• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.325-333
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• 2016

This study was conducted to provide the base line for the use of prophylactic antibiotics and the standard of antibiotic use and the evaluation based on analysis of current use, quality assessment and periodic changes of prophylactic antibiotics in a university hospital. We chose the year 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014 as the study periods since the primary evaluation on the first year of implementation in 2007. For this study, healthcare benefit quality assessment data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service was used. We analyzed the differences each year of treatment period; one category for initial treatment timing, three categories for selecting antibiotics, and two categories for the length of treatment from multiple evaluation indices of gastric surgeries, colorectal surgeries, and cholecystectomy. The analysis revealed the followings: Regarding length of antibiotics treatment, total days of treatment decreased down to 1.5, 1.5, and 0.6 days in the year 2014, from 13.5, 12.8, and 6.9 days in the year 2007, for gastric surgeries, colorectal surgeries, and cholecystectomy. Based on these outcomes, the efforts to devise efficient delivery and distribution of the recommendations or indices which medical staff could adhere for quality improvement of the prophylactic antibiotics would be necessary. Also implementing monitoring system to help the hospitals to acknowledge their own faults may be helpful.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.185-196
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• 2005

Although medical exposure from diagnostic radiology procedures such as conventional x-rays, CT and PET scans is necessary for healthcare purposes, understanding its characteristics and size of the resulting radiation dose to patients is much of worth because medical radiation constitutes the largest artificial source of exposure and the medical exposure is in a trend of fast increasing particularly in the developed society. Annual collective doses and per-caput effective doses from different radiology procedures in Korea were estimated by combining the effective dose estimates per single medical procedure and the health insurance statistics in 2002. Values of the effective dose per single procedure were compiled from different sources including NRPB reports, ICRP 80, MIRDOSE3.1 code and independent computations of the authors. The annual collective dose reaches 27440 man-Sv (diagnostic radiology: 22880 man-Sv, nuclear medicine: 4560 man-Sv) which is reduced to the annual per-caput effective dose of 0.58 mSv by dividing by the national population of 47.7 millions. The collective dose is far larger than that of occupational exposures, in the country operated 16 nuclear power plants in 2002, which is no more than 70 man-Sv in the same year. It is particularly noted that the collective dose due to CT scans amounts 9960 man-Sv. These results implies that the national policy for radiation protection should pay much more attention to optimization of patient doses in medicine.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.120-144
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• 2007

In 1997, in the course of overcoming economic crisis caused by the shortage of foreign currency there was a significant phenomenon, the irregularization of human labour resources. There was no exception in hospital, either. Most hospitals put a lot of thought to solve the problem about irregular workers. Between employee and employer the problem of irregular workers has been raised as a main topic of all. The objectives of this study were to inspect the actual state of irregular workers and to understand the positive effect of protecting irregular workers, recently established and revised, on the human resources management of hospitals. After enacting irregular labours protection acts there were many opinions that the labour rules of hospitals would be changed.(56.7%). The plan to solve irregular worker's wage issues would he carried out step by step, but some hospitals have not examined the plan yet,(81.9%). Many hospitals had a plan that irregular worker's wage would be actualized in two or three years.(78.3%) The method, to solve the problem of irregular workers arc as follows: 1) the introduction of functional wage system, 2) the convert from automatic rising wage system to annual wage system, 3) the incentive grade system according to management result, 4) lower functional group wage system, 5) non-term contract wage system. From the point of the opening medical market and securing competitive power of hospitals, it is prospected that irregular works would be increased also in future. So to manage irregular workers effectively would be essential in maintain hospital's competitive power and improve medical service. The result, of this study were a, follow: (1) In hospital, the ratio of irregular workers in hospitals was lower than that of all irregular workers in Korea. (2) In hospital, the wage level of irregular workers was higher than that of irregular workers in Korea. (3) In hospital, the social insurance application ratio of irregular workers was higher than that of all workers in Korea. (4) In hospital, there seems to be no appropriate and active measures to improve labour condition of irregular workers, yet. (5) In many hospitals, the policy of irregular workers would be expected to revised for the law standards. In this study the actual conditions and problems of irregular workers were proposed and it was expected to contribute decisions-making in hospital management, especially when using human resources.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2014

