Undergraduate Students of Ewha College of Medicine Published in SCIE Indexed Journal
- Date2022.09.02
- 4725
Kang Seung-ji and Eom Seo-hyun
Research paper of undergraduate research team of Ewha College of Medicine was published in SCIE indexed journal. It is very unusual for undergraduate students at medical school where is well-known for its high academic burden to participate in research and writing paper. Kang Seung-ji and Eom Seo-hyun, the class of 2022 of College of Medicine, published a paper called “Burden of neurological diseases in Asia from 1990 to 2019: A systematic analysis using the Global Burden of Disease Study data” in the SCIE open access medical journal BMJ open.
As life expectancy increases, the burden of neurological diseases is increasing worldwide. Ewha research team noted that while there are previous studies in Europe and the United States on the differences in the burden of neurological diseases, no separate studies have been conducted in Asia. Therefore, they started the research based on the premise that if objective research that analyzes changes in burden of disease such as incidence, prevalence, and mortality of neurological diseases in Asian countries, including Korea, is conducted, it will serve as a valuable basis for establishing effective medical strategies suitable for each country's medical needs and tasks. They analyzed disease patterns in 1990 and 2019 based on data from 54 Asian countries, including stroke, Alzheimer's and other dementia, Parkinson's, brain and central nervous system cancer, idiopathic epilepsy, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, migraine, tension headache, meningitis, encephalitis, tetanus, and 13 other neurological diseases.
The result of the analysis showed that the changes in neurological disease patterns in Asia were consistent with the global trend. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of stroke, migraine, Alzheimer's disease, and other dementia were the highest in both of the WHO Western Pacific and WHO Southeast Asian regions. This means that as the average life expectancy increases, the number of patients diagnosed with neurological diseases, such as stroke, has increased, and the period of their lives with the disease has also increased. In addition, DALYs of stroke, Alzheimer's and other dementia, Parkinson's, brain and central nervous system cancer, multiple sclerosis, migraine and tension headaches increased in 2019 compared to 1990, while infectious diseases such as tetanus, meningitis, and encephalitis all have decreased. The research team found that the increase in the disease burden of overall neurological diseases was due to the extension of life expectancy. On the other hand, the increase in headaches, a common neurological disease in young people, was analyzed as an effect of changes in disease recognition level and strengthened diagnostic standards, and the decrease in infectious diseases was due to the development of preventive measures and increased hygiene.
There are 105,000 new stroke cases every year, and the number of patients suffering from other neurological diseases is steadily increasing, but the exact cause and mechanism of many neurological diseases are not yet known. The undergraduate research team had mentioned, "The task is to find and treat the causes and mechanisms of disease in order to ultimately lower the burden of patients and improve the quality of life," adding, "It is a great honor to contribute to the development of medicine by looking for changes in the burden of disease through objective prior research.” They also thanked Professor Song Tae-jin of the Department of Neurology at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital and Professor Jang Yoon-kyung of the Department of Neurology at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital for constantly encouraging them to participate in the research.
Professor Song Tae-jin who had guided the research mentioned, "It is natural for medical students to take a break on vacation due to the intense workload during semester, but I am proud of these two students who returned their vacation and participated in the research," adding, "It was a good experience to check the potential of Ewha Womans University medical students.”