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Air pollution triggers a tissue-specific inflammatory response. However, studies on the association between exposure to air pollutants and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) risk remain limited. Thus, we conducted this nationwide study to define the association between air pollution and CRS. We used the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) and Taiwan Air Quality-Monitoring Database (TAQMD) to conduct a population-based cohort study. Study participants were recruited from the LHID, a data subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database that randomly sampled one million individuals. TAQMD has been an air pollutant database since 1998. In univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% CIs of CRS in five air pollutants were accounted. We adjusted for age, sex, urbanization level, insurance fee, comorbidities, and pollutant levels in the multivariate model. The total number of participants enrolled in this study was 160,504. The average age was 40.46 ± 14.62 years; males constituted 43.8% of the total participants. The percentages of alcoholism, tobacco dependence, and COPD were 1.5%, 2.8%, and 28.3%, respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, urbanization level, insurance fee, and comorbidities, the highest levels of air pollutants, including PM2.5 (aHR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.06–1.22), NO2 (aHR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.00–1.15), and PM10 (aHR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.05–1.21) had a significantly greater CRS risk; we selected the lower concentration as the reference but did not correlate with CO. We found a significantly increased risk of CRS in residents with air pollutant exposure.

Non-apnea sleep disorder (NASD) increases the risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. However, the risk and the time interval of NASD to female infertility has not been thoroughly understood. Our study aimed to determine whether NASD increases the subsequent risk of female infertility. This study utilized outpatient and inpatient data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database between 2000 and 2010 in Taiwan. We enrolled 50,154 females aged 20 to 45 years old and diagnosed with NASD as outpatients ≥2 times or hospitalized, 16,718 of them who matched our criteria were assigned to the study group. For each NASD patient, two comparison patients were frequency matched by age (each 5-year span), index date, and comorbidities as the control cohort with a total of 33,436 patients. We conducted Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to estimate the effects of NASD on female infertility. The NASD cohort had an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of subsequent female infertility of 3.718-fold higher than that of the cohort without sleep disorders. In the stratified age group, NASD had the highest impact on 26-30 years old, with an adjusted HR of 5.146 followed by 31-35 years old (adjusted HR = 3.356). The Kaplan-Meier analysis also showed that in the sixth year of follow-up, the incidence of female infertility was higher in the NASD cohort than in the general population cohort till the end of the follow-up. Our study demonstrates that NASD patients are at a higher risk of developing female infertility.

(1) Background: Recently, a growing number of studies have provided evidence to suggest a strong correlation between air pollution exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this study, we assessed the relationship between early-life exposure to particulate matter (PM)10, PM2.5, and ADHD; (2) Methods: The National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) contains the medical records, drug information, inspection data, etc., of the people of Taiwan, and, thus, could serve as an important research resource. Air pollution data were based on daily data from the Environmental Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan). These included particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). The two databases were merged according to the living area of the insured and the location of the air quality monitoring station; (3) Results: The highest levels of air pollutants, including PM2.5 (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 1.79; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.58–2.02) and PM10 (aHR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.37–1.70), had a significantly higher risk of ADHD; (4) Conclusions: As such, measures for air quality control that meet the WHO air quality guidelines should be strictly and uniformly implemented by Taiwanese government authorities.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been reported to increase the risk of motor vehicle accidents. However, only few studies have investigated the effects of OSA on overall risk injury. The aim of study is to investigate whether OSA increases the risk of overall injury. The data were collected during 2000–2015 from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 8901 individuals diagnosed with OSA were inpatients, or outpatients at least three times were enrolled. Finally, 6915 participants with OSA were included as the study cohort. We matched the study cohort with a comparison cohort, at a ratio of 1:4. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyse the association between OSA and overall injury. Patients with OSA had 83.1% increased risk of overall injury, compared to non-OSA individuals [adjusted hazards ratio (HR) = 1.831, confidence interval (CI) = 1.674–2.020, p < 0.001]. In the stratified age group, patients aged ≧65 years had the highest risk of injury (adjusted HR= 2.014; CI = 1.842–2.222, p < 0.001). Patients with OSA were at a higher risk of falls, traffic injury, poisoning, suffocation, suicide, and abuse or homicide than non-OSA individuals, with falls and traffic injury as the leading causes of injuries. The data demonstrated that patients with OSA have a higher risk of overall injury. The study results can be a reference for developing injury prevention strategies in the future. The general population and clinicians should have more awareness regarding OSA and its negative effects on injury development.

