• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors increasing fall risk in the residential environment risk and the perceived fall risk among the older adults who received home care services to provide information for developing a comprehensive falls intervention program. Methods: The subjects were 227 community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years and over who were taken care of by home-visiting nurses of the national health centers. The data were collected from July to August in 2012 using the Choi's residential environmental risk scale (2010) and the Hong's fall risk scale (2011). Results: Requires an assistive devices to walk, modified residential environment, health security, approval certificate of LTC, residential safety perception, residential environment risk, and perception of fall risk were statistically significant risk factors. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that room & kitchen, physical perception, medication & ADL perception, floor-related environmental perception, and daily living tool-related perception were statistically significant predictors of fall. Conclusion: The results showed that the residential environment and the perceived fall risk were associated with fall experiences among the elderly. It is necessary to develope multifactorial intervention programs considering both environmental and perceived risk factors as well as physical risk factors to reduce and prevent falls among the elderly.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.56-70
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• 2005

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to develop a linking model between industrial injury insurance organs and local organizations providing social welfare health services, for the activation of medical rehabilitation services for industrial injury patients. Method: Research design for this study was a multi-step research through literature review, field research, and group interviews with persons in charge, to compare local society-oriented medical rehabilitation programs. The term of researches Sep.1 ~ Nov. 30, 2004. Results: 1. Home nurses from Workers Accident Medical Corporation have been taken to be adequate to case managers, who link industrial accident insurance institutions to local society services for the activation of medical rehabilitation services for industrial injury patients. They have been chosen for case managers because they have richer understanding and experiences of objects of industrial accidents than any other specialists, and because they have proved to be able to provide direct home services as a specialist. We have established the center for case management affairs within the workers accident general hospital, organized the committee for case management with doctors in charge, doctors in rehabilitation, rehabilitation consultants, social welfare workers, physical therapists, and nurses, determined objects of case managements from those of long-term recuperation, and constructed a course of case management containing from case management plans to evaluation. 2. We have made files of community resources, and organized the council of industrial accident administration to have it in charge of the adjustment and linking of services in case management affairs. 3. Because there are inequality of community resources between areas, differences in experiences in and bases for linking, and disparity of core organizations with active linking in the system of linking between public and civil sectors, we have taken a system of linking between parallel organs to be the core. In our linking model, workers accident general hospital, hospitals designated for industrial injury, and rehabilitation hospitals are linked in parallel, inadequate long-term recuperation managers are trusted to an workers accident medical corporations through examination by the examination committee in Korea Labor Welfare Corporation, and are dealt with by the committee for case management. Of the hospitals designated for industrial accidents, those running a home caring center provide home caring services for the handicapped at home from industrial injury. 4. Workers Accident Medical Corporation take part in medical rehabilitation, and Korea Labor Welfare Corporation in vocational/social rehabilitation. Furthermore, in the model, the latter should construct a system for job opportunities through Internet portals and provide cyber vocational consultation and introduction. Conclusion: Improvement of systems is needed to apply the linking model to practical affairs. Because this model is centered for practical affairs, it should be put under the analysis of effects, and evaluation of its adequacy to practical application, and its effects and efficiency through experimental running in the 8 workers accident general hospital in Korea.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.148-157
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• 2021

Background: Based on that the key function of health technology is improving the quality of healthcare services, our study purports to explore the process of medical device development in detail and to discuss its policy implications. Methods: A total of 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with four groups of industry, hospital, academia, and civil society. All of the interviewees except those from civil society were involved in the new medical device development between 2009 and 2018. We performed a text network analysis and content analysis of the interview data. Results: The frequency and the degree centrality rankings suggested a close association between the utilization issue and the technology development. Similarly, the results of the content analysis showed that the appropriate intervention in the utilization of technology has a direct impact on the progress of development. Under the continuous industrial effort to boost profits by developing new technology, service providers and citizens should be knowledgeable of and make good use of the new technology for the provision of better services. Conclusion: As the development itself would not guarantee the improvement of service quality and better health outcomes, health technology policies should take a more comprehensive view to serve the unmet needs and even to facilitate the technology development.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.415-437
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• 2011

