• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.58-75
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• 1998

Background : In Korea, the rational use of antibiotics are rarely controlled, and their patterns of utilization are not understood. In order to reduce the excessive use and to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics, it is necessary to accurately determine present uses of antibiotics in hospitals. Methods : Analysis of the use of prescription drugs was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. A stratified sampling by types of hospitals, departments, and diseases was obtained from 1994 August data. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study, 2,697 adults with URI, 6,397 children with URI, 704 adults with bronchitis, and 1,838 children with bronchitis were included. Results : Most patients were prescribed medication (95.2-99.6%). Of the patients prescribed medication, more than 85% of URI patients and more than 91% of bronchitis patients were prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics expenses accounted for 14% of total medical expenses in adults and 9% of total medical expenses in children. In adults with URI, antibiotics expenses accounted for 52% of drug expenses. Of the patients prescribed antibiotics, average number of antibiotics used was 1.6-1.7. For patients who are prescribed antibiotics, drug expenses were 62-97% greater than patients not prescribed antibiotics. When children were prescribed antibiotics, the highest price of drugs prescribed were 3.4-fold greater. In addition, the number of drugs prescribed also increased by more than one. Elderly patients, more than 60 years, were prescribed antibiotics less frequently. Children less than 10 years and elderly patients greater than 60 years old were prescribed fewer antibiotics than other patients. And they were prescribed medications for longer days than other patients. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the average rate of prescribing antibiotics was higher in Korea than other countries. Measures to reduce overuse of antibiotics and to improve the appropriate prescription of antibiotics must be considered for cost effective treatment and overall health of people.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.291-318
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• 2006

There were many studies conducted on economical aspects of employment among the elderly in national level, however, very few studies examined social and psychological aspects of senior employment and employment preferences of the elderly persons. The purposes of this study were to examine major determinants of decision making in employment, and to explore some relationships among decision making of employment, socio-economic factors, health and psycho-social factors, and labor and economical factors among non-working elderly persons in the community. In all, two-hundred-twenty elderly persons were interviewed and one-hundred-ninety-four were analyzed in this study. The descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, and logistic regression were used for the data analysis in this study. The study found that the respondent's sex, ages, education, numbers of children, physical health, ADL, self-efficacy, economical stress, numbers of years in labor, asset of real estate, family allowances, and the benefit levels of pension were major determinants of decision making in employment among non-working elderly persons. Finally, some implications were discussed for developing effective senior employment in national policy, job related services, and welfare programs of the elderly persons for the successful aging.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.673-689
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• 2011

It is a qualitative study based on a focus group with an aim to figure out elderly people's experiences in health inequality in vulnerable health zones in agriculture and fisheries areas. Of eups, myeons and dongs selected as 40 vulnerable areas where standardized death rates had continued to be high from 2004 to 2007 in 20 counties and cities in Gyeongsang-do, 15 agriculture and fisheries areas were randomly chosen to extract 8 to 10 elderly people. Explanations were given to study subjects, and 7 to 8 people who agreed to take part in the study joined a regional focus group. Contents of interviews were analyzed with a phenomenological method by Colaizzi (1978) in order to accurately describe pertinent phenomena. The study has found four categories including ecological environmental problems, insufficient services for local community & harmful environmental problems, worsening economic conditions and insufficient health care management in terms of health behavior.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2024

Objective: This study was conducted to provide basic data for the establishment of effective health policies for the unmet medical experience that may occur among the elderly depending on whether they live in a singleperson household or not. Methodology: This study used data from the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2020) and excluded cases with missing values in variables for the total number of respondent participants of 15,469. Finally, 2,850 subjects aged 65 or older were selected for final analysis. This study examined the relationship between experiences of unmet medical needs, attempting to confirm the relationship between single-person households and unmet medical needs through subgroup analysis considering gender, age, and household income. Results: According to the results, in the case of single-person households, the odds ratio (OR) for unmet medical needs was significantly higher at 1.60 times (95% CI: 1.16-2.21). Upon conducting subgroup analyses for gender, age, and household income quintiles, the OR was significantly higher at 2.24 times (95% CI: 1.14-4.41) for males and 1.48 times (95% CI: 1.02-2.14) for females, statistically significant in both cases. For individuals aged 65-69, the OR was significantly higher at 1.90 times (95% CI: 1.04-3.47), but for those aged 70-74 and over 75, it was not statistically significant. In the case of households with 'low' income, the OR was higher at 1.62 times (95% CI: 1.16-2.26), and for 'middle' income, it was significantly higher at 3.21 times (95% CI: 1.08-9.51). Conclusion: This study confirmed that the experience of unmet medical care is high among men who make up single-person households and low-income seniors. Therefore, this study suggests that policies to expand medical services and support welfare for single-person households should be established to resolve these problems, showing that health policies that take into account individual and regional characteristics are needed to improve medical accessibility for single-person households.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.37-49
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of competition between Public Health Centers (PHCs) and private clinics (PCs) by examining the number of patients that used PHCs vs. PCs, estimating the total amount of revenue generated from outpatient services at both PHCs and PCs, thereby analyzing the financial impacts on PCs derived from the PHCs. We utilized 2011 National Inpatient Sample data (NIS). Using the 20 table containing general information on each individual claims, we integrate it with the 40 table which contains all the diagnostic codes for each claim. Then, we disaggregate the bundled claims into the original individual claims. Overall, 3.1% of outpatient visits are made at PHCs while the rest was made at the PCs (96.9%). Among the total claim costs of 6.34 billion USD (as of 2011), PHCs occupy 2.0% (124 million USD), and 98.0% are contributed to PCs (6.21 billion USD). The estimated economic losses of PCs due to PHCs are summarized as follow; the maximum potential loss is estimated at 198 million USD in total and 7,099 USD per clinic when we include all patient types; the minimum loss is estimated at 71 million USD in total and 2,540 USD per clinic where Medical Aid recipients and the elderly (aged 65 and over) are excluded. Our results confirm the potential economic effect on PCs due to PHCs providing outpatient services. PCs and PHCs are the most important players providing primary care in Korea. Unnecessary competition between PCs and PHCs is not desirable. Health authorities should carefully examine the healthcare services currently provided by PHCs and their impacts on PCs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.4326-4334
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• 2013