Nowadays, dental tourism becomes phenomenon because of its cost-effectiveness, improvement of quality and technology, dental infrastructure, and attractive tourism. Korea as one of popular destination country had established dental system. On the other hand, Indonesia with high number of population is potential market for dental tourism. The aim of this study is to compare the knowledge, attitude, and experience towards dental tourism among Indonesian and Korean. Two cross-sectional descriptive surveys were conducted to collect the data. This study was used one questionnaire in two different languages due to nature of the study population. Data from a total 923 of Indonesian from 33 provinces in Indonesia was collected during the period from April through July 2010. On the other hand, during May until August 2010 data from a total of 312 Korean were obtained. It was found that the majority of participants in both countries had never heard about dental tourism. Among those who had heard about dental tourism, the most common source was internet. Ownership of dental insurance had significant relationship with knowledge of dental tourism among Indonesian while level of education and monthly internet usage had it among Korean (p<0.05). Attitudes of Indonesian and Korean people about dental tourism were negative due to assumption that dental services in their home country were satisfactory. 100% of Korean had no experience on dental treatment in other countries while 2.4% of Indonesian had experience with it. In conclusion, regarding all these evidences, comprehensive and positive information about dental tourism is needed to enhance people's knowledge, attitude, and experience.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.88-95
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the clinical utilization of radiation therapy (RT) in Korea between 2009 and 2013. Materials and Methods: We analyzed open claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The subjects were patients who had diagnostic codes C00-C97 or D00-D48 according to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, with procedure codes indicating RT treatment. Results: The total number of patients who received RT in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 were 45,571, 49,593, 54,671, 59,172, and 61,485, respectively. Among them, the total numbers of male and female patients were 20,780/24,791 in 2009, 22,711/26,882 in 2010, 24,872/29,799 in 2011, 27,101/32,071 in 2012, and 27,941/33,544 in 2013. The five cancers that were most frequently treated with RT between 2009 and 2012 were breast, lung, colorectal, liver, and uterine cervical cancers. However, the fifth most common cancer treated with RT that replaced uterine cervical cancer in 2013 was prostate cancer. The three leading types of cancer among the male patients were lung, colorectal, and liver cancers, whereas in female patients, they were breast, uterine cervical, and lung cancers. The type of cancer most commonly treated by RT was cancer of the central nervous system in patients aged 20 years or less, breast cancer in patients aged 30-50 years, and lung cancer in patients aged 60 years or more. Conclusion: Data from this study provided the clinical utilization of RT in Korea between 2009 and 2013.

• Kidney Research and Clinical Practice
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.48-57
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• 2017

Background: Hepatic steatosis measured with controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) using transient elastography predicts metabolic syndrome in the general population. We investigated whether CAP predicted metabolic syndrome in chronic kidney disease patients. Methods: CAP was measured with transient elastography in 465 predialysis chronic kidney disease patients (mean age, 57.5 years). Results: The median CAP value was 239 (202-274) dB/m. In 195 (41.9%) patients with metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus was more prevalent (105 [53.8%] vs. 71 [26.3%], P < 0.001), with significantly increased urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (184 [38-706] vs. 56 [16-408] mg/g Cr, P = 0.003), high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels (5.4 [1.4-28.2] vs. 1.7 [0.6-9.9] mg/L, P < 0.001), and CAP (248 [210-302] vs. 226 [196-259] dB/m, P < 0.001). In multiple linear regression analysis, CAP was independently related to body mass index (${\beta}=0.742$, P < 0.001), triglyceride levels (${\beta}=2.034$, P < 0.001), estimated glomerular filtration rate (${\beta}=0.316$, P = 0.001), serum albumin (${\beta}=1.386$, P < 0.001), alanine aminotransferase (${\beta}=0.064$, P = 0.029), and total bilirubin (${\beta}=-0.881$, P = 0.009). In multiple logistic regression analysis, increased CAP was independently associated with increased metabolic syndrome risk (per 10 dB/m increase; odds ratio, 1.093; 95% confidence interval, 1.009-1.183; P = 0.029) even after adjusting for multiple confounding factors. Conclusion: Increased CAP measured with transient elastography significantly correlated with and could predict increased metabolic syndrome risk in chronic kidney disease patients.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.14-31
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• 1988