The increased interest in consumer health information(CHI) has brought about a rapid increase in CHI resources. There are diverse means for obtaining such information, and one CHI acquisition route is the public library. In the U.S. public libraries, the demand for CHI reference services is increasing, and a variety of projects to promote these services are in progress. On the other hand, Korean public library services for CHI is at a very basic level, and thus a very small amount of such research could be found. This study drew suggestions from a literature review of research studies in the U.S. and Canada, and analyzed public library CHI services in Korea. The findings are as follows. 1) Only 17.25% of public libraries in Korea provided CHI service, and it evidences very low needs and awareness for CHI services in Korea. 2) Only three kinds of services including CHI-related websites, users training, and promotional and marketing were provided, and only 13(1.74%) of libraries surveyed offered more than two kinds of services. 3) There were no CHI librarians, nor did any librarians receive CHI-related education. 4) ILL services, outreach services, and cooperation with CHI- and medical-related institutions for CHI services were not found. Therefore, this study suggests that more research on delivery strategies for CHI services should be conducted in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.7-24
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• 2020

Purpose: Emergency medical service (EMS) personnel are at high risk of spreading infection. In this study, we used the PRECEDE model to identify the knowledge, status, and barriers to infection control among Korean paramedics to provide basic infection control data. Methods: A total of 164 respondents were analyzed for the study. A questionnaire was administered and collected through an online self-response platform. Descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, multiple regression, and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine infection control practices and associated factors using SAS 9.4. To identify the pathways and direct, indirect, total effects based on the PRECEDE model, we used AMOS 26.0. Results: Highly rated self-efficacy (OR 8.82, 95% CI: 3.23-24.09), awareness (OR 6.05, 95% CI: 2.06-17.72), and enabling factors (OR 3.23, 95% CI: 1.18-8.78) led to superior infection control. As a result of the structural model analysis, the highly rated enabling factors and awareness led to superior practice patterns. Conclusion: Practice is related to self-efficacy, awareness, and enabling factors; however, further research is needed to develop strategies for infection control. In particular, institutional arrangements are needed to improve the enabling factors. Improving infection control performance may lead to better infection control and enhanced protection of EMS personnel and patients against infection risks.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.90-103
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was designed to confirm the effects of the Korean Medicine health promotion program targeting young children. One important aspect of the Korean Medicine health promotion program for children is to bring awareness of health benefits of introducing Korean Medicine methods to young children and to promote incorporating such methods in children's daily activities to develop healthy habits. Methods: The following experiment was conducted for 6 weeks, and the participants were in the age between 2 to 6 years old from 6 child care centers in Wonju and Chungju. 268 participants were in the intervention group, and 277 in the control group. To measure the outcomes of the Children Korean Medicine health program, the intervention group received Korean Medicine prevention programs (children education, parent education, growth exercises, common cold prevention scarf, and pear herb tea), control group did not. This research collected and compared the following data as the children's health indicators to measure the outcomes before and after the program: medical services usage, the number of absences, early leaves, and tardiness to the child care centers due to the participant's health condition. Results: After applying the children's health promotion programs on children between the age of 2-6, there was a decrease in the overall medical services usage, absences, early leaves, and tardiness to the child care center. This health promotion program was purely based on Korean medical theories and Korean Medicine resources without any conventional medical mediation. Conclusions: It can be concluded that a positive change was noted in raising awareness of Korean Medicine through educating both the parents and children. By learning to incorporate Korean Medicine prevention practices to daily habits, not only was there a reduction in the Medical services usage, but the children also became familiar and comfortable with Korean Medicine and its treatment procedures; the overall satisfaction level of the program was also high.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-38
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• 2015

