• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• 제7권4호
• /
• pp.55-69
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study is to reduce the side effect of functional health foods. The research is done by in-depth interview method. The nineteen officials who worked in local administration or KFDA(Korea Food & Drug Administration) were interviewed. The questions were asked regarding the current status of consumer reports related to functional health foods, the problems which officials perceived, and the regulations required to reduce the problems. The findings are as follows: 1) the consumers report the side effect of functional health foods to nongovernmental organization. 2) officials feel that the problems are the difficulty in finding the cause of the side effect, unjust sale tactics, deceptive and small-sized manufacturers. and the distorted consumer conception on functional health foods. 3) officials think that improvement on the regulations are required to reduce the problems caused by the side effects. It includes the indication of the ingredient's origin and warnings considering physical conditions, close cowork between administration and nongovernmental organization. introduction of sales license for functional health foods and the increase of the opportunity for consumers to get information and education on functional health foods.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• 제48권4호
• /
• pp.206-215
• /
• 2022

Background: Fragrance substances in consumer products can cause adverse health effects such as contact allergy. In South Korea, consumer chemical products must list 26 known fragrance allergens on product labels when they contain more than 0.01%. Fragrance substances are mostly used in combination, so co-exposure can occur via use of a consumer chemical product. Co-exposure to fragrance allergens may show a synergistic effect on the human body. Objectives: The aims of the study were to analyze the characteristics of fragrance allergens in consumer chemical products available on public websites and to identify the co-occurrence patterns of fragrance allergens. Methods: The chemicals in 1,443 ingredient disclosures for consumer chemical products were collected through the Ecolife database. The 26 labelled fragrance allergens were identified by category of consumer chemical product. The co-occurrence patterns of the 26 labelled fragrance allergens were analyzed by frequent pattern mining. The unlabelled fragrance allergens presented by European Union Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety were also identified. Results: Consumer chemical products contained an average of 5.3±4.2 substances among the 26 labelled fragrance allergens. More than 85% of air fresheners, deodorizing agents, and fabric softeners contained at least one of the 26 labelled fragrance allergens. The most frequently contained fragrance allergens were limonene (50.5%), linalool (49.9%), hexyl cinnamal (34.0%), and citronellol (28.3%). 16.7% of consumer chemical products showed a co-occurrence of limonene, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, and citronellol. Thirty-eight unlabelled fragrance allergens were found in the consumer chemical products, with hexamethylindanopyran (25.2%) being the most frequently contained substance. Conclusions: The characteristics and co-occurrence patterns of 26 labelled fragrance allergens would be useful information for the management of co-exposure to fragrance allergens in consumer chemical products. It is necessary for attention to be paid to unlabelled fragrance allergens.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• 제22권3호
• /
• pp.315-346
• /
• 2012

