases of typhoid and paratyphoid between January and December from 2011 to 2020 for comparison. Univariate analysis was performed using the Chi-square test for categorical variables. Fisher’s exact test was performed if an expected frequency was less than 5. A total of 226 typhoid cases and 61 paratyphoid cases were analyzed from the database. The incidences of typhoid and paratyphoid per million of the population were 0.42–2.11 and 0–0.39, respectively. There was a significant difference in the incidence of the diseases between the age groups (p = 0.019), with a gradual increase in the 20–40 years group. A distinct seasonal (between fall and spring) variation was also observed (p = 0.012). There were 34 cases of children with typhoid in the period 2011–2015 and 12 cases of children with typhoid in the period 2016–2020. During these periods, there were two cases of paratyphoid. This study indicated that the risk of children suffering from typhoid has been significantly reduced in the last five years. Furthermore, we found that more women have acquired typhoid and paratyphoid than men, and that living in the Taipei metropolitan area and the northern area was a potential risk factor. Furthermore, the number of imported cases of typhoid (n = 3) and paratyphoid (n = 0) reported during the COVID-19 pandemic was lower than that reported for the same disease from 2011 to 2020. More typhoid and paratyphoid cases were imported from Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and Cambodia. This study represents the first report on confirmed cases of acquired typhoid and paratyphoid from surveillance data from Taiwan’s CDC for the period 2011–2020. This study also demonstrates that the cases of typhoid and paratyphoid decreased in Taiwan during the COVID pandemic. Big data were used in this study, which may inform future surveillance and research efforts in Taiwan.