The national family planning program in Korea, which was instituted as an integral part of the nation's economic development plans since 1962, has contributed greatly to a reduction in the fertility and population growth rate. The total fertility rate dipped from 6.0 births per women in 1960 to 2.0 in 1985, and the population growth rate rom 2.84 percent per year to 1.25 percent during the same period, while the contraceptive practice rate for the 15-44 married women increased from 9 percent in 1965 to 70 percent in 1985. Study findings indicate that the fertility reduction in the past 26 years is largely attributed to the virgorous implementation of the national family planning program, rising age at marriage, wide-spread use of induced abortion, and the changes in attitude regarding the value of children that came into being in the wake of the rapid socio-economic development over the period. Among the strengths of the national family planning program are the following : 1) a pluralistic system of program manageent with active participation of various government and voluntary organizations, 2) utilization of a large corps of family planning field workers to conduct face-to-face communication and motivation activities, 3) use of private physicians with government support to provide contraceptive services, 4) a systematic program management system including program planning of traget allocation, evaluation, and supervision with a broad MIS and award system, 5) numerous incentive and disincentive schemes for stimulating the small family norm and contraceptive use, and 6) strong commitments to the family planning program by political leaders. The new demographic targets during the Sixth Five-Year Economic and Social Development plan period(1987-91) have been set for a further reduction in the population growth rate to 1.0 percent by 1993, assuming that the TFR will decline to 1.75 level in 1995. This target is, however, not easy to achieve due to anticipated unfavorable factors like the strong boy preference, high discontinuation rates of reversible contraceptive methods, fertility termination-oriented contraceptive use, a plateau level of contraceptive practice rate that has mostly accounted for a sterilization, shortened length of birth intervals, and the changing patterns of contraceptive mix. The recent changes in contraceptive and fertility behaviors clearly indicate that the past quantity-oriented management system of the national program should be redirected toward a quality-oriented approach. Particularly, program efforts should be expanded to recruit new contraceptive users in the 20s of younger age groups, both for birth spacing and controlling their fertility since the women aged 20 to 29 account for more than 80 percent of the total annual births in recent years. In addition, the current contraceptive fee system of the national family planning program should be gradually shifted from free contraceptive services to a acceptor's charge system, and the provision of contraceptive services through the medical insurance system, which will cover the entire population by 1989, should be accelerated as a means of integration of family planning program with other health programs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.629-635
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• 2019

In term of the factors affecting psychosocial adjustment of breast cancer patients, their quality of life after surgical operation, radiation, and chemotherapy were systematically meta-analyzed. As a result, their qualities of life of the patients that had radiation therapy was the lowest right after the therapy, and gradually increased after the end of the therapy. However, after six months, their quality of life failed to reach the same level before the therapy. They had depression and side effects the most right after the therapy, and somewhat reduced them after the end of the therapy. In case of surgical operation, the more they were educated, the more they had psychosocial adjustment, and the more they had a medical examination and took out an insurance policy, the more they had psychosocial adjustment. In case of chemotherapy, their cognitive function is influenced so that they have impairments in memory, learning, and thinking stages. Since subjective cognitive impairment has a relationship with depression, it is necessary to monitor depression of chemotherapy patients. Given the results of this systematic meta-analysis, when three types of therapies (surgical operation, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy) are applied to patients with breast cancer, it is necessary to recognize their psychosocial adjustment, depression, anxiety, and quality of life in the nursing and radiation therapy fields and thereby to introduce an intervention program for a holistic approach.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-150
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• 2017

This study analyzes how workers become impoverished and have their jobs less stabilized after they suffer from non-job-related sickness. Given that South Korea lacks sickness benefits, which most of OECD member states legislate and implement except US and Switzerland, this study examines its impact on laborers' job stability and povertization in Korea. The researchers have conducted in-depth interviews with nine former or present laborers who have the experiences and four experts on the issue in July-September, 2017 for the qualitative analysis. It is found that laborers, after becoming aware of their sickness, at first endure their pain without informing their employers not to lose their jobs. The attititude is observed especially among non-standard laborers, because sickness more often leads to job loss for them than for standard laborers. After workers have to leave their jobs due to their sickness in the end, they have no choice but to keep working in less stable jobs to compensate for income losses. They become gradually impoverished with their social capital like family bond declining. We observe laborers who are eligible for industrial accident insurance compensation could not benefit from the system because some employers refrain from the legal reporting duty. Due to this illegal practices, some industrial accident victims unduly lose their jobs due to "non-job-related sickness". Second, some employers report to the authority that their sick laborers have left their jobs 'voluntarily' even when they have quitted it without their volition, in which case the newly unemployed are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Large holes in Korea's safety nets for those suffering from multiple risks of sickness and unemployment.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.129-164
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• 2017

This article is an exploratory study on the recent growth of short-hours part-time work in Korea. The short-hours part-time work has been rapidly growing among low-educated women over sixty, particularly among bereaved or divorced women, contrary to the expectation of the government that encouraged the part-time work by means of work-family balance for working mothers or middle-aged women who experienced career interruption. The short-hours part-time jobs are concentrated in social service industry, mostly elderly care service jobs, and their working conditions are extremely poor, mostly low-wage jobs with no social insurances except for health insurance. In this study, we discuss why the short-hours part-time work has grown so fast in Korea since the mid 2000s. Using various governmental statistics, we examine the effects of the labor demand and supply situations during the time period, the legal context that is related with the exempt clause of the labor law, and the institutional context related with the government's public job creation projects for the elderly. We suggest some public policies needed to slow down the growth of the short-hours part-time jobs and to elevate their working conditions.