The legal relationship between patient and physician is legally equal relationship. But, in times past, patients be compelled to sign an unequal contract, substantially. Because of the imbalance between supply and demand in the health care market. Today, the law of supply and demand in the health care market is running well. And as the cognition of citizens' rights grows, the relationship between patient and physician can also get a lot of changes. Patients have the right to know the information about medical care, and to decide whether or not to get treatment including invasions against their own bodies. In other words, Doctors have an obligation to explain to their patients. If doctors did not provide patients sufficient explanation or information, it violates the right of patients. This is a tort, or a breach of contract. To improve the remedy for violation of patient's right, patient is able to be protected by status as consumer. If patient is a kind of consumer in terms of medical consumption, he/she as consumer can enjoy supplementally the consumer's right. The patient as a consumer can exercise now a consumer's right as a constitutional right. In addition, with respect to consumer's rights, Framework Act on Consumers was enacted. This Act is based on constitutional provisions of Article 124 and the Act can be seen as a law that embodies consumer right because the provision of the constitutional law delegates specific contents. In the health care field, patients need to win recognition the statue of the consumer to hold the sovereignty of the consumer. In particular, if patients are consumers, they may be able to make good use of the quickly and efficiently collective dispute resolution and association lawsuit to rescue their damage, the Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) of Framework Act on Consumers.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• 제18권2호
• /
• pp.57-80
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the information search behavior of medical consumers visiting a hospital, and investigate the consumption values of medical consumers, classified according to the information search behavior, and characteristics of online health and disease information. This study also tried to identify the factors affecting medical consumers classified according to information search behavior, and gain an extensive understanding of medical consumers'consumption values and online information use. The analysis results of this study are as follows: First, the consumption values of medical consumers were classified into a total of 7 factors, i.e. future-positive value, family-oriented value, sustainablehealth value, rational-progressive value, social-cooperative value, socialachiever value and hedonistic-individual value. Next, the characteristics of medical consumers'online information search behavior were classified into three types of consumer groups, i.e. the limited information-oriented consumer group, the practical information-oriented consumer group and the passionate information-oriented consumer group. Second, the analysis of the differences among the three groups classified according to the characteristics of the information search behavior in terms of consumption values, use of online information sources, utility and the intention to reuse online information showed that all the differences were statistically significant. The passionate information-oriented consumer group showed the highest scores in the sustainable-health value, the social-achiever value and the hedonisticindividual value. Third, the factors affecting medical consumers, classified into three groups according to the characteristics of the information search behavior, were found to be socio-demographic variables like consumers' age and occupation, consumers'consumption values, use of online information sources, and utility of online information. This study tried to understand what values medical consumers have according to the differences in the information search behavior by examining the consumption values of medical consumers according to the information search behavior. The significance of this study lies in the fact that consumption values are instrumental in understanding medical consumers by identifying the fundamental motives and desires of consumers' behavior.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• 제24권2호
• /
• pp.15-28
• /
• 2007

Objectives: In this paper, the survey on internet usage patterns of health consumers was conducted and analyzed in order to determine internet health information assessment criteria for providing correct consumer health information on web-sites. Methods: By using a survey questionnaire with 16 questions on general information and 20 questions on internet health information, data were collected from September 16 to 25, 2005 from 476 participants through an internet web site, http://www.hp.go.kr. Frequency analysis, t-test, and multiple regression were used in order to analyze the difference in assessment criteria, factors influencing assessment criteria, factors influencing user satisfaction, etc. Results: General characteristics of the study population were: the persons over age 40 were the smallest age group; women were accounted for 74.2%; and the persons with average income were the largest income group; and the persons with average health status were the largest health group. Most widely used health information were: exercise, disease, and diet, in order. There was significant difference(p=.001) in importance of assessment criteria between the persons in medical institutions and the persons not in medical institutions. There was no significant difference in other assessment criteria. We also found that contents of websites and easy to use were more important factors than elucidation of information providers and information sources including speciality of information in quality assessment criteria of internet health information. Discussion and Conclusion: Results of this paper were compared with the previous studies from the literatures. Contrary to the previous studies in the literature, there was significant difference in importance of assessment criteria between the persons in medical institutions and the persons not in medical institutions. In order to apply the study results to develop health contents for consumer, there is a need for further upgrade the proposed assessment criteria based on expert opinion.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• 제48권5호
• /
• pp.266-271
• /
• 2022

Background: The selection of distributions of input parameters is an important component in probabilistic exposure assessment. Goodness-of-fit (GOF) methods are used to determine the distribution of exposure factors. However, there are no clear guidelines for choosing an appropriate GOF method. Objectives: The outcomes of probabilistic consumer exposure assessment were compared by using five different GOF methods for the selection of input distributions: chi-squared test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S), Anderson-Darling test (A-D), Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). Methods: Individual exposures were estimated based on product usage factor combinations from 10,000 respondents. The distribution of individual exposure was considered as the true value of population exposures. Results: Among the five GOF methods, probabilistic exposure distributions using the A-D and K-S methods were similar to individual exposure estimations. Comparing the 95th percentiles of the probabilistic distributions and the individual estimations for 10 CPs, there were 0.73 to 1.92 times differences for the A-D method, and 0.73 to 1.60 times differences (excluding tire-shine spray) for the K-S method. Conclusions: There were significant differences in exposure assessment results among the selection of the GOF methods. Therefore, the GOF methods for probabilistic consumer exposure assessment should be carefully selected.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
• /
• 제3권1호
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2000