This study is descriptive research, attempts to determine the status of elderly inpatients of veterans hospital' of drug awareness information, drug use status and drug Misusage. The subjects were 220 patients of aged 65 and over only five metropolitan areas nationwide in drug use in the Veterans Hospital, national merit, the study is from May to June. SPSS Win 18.0 program was used as the data analysis and a statistical statement by mean, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. As a results, there was showed a statistically significant level 'age', 'type of marriage', 'education', 'triage', 'health status' as the general characteristics of the subjects. It showed the 'age' of the variables that influence recognition in the area of drug awareness information, and drug Misusage and drug use status factors seemed to affect the 'health status'. Therefore, It need for a comparative study of elderly inpatients and inpatients of veterans hospital, the research should be qualitative research of veterans medical services to the on reasonable support measures in the Veterans Affairs health care system and national merit.

• Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.327-331
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• 2008

In Korea, welfare needs brought on by the rapidly growing of elderly population. Also, the senior group with spare time, wealth and health is increasing. Currently, the people have known about needs welfare system for improving quality of life during senescence personally and socially. In addition to the senior friendly industry, having distinction with simple approach medical services, will be great expanding after 2010. And there will be a new welfare services plan supporting long term care insurance for senior citizens. But we don't have prepared systematically organized senior friendly industry and products yet. So, the purpose of the study is to analyze systematically the classification characteristics of the senior friendly products according to the difficulty of daily living for senior citizens. Above all, the study finds out the senior friendly products characteristics according to the consumer's various situations about health and housing space. Therefore the result of the study reveals that the simulation guidelines for choosing the products depend on the customer's needs are essential and useful to improve senior friendly industry. And the post evaluation data of senior friendly products would be put to practical use in the industry.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.75-84
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• 2014

The advancement in ubiquitous healthcare specifically in preventive healthcare can lead to longer life expectancy especially for the elderly patients. To aid in preventing premature loss of lives as well as lengthening life span, this research aims to implement the use of mobile and wireless sensor technology to improve the quality of life and lengthen life expectancy. The threats to privacy and security have received increasing attention as ubiquitous healthcare applications over the Internet become more prevalent, mobile and universal. Therefore, we propose Context-aware Service of U-Healthcare Application based Knowledge using Ontology in secure health information exchange. This research also applies ontology in secure information exchange to support knowledge base, context modeling, and context reasoning by applying the general application areas for ontologies to the domain of context in ubiquitous computing environments. This paper also demonstrates how knowledge base, context technologies, and mobile web services can help enhance the quality of services in preventive ubiquitous healthcare to elderly patients.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.181-188
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• 2017

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare between performance and requirements of visiting nursing care in long-term care insurance using the OMAHA system. Methods: The subjects were 72 nurses who had worked in a visiting nursing care center in long-term care insurance. Data were collected from December 5, 2016 to January 31, 2017 using self-recorded questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. Results: Four dimensions of the OMAHA system showed statistically significant differences between performance and requirements of visiting nursing care in long-term care insurance. The requirements of visiting nursing care were higher than was performance on all 40 items of the OMAHA system. The greatest difference was in environmental domain and then the psychosocial domain. Conclusion: Based on the results, we found that the environmental and psychosocial domains were the largest gap areas. Therefore, with the reality of elderly people living alone and the increase in elderly couples, active intervention connected with the community is needed in residential areas. Further, we suggest that the OMAHA system can be utilized as an integrated conceptual framework for developing and enhancing visiting nursing care in long-term care insurance.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.8-13
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• 2020

In this paper, we study smart healthcare devices that enable active health care by building health care system with acquaintances or family members rather than single health care. The company develops health care services for families regardless of age and gender through intuitive UI design as a target for young users who serve elderly parents. Automated collection of health information and real-time feedback are available, and data can be aggregated and analyzed through repeaters. It can also utilize structured databases in the form of big data. The services offered can be used to prevent diseases and reduce medical expenses through health care, while automatic management can maximize users' convenience and increase demand. By reducing the development period of products that are based on this technology, reducing the development period of products and strengthening competitiveness, the company has the advantage of inducing generation-to-generation communication in an era when it is becoming a nuclear family.