Yoon D, et al. Healthc Inform Res. 2016 Jan;22(1):54-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.4258/hir.2016.22.1.54

Objectives This study used National Health Insurance claims data from Korea to report the prevalence of sleep disorders and treatment status, including traditional Korean medicine, in the last 10 years. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study in Korea. All diagnosis and prescription data, including herbal medicine claims, from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service from 2011 to 2020 were reviewed. Prevalence estimation, direct medical expenses and prescribed amounts for sleep disorders were recorded. Results The prevalence of sleep disorders increased from 3 867 975 (7.62%) in 2011 to 7 446 846 (14.41%) in 2020, nearly doubling over 10 years. Insomnia was observed in 91.44% (n=9 011 692) of the patients. The mean number of hospital visits per patient for sleep disorders was 11.5 (±26.62). Benzodiazepines are the most commonly prescribed medications for sleep disorders, and gamma-isoyosan is the most frequently prescribed herbal medicine. Conclusions Sleep disorders are continuously increasing, as is the use of medical services—personal and social medical expenses are also increasing accordingly. Sleep disorders should be recognised as a significant health problem that needs to be actively addressed to improve quality of life.

The second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson’s disease (PD), is characterized by a broad spectrum of symptoms that are associated with its progression. Several studies have attempted to classify PD according to its clinical manifestations and establish objective biomarkers for early diagnosis and for predicting the prognosis of the disease. Recent comprehensive research on the classification of PD using clinical phenotypes has included factors such as dominance, severity, and prognosis of motor and non-motor symptoms and biomarkers. Additionally, neuroimaging studies have attempted to reveal the pathological substrate for motor symptoms. Genetic and transcriptomic studies have contributed to our understanding of the underlying molecular pathogenic mechanisms and provided a basis for classifying PD. Moreover, an understanding of the heterogeneity of clinical manifestations in PD is required for a personalized medicine approach. Herein, we discuss the possible subtypes of PD based on clinical features, neuroimaging, and biomarkers for developing personalized medicine for PD. In addition, we conduct a preliminary clustering using gait features for subtyping PD. We believe that subtyping may facilitate the development of therapeutic strategies for PD.

As sleep duration and quality are associated with various diseases, many devices have been developed to assess sleep. We reviewed the devices used to assess sleep and their performance, focusing on Fitbit, one of the most popular devices for tracking sleep. Although previous studies have reported conflicting results regarding Fitbit’s estimation of the sleep index, most studies have shown that it has acceptable accuracy and high sensitivity. Its performance could be affected by various factors such as participants’ sleep characteristics, sleep hours and stages, analysis methods, devices compared, device models and settings, and the dominant/non-dominant wrist wearing the device. Therefore, these factors should be considered when using Fitbit to assess sleep patterns.

Ahn EK, et al. Healthc Inform Res. 2014 Oct;20(4):280-287. http://dx.doi.org/10.4258/hir.2014.20.4.280