Novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a global threat to millions of lives. Enormous efforts in knowledge production have been made in the last few months, requiring a comprehensive analysis to examine the research gaps and to help guide an agenda for further studies. This study aims to explore the current research foci and their country variations regarding levels of income and COVID-19 transmission features. This textual analysis of 5780 publications extracted from the Web of Science, Medline, and Scopus databases was performed to explore the current research foci and propose further research agenda. The Latent Dirichlet allocation was used for topic modeling. Regression analysis was conducted to examine country variations in the research foci. Results indicate that publications are mainly contributed by the United States, China, and European countries. Guidelines for emergency care and surgical, viral pathogenesis, and global responses in the COVID-19 pandemic are the most common topics. There is variation in the research approaches to mitigate COVID-19 problems in countries with different income and transmission levels. Findings highlighted the need for global research collaborations among high- and low/middle-income countries in the different stages of pandemic prevention and control.

Background Psychological distress has been known as a major health problem among farmers across the world. In Vietnam, approximately 50% of farmers have lived in rural and mountainous areas. Yet, little has been known about how psychological distress impacts mountainous farmers’ health. Objectives This study aimed to examine the prevalence and risk factors related to psychological distress among mountainous farmers in Vietnam. Design and setting A cross-sectional study was performed from August to September 2018 in Moc Chau district, Vietnam. A structured questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were used for data collection. Participants A random sample of 197 farmers aged at least 18 years, spoke Vietnamese, was not suffering from severe diseases and residing in Moc Chau at the time of the survey were recruited. Primary and secondary outcome measures The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) was employed to measure psychological distress. The tobit and logistic regressions were applied to indicate associated factors. Results The prevalence of psychological distress was 38.2% (95% CI 31.3% to 45.5%). Having a greater comorbidities (OR=6.17; 95% CI 1.44 to 26.43), drinking alcohol (OR=3.86; 95% CI 1.02 to 14.59) and obtaining health information from health workers (OR=3.77; 95% CI 1.22 to 11.66) were positively associated with the prevalence of psychological distress. By contrast, being overweight (OR=0.29; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.93), adopting books as the primary source of health information (OR=0.11; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.8), and receiving a higher number of home visits by community health workers (CHWs) (OR=0.38; 95% CI 0.14 to 0.99) were negatively associated with the prevalence of psychological distress. Conclusion This study highlighted a high prevalence of psychological distress among mountainous farmers. Providing routine psychological and physical health screening, developing CHWs to provide clinical support and raising health awareness are critical implications for reducing psychological distress in this population.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI)–based technologies develop rapidly and have myriad applications in medicine and health care. However, there is a lack of comprehensive reporting on the productivity, workflow, topics, and research landscape of AI in this field. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the global development of scientific publications and constructed interdisciplinary research topics on the theory and practice of AI in medicine from 1977 to 2018. Methods: We obtained bibliographic data and abstract contents of publications published between 1977 and 2018 from the Web of Science database. A total of 27,451 eligible articles were analyzed. Research topics were classified by latent Dirichlet allocation, and principal component analysis was used to identify the construct of the research landscape. Results: The applications of AI have mainly impacted clinical settings (enhanced prognosis and diagnosis, robot-assisted surgery, and rehabilitation), data science and precision medicine (collecting individual data for precision medicine), and policy making (raising ethical and legal issues, especially regarding privacy and confidentiality of data). However, AI applications have not been commonly used in resource-poor settings due to the limit in infrastructure and human resources. Conclusions: The application of AI in medicine has grown rapidly and focuses on three leading platforms: clinical practices, clinical material, and policies. AI might be one of the methods to narrow down the inequality in health care and medicine between developing and developed countries. Technology transfer and support from developed countries are essential measures for the advancement of AI application in health care in developing countries.

Background: Depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation substantially reduce industrial workers’ productivity and performance. This study was performed to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation and identify associated factors among industrial workers in different provinces of Vietnam. Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in industrial zones of four provinces of Vietnam. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was employed to screen depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine factors related to depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Results: Of 1200 industrial workers, 30.5% and 33.6% industrial workers had positive depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in the last two weeks, respectively. There were 38.3% ever using mental health services in the last 12 months. High school education (OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.44–0.95); living in dormitory (OR = 3.07, 95% CI = 1.51–6.24), living with siblings (OR = 2.98; 95% CI = 1.32–6.75), having two children or more (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.03–2.03), high years of experience (OR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.89–0.98), suffering from burnout, alcohol use disorder (OR = 2.38; 95% CI = 1.72–3.28), and smoking status (OR = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.23–0.61) were associated with positive depressive symptoms. Living with children, working in mechanical/metallurgy/electronics factories, completely exhausted and often thinking of quitting, and alcohol use disorder were positively related to suicidal ideation. Conclusions: This study found a high prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among industrial workers in Vietnam. Regular screening and detecting high-risk groups, along with interventions to reduce health risk behaviors, burnout and on-site medical service quality improvement, are recommended to alleviate the burden of depression in industrial workers.

Background and aims: Excessive use of electronic devices has become a major global problem. However, little is known about the development and current landscape of research concerning this field. This study aimed at exploring the overall publication trend and topics of research on the overuse of electronic devices and the Internet from 1971 to 2017.Methods: We systematically searched the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases for published articles on the excessive use of electronic devices and the Internet. Data regarding the publication volume, international collaborations, and geographical locations were analyzed by bibliometrics analysis. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was undertaken to categorize publications into different research topics.Results: A total of 2,276 papers from the WOS and 600 papers from the Scopus were included. We found a dramatic increase in the number of scientific papers towards addiction to electronic devices and the Internet. The United State led in all publication parameters including the total number of papers and total citations. China, Korea and Taiwan were among the most prolific countries/regions. Smartphone addiction was the main concern, and the relationship between the overuse of electronic devices and the Internet and mental health issues have been highlighted. On the other hand, our study found a limited appearance of discussion on effective treatment and intervention.Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of this study call for more national and international cooperation in evaluating and intervening addiction to electronic devices and the Internet to gather more knowledge about this phenomenon and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.

Purpose. This study aims to explore the sociodemographic differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among Vietnamese patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Methods. A cross-sectional survey of 600 cardiovascular disease patients (300 inpatients and 300 outpatients) being treated at the Hanoi Heart Hospital was completed between July and December 2016. Data about HRQOL were collected by using the EuroQol-5 Dimensions-5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L) and EuroQOL-visual analogue scale (VAS). Sociodemographic characteristics were collected. A multivariate Tobit regression was used to detect the correlations between HRQOL and sociodemographic factors. Results. Our sample had an average EQ-5D index of 0.82 (SD=0.21) and VAS score of 77.8 (SD=13.6). Participants were most likely to report problems in pain/discomfort (38.8%) and anxiety/depression (35.2%) and were least likely to report problems related to self-care (19.8%). Age and sex were strongly associated with the EQ-5D index and the VAS. Having health insurance and the number of hospital visits were negatively associated with HRQOL, while participation in the chronic disease management program had the positive relationship. Conclusions. HRQOL among patients with CVD was moderately lower compared to the Vietnamese general population. Sociodemographic characteristics were strongly associated with HRQOL suggesting that addressing these inequalities should be prioritized in delivering services. Patients should also be encouraged to participate in the chronic disease management program due to its positive effects on quality of life.