• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.58-69
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• 2017

Recently, with the increase in the number of private health insurance subscribers, interest in overuse of the medical service is increasing. This study analyzed the impacts of private health insurance (PHI) on medical institution selection in outpatient service utilization among persons with arthritis. In order to control patients' health status, we extracted outpatient episodes with the same disease (KCD6, M13) from Korea Health Panel. The unit of analysis was an outpatient visit with arthritis in 2014 (n=23,363). In the light of insurance coverage, we redefined three type of private health insurance (ex, indemnity, fixed benefit, and non-insured) as a test variable and two type of medical institution (ex, hospital and physician visit) as a dependent variable. We conducted a probit regression analysis to identify the impacts of PHI on medical institution selection controlling for heteroscedasticity. The results of this study showed that the insured with indemnity were more likely to choose hospital departments than clinics (marginal effect=0.0475, p=0.000). The impact of participation of fixed benefit PHI was not as clear as that of indemnity type (marginal effect=0.0162, p=0.047). In conclusion, this study confirmed that PHI, particularly indemnity type has a significant impact on the selection of medical institutions. Healthcare policy makers should consider that PHI not only affects the overall quantitative increase in healthcare utilization, but also influences the selection of medical institutions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.20-24
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• 2004

The aim of this study was to analyse the cost-benefit-ratio of a soil remediation project. The target of the study was the 'Altablagerung Osnabrueck-Wueste' the largest inhabited former landfill site in Germany. The determination of benefit resulting from the soil remediation was quantified with the help of willingness-to-pay(WTP) analysis (contingent valuation method, CVM). 400 households participated in the survey. The average WTP was 6.5 Euro per household per month or 78 Euro per house-hold per year. The projected benefit generated by the remediation (consumer value) for the population in the landfill area was determined to be 0.7 million Euro per year. Factors which influence the will-ingness to pay were evaluated. The most important factors were age, garden use and the prevailing concern about personal health. A computation of the cost-benefit relationship was made on the basis of three different scenarios, which differed in terms of the projected benefits. Finally the economical efficiency of the project was determined. With a projection of 18 years and upwards the remediation of the soil is economically worthwhile.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2015

Objective : The objective of this study is to analyze various factors of how mental health, self esteem, and stress affect health living conditions aimed at college students who have a low level of self-awareness. This study can provide college students the vitality lifestyle by developing and applying customized healthy living program. Furthermore, it can benefit preventing disease and improving health condition. Method : This study is aimed at college students in Daegu. The research subjects' distributions consist of male of 138 and female of 144, which totaled 282. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 18.0, statistical program.4 Results : The result of the study indicated that the main factors that affect self esteem, stress, and mental health condition are allowance and part time jobs. It shows that health characteristic doesn't have relationship with self esteem. However, stress are mental health have a close relationship with drinking, health conditions, sleeping hours, and exercise. Conclusion : College Students should manage and lead healthy living style as a role model of family and society; as a result, healthy living style in the college becomes very important time period in the life time. Therefore, college students need to improve self esteem and reduce stress in order to benefit their mental health. College faculty members also need to put an effort on educational health programs regarding the practice of healthy life such as campaign for antismoking, moderating in drink, and exercising.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.33-43
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• 2000

Environmental pressures from such sources an economic condition, the government and inter-institutional competition create managerial challenges. Economic pressures may be forcing dietetic dept, in hospital to utilize cost∙benefit analysis to assist them in their problem solving. Cost∙benefit analysis have been widely used in business, industry and many other fields with only limited application to foodservice. Due to the lack or this information the purposes of this study were to identify use of cost∙benefit analysis in hospital foodservice system to evaluate the economic efficiency of alternatives, and to make recommendation for operation system change. Using the cost∙benefit method, cash flows are separated into cost and benefits. For an alternative to be selected, indicators, such as NPV, benefit-cost ratio (B/C ratio) with 5% discount rate per annum. The sensitivity analysis was also conducted with difference rate 3%, 7% respectively and reduced employee payroll change. The result of this study can be summarized as follows : 1. The total cost of investment for operation system change was 390,570 thousand won and the total benefit through operation system change was 865,808 thousand won. 2. Net present value(NPV) for 5 years was 475,239 thousand won and benefit-cost ratio was 2.22. 3. In sensitivity analysis with different discount rate 3%, 7%, benefit-cost ratio was 2.25, 2.18 respectively, with total reduced employee payroll change, benefit-cost ratio was 2.86. In conclusion, total benefits were exceeded total costs. Therefore, the project of operation system change in hospital foodservice was found to be economically efficient.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.51-64
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• 2017

Objectives : This study examined the effect of private health insurance on medical care utilization by subscription type. Methods : The data used were the six waves of the Korea Health Panel (2009-2014), and 16,187 persons were the subjects of the analysis. We performed a panel regression with a fixed effects model. Results : Indemnity private health insurance was positively related to the number of physician visits, number of admissions, and total length of stays. However, fixed-benefit private health insurance was not related to medical care utilization. Conclusions : The result of this study, which shows the difference by subscription type in the effect of private health insurance on medical care utilization, suggests that continuous monitoring of indemnity private health insurance is needed in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2019