Background: Organizational changes that involve healthcare hospital departments and care services of health districts, and ongoing technological innovations and developments in society increasingly expose healthcare workers (HCWs) to work-related stress (WRS). Minimizing occupational exposure to stress requires effective risk stress assessment and management programs. Methods: The authors conducted an integrated analysis of stress sentinel indicators, an integrated analysis of objective stress factors of occupational context and content areas, and an integrated analysis between nurses and physicians of hospital departments and care services of health districts in accordance with a multidimensional validated tool developed in Italy by the National Network for the Prevention of Work-Related Psychosocial Disorders. The purpose of this retrospective observational study was to detect and analyze in different work settings the level of WRS resulting from organizational changes implemented by hospital healthcare departments and care services of health districts in a sample of their employees. Results: The findings of the study showed that hospital HCWs seemed to incur a medium level risk of WRS that was principally the result of work context factors. The implementation of improvement interventions focused on team development, safety training programs, and adopting an ethics code for HCWs, and it effectively and significantly reduced the level of WRS risk in the workplace. Conclusion: In this study HCW resulted to be exposed to occupational stress factors susceptible to reduction. Stress management programs aimed to improve work context factors associated with occupational stress are required to minimize the impact of WRS on workers.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 1997

This study was carried out to find out general characteristics and health-related be haviors of elders aged 60 or over and factors related to their activities of daily living, and thus to contribute to their health maintenance and promotion. The subjects were 200 elders who had resided at An-Dong city and participated in this study. To collect data, the field survey was conducted from December 13 to 23, 1996 with structured questionnaires by 6 trained student interviewers. Chi-square test, t-test and Pearson's correlation were used for data analysis by use of SPSS/$PC^+$ program. The major findings were as follows; 1) In the individual characteristics of the respondents, the average age were 73.6 years old. 21.5% of the subjects were 60-69 years old, while 27.5% were 70-74 years old, 25.0% were 75-79 years old, 26.0% were 80 years old or over. 2) For the degree of the subject's perceptive health condition, the aver age 3.39 point and standard deviation 1.09. The perceptive health condition of the subjects was in the mid point range of health condition. 3) 46.6% of men and 25.8% of women practiced exercise regularly for their health maintenance and promotion. 4) For the degree of the subject's perceptive health condition, the difference by sex was not statistically significant. 5) 51.8% of men and 60.2% of women has idea for interventions to health promotion program by rehabilitation services.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.211-225
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• 2021

Objectives: To validate the role of a new information and communication technology platform that we created for the betterment of the oral health of persons with disabilities and for providing appropriate health care services. Methods: A Delphi survey was conducted among 16 people in various professions, including academia, government agencies, and dentistry, to evaluate the validity of the information and communication technology platform. Moreover, platform satisfaction was evaluated using a user experience questionnaire among 200 people, including persons with disabilities, parents, and public institutions. Results: Experts in consensus indicated a high validity for the categories of service provider (CV=0.29, CVR=0.69), service target (CV=0.29, CVR=0.38), service contests (CV=0.27, CVR=0.63), and financial support (CV=0.30, CVR=0.63) in our information and communication technology platform. In addition, information from questionnaires on user experience and communication technology satisfaction analysis showed that both users and providers were highly satisfied with the platform. Conclusions: The provision of oral health services based on the new information and communication technology platform has numerous advantages, in addition to providing adequate oral health care for the disabled. Furthermore, the social safety net for improved oral health may be further strengthened.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.391-401
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• 2017

This study develops an indicator to manage regional variations of approval rates for long-term care (LTC) service. We used LTC insurance data for grade assessment that include 433,155 applicants from 227 LTC centers across Korea in 2015. The approval rate for each center was defined as the proportion of the numbers of approved applicants out of all applicants. We assumed that the approval rates depended on the characteristics of applicants. We estimated the 'standard' approval rates from a multiple linear regression analysis using the characteristics of applicants as independent variables. The difference between the observed and the standard rates was then defined as an indicator for deviation. A center having a large difference could be considered as a center with a potential error in grade assessment. We also examined if the characteristics of investigators affected the approval rates. We found that the socio-demographic characteristics of applicants and reapplication rate for LTC grade were independent factors affecting the approval rates. Centers having the management indicator values falling outside the middle 95% of the distribution were identified as centers with an error in grading. We expect that this study will contribute to enhancing reliability and equity in LTC grading.