초록
Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the influential factors for the choice of dental institutions among adult office workers who were one of major medical consumer groups, the relationship between their health promotion lifestyle and their choice of dental institutions, ways of boosting the efficiency of hospital management and differences in differentiation strategies among dental institutions. Methods : The subjects in this study were 160 office workers who were aged 20 and over and worked in Seoul, North Jeolla Province and South Jeolla Province. They were selected by convenience sampling, and a survey was conducted from February 1 to July 20, 2011. The answer sheets from 149 respondents were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS WIN 12.0 except for 11 incomplete ones. Results : As for the selection factors of dental institutions by general characteristics, they attached a statistically and significantly different importance to convenience according to gender(p<0.05), to reliability, facilities and cleanness according to age(p<0.05), to reliability and convenience according to academic credential(p<0.05) and to facilities and cleanness according to academic credential(p<0.01). Concerning the links between the form of using dental institutions and the selection factors of dental institutions, they gave a statistically and significantly different weight to reliability according to that(p<0.05). Convenience(p<0.001) was the primary selection factor of dental institutions among those who scored higher in health promotion lifestyle. Conclusions : Given the above-mentioned findings, it seemed that the regular implementation of oral health plans geared toward workers and the development of educational programs are required to promote the oral health of workers. But this study examined the workers in several regions only, and the findings might not be generalizable.