Background: As of July 2015, per diem payment was changed from fee for service Therefore, this study aims to analyse changes in medical charges and medical services before and after enforcement of the palliative care, targeting palliative care wards in a general hospital, and provide basic data needed for development of per diem payment. Methods: The subjects of the study were a total of 610 cases consisting of 351 patients of service fee who left hospital (died) from July 2014 to June 2016 and 259 ones of per diem payment at Chosun University Hospital in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Results: The results are summarized as follows. First, after the palliative care system was applied, benefit medical service charges and insurance increased significantly (p<0.001). As benefit medical service charges increased, benefit private insurance payment increased significantly (p<0.001). Second, after the per diem payment was applied, total private insurance payment to medical institutes decreased significantly (p=0.050) and non-benefit also decreased significantly (p=0.001). Conclusion: It is suggested that additional rewards in the obligatory palliative care items should be continuously remedied and monitored to provide good quality hospice palliative care.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.286-300
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• 2020

In 2019, the Seoul metropolitan government established its own 'Seoul-type paid sick leave project'. Although the central government had to introduce such a system, which is also called sickness benefits, it was not implemented. In order to understand the process by which the Seoul government has implemented such a policy, this study used Kingdon's multiple streams framework. As a result, in the problem stream, it was found that the economic burden of sickness has been considered only in terms of medical expenses in the past of Korea. Then Songpa's three women and Middle East respiratory syndrome incidents raised awareness of the necessity of the sickness benefit system in 2014 and 2015. In the political stream, several social affairs such as national health insurance huge surpluses and the 2017 presidential election opened policy window. At that time, Seoul Mayor actively promoted sickness benefits as a policy entrepreneur. In the policy stream, the sickness benefit system has gained new attention through political events. To summary, these three streams flowed separately and then they assembled around huge political affairs. As a result, it was confirmed that Kingdon's model is the most effective theory than any other models in analyzing the health care policy decision process in Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8079-8083
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• 2016

Metformin is an oral anti-hyperglycemic agent, which is the most commonly prescribed medication in the treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus. It is purportedly associated with a reduced risk for various cancers, mainly exerting anti-proliferation effects on various human cancer cell types, such as pancreas, prostate, breast, stomach and liver. This mini-review highlights the risk and benefit of metformin used for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) prevention and therapy. The results indicated metformin might be a quite promising strategy CCA prevention and treatment, one mechanism being inhibition of CCA tumor growth by cell cycle arrest in both in vitro and in vivo. The AMPK/mTORC1 pathway in intrahepatic CCA cells is targeted by metformin. Furthermore, metformin inhibited CCA tumor growth via the regulation of Drosha-mediated expression of multiple carcinogenic miRNAs. The use of metformin seems to be safe in patients with cirrhosis, and provides a survival benefit. Once hepatic malignancies are already established, metformin does not offer any therapeutic potential. Clinical trials and epidemiological studies of the benefit of metformin use for CCA should be conducted. To date, whether metformin as a prospective chemotherapeutic for CCA is still questionable and waits further atttention.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.125-147
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• 1997

This study was conducted in order to identify the extent to which Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs explain the likelihood of taking preventive behaviors for AIDS among the young adolescents in Korea. HBM was applied as the theoretical framework for developing questionnaire items in this study. The survey instrument included all of the constructs of Health Belief Model, namely, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefit, perceived barriers, cue to actions for preventive behaviors concerning AIDS. Additionally, demographic characteristics of the respondents, their sexual experiences, and AIDS Knowledge Test were included in the study. Each of HBM constructs were developed with a 5-point Likert type scale from l(never agree) to 5 (absolutely agree). The survey was conducted with a total of 247 military men in a city on September 18, 1996, using self-reported questionnaire. The results of the study were summarized as follows: 1. Because the subjects for this study were military soldiers, their demographic characteristics were limited to all men, young age, and ummarried. Educational status was evenly distributed between high school graduates and university students. 2. On the average, the respondents started their first sexual relationship at 18 years old and 82.6% of them did not use condom when having their first sexual experience. Thirty-one percent of the subjects had sexual contact with prostitutes and the average number of sexual contact with prostitutes was 5 times during the past 2 years. 3. The results of AIDS Knowledge Test scores demonstrated that the respondents had a high level of knowledge about AIDS. However, some misconceptions about transmission of AIDS through casual contact were still prevailed. Sixty-six percent of the respondents expressed that people infected with HIV should be isolated from the society in order to protect the general public. 4. All the respondents expressed that they had heard about AIDS before. TV was found to be the source which provided information on AIDS most frequently. 5. Among fundamental constructs of Health Belief Model, scores of perceived benefit of taking preventive action against AIDS marked the highest score, while scores of perceived susceptibility were the lowest. As a result of Multiple Stepwise Regression analysis, 13 variable groups were found to predict the preventive action by 25%. Among them, only perceived benefit variables was the most significant factor to explain preventive behaviors by 17%.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.409-420
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• 2021

The safety and health ledger system, which gives the responsibility of safety and health management for construction site workers to the construction project owner, was introduced as part of the overall revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. There is a need to explain the system's effectiveness in terms of economic feasibility to solve the execution problem of the system caused by low awareness and implementation rate. In this study, the economic effect of implementing the safety and health ledger system was analyzed using cost-benefit analysis based on the data discussed at the time of the introduction of the system. Results show that creating and managing the design safety and health ledger caused additional costs in implementing the system. As a result of comparing the cost of preparation and the direct and indirect benefits caused by the reduction of industrial accidents, the benefits were evaluated higher than the costs. Thus, it is thought that the safety and health ledger system reduces construction work accidents and generates economic effects.