Many patients with dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) seek traditional medicine consultations. This study intended to investigate the association of complementary Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) with the surgery rate in patients with DUB in Taiwan. We enrolled 43,027 patients with newly diagnosed DUB (ICD-9-CM codes 626.8) from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan during the period of 1997 to 2010. Among them, 38,324 were CHM users, and 4703 did not receive CHM treatment. After performing a 1:1 propensity-score match based on patients' age (per 5 years), comorbidities, conventional drugs, childbirth status, duration from the diagnosis year of DUB and index year, there were an equal number (n=4642) of patients in the CHM cohort and non-CHM cohort. The outcome measurement was the comparison of incidences of surgical events, including hysterectomy and endometrial ablation, in the two cohorts before the end of 2013. CHM users had a lower incidence of surgery than non-CHM users (adjusted HR 0.27, 95% CI: 0.22-0.33). The cumulative incidence of surgery was significantly lower in the CHM cohort during the follow-up period (Log rank test, p < 0.001). A total of 146 patients in the CHM cohort (4.99 per 1000 person-years) and 485 patients in the non-CHM cohort (20.19 per 1000 person-years) received surgery (adjusted HR 0.27, 95% CI: 0.22-0.33). CHM also reduced the risk of surgery in DUB patients with or without comorbidities. Regardless of childbirth status or whether patients took NSAIDs, tranexamic acid or progesterone, fewer patients in the CHM cohort underwent surgery than in the non-CHM cohort. The most commonly prescribed single herb and formula were Yi-Mu-Cao (Herba Leonuri) and Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San, respectively. The real-world data revealed that CHM is associated with a reduced surgery rate in DUB patients. This information may be provided for further clinical investigations and policy-making.

This study aimed to investigate the association between males with psychosexual disorders (PSDs) and the risk of developing psychiatric disorders. A total of 34,972 enrolled patients, with 8,743 subjects who had suffered from PSD and 26,229 controls (1:3) matched for age and index year, from Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) from 2000 to 2015, selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). After adjusting all the confounding factors, the multivariate Cox regression model was used to compare the risk of developing psychiatric disorders, between the PSD and non-PSD groups, during the 15 years of follow-up. Of the all enrollees, 1,113 in the PSD cohort and 2,611 in the non-PSD cohort (1,180.96 vs. 954.68 per 100,000 person-year) developed psychiatric disorders. Multivariate Cox regression model survival analysis revealed that, after adjusting for gender, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) was 2.448 (95% CI [2.227, 2.633], p < .001). PSD has been associated with the increased risk in anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, sleep disorders, and psychotic disorders, respectively. Sexual dysfunctions, paraphilia, and gender identity disorders were associated with the overall psychiatric disorders with adjusted HRs as 1.990 (p < .001), 11.622 (p < .001), and 5.472 (p < .001), respectively. Male patients who suffered from PSD have a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, and this finding should be considered as a timely reminder for the clinicians to provide much more attention for these patients because of their mental health issues.

The evaluation indexes of antimicrobial use (AMU) in sub-prefectural regions have not been established because these regional units are susceptible to the effects of population inflows and outflows. We defined the difference in AMU calculated each year as a new evaluation index and compared the AMU of secondary medical areas with those already reported for Japan and each prefecture. Patients/1000 inhabitants/day (PID) for oral antibiotics in 2013 and 2016 were calculated using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups. ΔPID was defined as the difference between the PIDs in 2013 and 2016. Differences in AMUs for Japan and prefectures that have already been published were also calculated, and the concordance rate with ΔPID in each secondary medical area was evaluated. Antibiotics and age groups with less than 50% concordance between secondary medical area and previously reported AMU changes were observed. This revealed that even at the secondary medical area level, which is more detailed than the prefectural level, the AMU changes were not consistent. Therefore, in order to appropriately promote measures against antimicrobial resistance, we suggest the necessity of not only surveying AMU at the national or prefectural levels but also examining sub-prefectural trends in AMU.

Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) exemplifies a population-level data source for generating real-world evidence to support clinical decisions and health care policy-making. Like with all claims databases, there have been some validity concerns of studies using the NHIRD, such as the accuracy of diagnosis codes and issues around unmeasured confounders. Endeavors to validate diagnosed codes or to develop methodologic approaches to address unmeasured confounders have largely increased the reliability of NHIRD studies. Recently, Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) established a Health and Welfare Data Center (HWDC), a data repository site that centralizes the NHIRD and about 70 other health-related databases for data management and analyses. To strengthen the protection of data privacy, investigators are required to conduct on-site analysis at an HWDC through remote connection to MOHW servers. Although the tight regulation of this on-site analysis has led to inconvenience for analysts and has increased time and costs required for research, the HWDC has created opportunities for enriched dimensions of study by linking across the NHIRD and other databases. In the near future, researchers will have greater opportunity to distill knowledge from the NHIRD linked to hospital-based electronic medical records databases containing unstructured patient-level information by using artificial intelligence techniques, including machine learning and natural language processes. We believe that NHIRD with multiple data sources could represent a powerful research engine with enriched dimensions and could serve as a guiding light for real-world evidence-based medicine in Taiwan.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating disorder. Alcohol abuse has been recognized as hindering SCI patients from rehabilitation, thus leading to longer length of days and poorer prognosis. This article aimed to investigate the association between spinal cord injury (SCI) and alcohol dependence. Data were derived from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). The incidence of alcohol dependence between SCI and non-SCI groups was compared. Other possible risk factors were also analyzed. Patients (N = 5670) with SCI from 2000 to 2009 were initially assessed for eligibility. After propensity score matching, 5639 first-time SCI survivors were included. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to assess differences in the incidence of alcohol dependence syndrome. Based on the adjusted hazard ratios (HR), the SCI group had a higher hazard for alcohol dependence syndrome compared to the non-SCI group (adjusted HR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03~1.86, p = 0.0305). The injury level did not have an impact on the incidence of alcohol dependence syndrome. A higher incidence of alcohol dependence syndrome was related to male patients, lower insurance levels, higher Deyo’s CCI, and psychiatric OPD times. A lower incidence of alcohol dependence syndrome was related to elder age. The incidence of alcohol dependence increased after the occurrence of SCI and was also related to age, sex, monthly income, comorbidities, and psychiatric problems. The injury level did not affect the incidence of alcohol dependence after SCI.

The accuracy and correspondence between the measured concentrations from the survey and predicted concentrations on the basis of the three types of statistical antimicrobial use in Japan was evaluated. A monitoring survey of ten representative antimicrobials: ampicillin (APL), cefdinir (CDN), cefpodoxime proxetil (CPXP), ciprofloxacin (CFX), clarithromycin (CTM), doxycycline (DCL), levofloxacin (LFX), minocycline (MCL), tetracycline (TCL), and vancomycin (VMC), in the influent of sewage treatment plant (STP) located in urban areas of Japan, was conducted. Then, the measured values were verified in comparison with the predicted values estimated from the shipping volumes, sales volumes, and prescription volumes based on the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB). The results indicate that the correspondence ratios between the predicted concentrations calculated on the basis of shipping and NDB volumes and the measured concentrations (predicted concentration/measured concentration) generally agreed for the detected concentration of antimicrobials in the STP influent. The correspondence ratio on the basis of shipping volume was, for CFX, 0.1; CTM, 2.9; LFX, 0.5; MCL, 1.9; and VMC, 1.7, and on the basis of NDB volume the measured concentration was CFX, 0.1; CTM, 3.7; DCL, 0.4; LFX, 0.7; MCL, 1.9; TCL, 0.6; and VMC, 1.6. To our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate the accuracy of predicted concentrations based on sales, shipping, NDB statistics and measured concentrations for antimicrobials in the STP influent.