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of consumer health information available on the internet related to parent-child health. More and more, parents are accessing information about child ca re through the Internet and computer at home. But there is no guarantee that the information is current, unbiased, or accurate. Several researchers have suggested some criteria for evaluating internet sites; source, accuracy, disclosure, currency, accessibility. As more consumer search the World Wide Web for parenting information, nurses have to learn more about this technology. Because nurses can assist parents in identifying how to locate information they can trust. It is also needed to for nurses to document the criteria for information selection on internet and to evaluate outcome of cyberspace intervention of parenting.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• 제39권6호
• /
• pp.532-540
• /
• 2013

Background: Exposure factors for consumer products have been developed since the 1980s. Such exposure factors are important in risk assessment. Since the exposure/use patterns of consumer products in a country may reflect its respective cultural, meteorological, and socio-economic circumstances, unique Korean exposure factors for consumer products are needed. Such exposure factors are required for newly-enacted chemical regulations in Korea. For this review, published papers and survey reports on exposure factors of consumer products were examined for their assessment methodologies. Results: Investigation into exposure factors for consumer products used a variety of methods: home visit, online, telephone, and mail surveys using questionnaires; face to face interviews; modeling using a constructed database; and direct measurement. To collect more accurate exposure information or to check the reliability of the sampling method, some studies were repeated using the same questionnaire, in-home observation, direct measurement of usage, and videotaping. In Korea, nationwide exposure surveys were conducted five times over five years to obtain Korean exposure factors. However, with the exception of the $5^{th}$-year study, the surveys were online questionnaires and only the $5^{th}$-year study validated the accuracy of exposure information by re-visits and direct measurement. Conclusion: Accurate exposure factors are an essential part of risk assessment to assure safe use of consumer products. For better and safer management of consumer products, accurate exposure factors in Korea should be assessed for various exposure pathways.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.138-156
• /
• 2010

Objective : The purpose of this study is 1) to understand the information-searching behavior of health care consumers ; 2) to examine the relationship between the information-searching behavior of health-care consumers and regulatory variables such as socioeconomic factors, characteristics of medical utilization, and perceived risks ; and 3) to determine the factors that affect consumer satisfaction, especially with respect to information-searching behavior. Method : The data for this study were collected from 838 respondents in five university hospital located in three areas?Seoul, Gyeonggi province, and Chungchong province. As the first step of the study, we conducted a preliminary survey from September 23?26, 2008. At the second step, we conducted a survey on the effect of information-searching behavior on those individuals who had visited. Furthermore, personal interviews were conducted through a face-to-face survey between September 30 and October 17, 2008. Results : The major research findings that were obtained from the study were as follows : First, the age, educational level, and residential district were associated with information source utilization. Second, the level of information searching effort and quality of service had a significant effect on consumer satisfaction. Conclusion : These results show that it is essential for marketers to have in-depth knowledge about the young and educated people who actively search for information and about those who are in the prime of their life and rely on word-of-mouth communication from personal and experi in-al informers. Therefore, marketers should develop different marketing strategies to meet the needs of such consumers.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
• /
• 제22권1호
• /
• pp.47-77
• /
• 2011

Due to the growth of people's use of the Internet as well as interests in health, people's needs of health information have rapidly increased in public libraries. Nevertheless, there are few studies in Korea about users' needs for health information and services that public libraries can offer to support these user groups. In the current study, a comprehensive literature review was conducted in order to understand the role of public libraries and librarians in serving users with health information and to identify the types of consumer health information(CHI) services available to users in public libraries. As for the CHI services that public libraries can offer for users, the current study emphasizes and discusses the directions and guidelines for improving the following six approaches: 1) CHI collection and information resource building, 2) CHI reference services, 3) CHI user education and training program development, 4) CHI services for minority/disability/cultural diversity groups of users, 5) CHI outreach program development, and 6) CHI network development with medical libraries, academic libraries, hospital, and medical institutions and associations. Although most of the discussion in the current study centers on cases and services provided in the United States or other countries, findings would be used to inform the importance of CHI services in public libraries, and to design and develop CHI services in Korea.