• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.67-81
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• 2012

Objectives: This article examines the diversity of healthy cities evaluation in practice and discusses the major conflicting issues in evaluating healthy cities to offer implications to academics and cities for application in their field. Methods: The author discusses issues on major topics that arose from a review of literature on selected articles from peer-reviewed journals, books and gray literature. The recently developed Korean Healthy Cities evaluation framework is used as a main source of reference. Results: Evaluating healthy cities is in itself a political process and requires multiple methodologies and diverse sources of data. Details of the evaluation process depend on the purposes and goals predetermined by the stakeholders. The Korean Healthy Cities evaluation framework applies these principles and suggests a participatory approach to evaluation, selection of indicators that provide evidence on the process of change and to use mixed evaluation methods. The involvement of stakeholders in the evaluation process can also be a useful tool to further strengthen partnerships and strategies for healthy cities. Conclusion: Cities need to engage more in evaluation activities and develop necessary skills and capacity to produce utility-driven evidence.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.514-524
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the reported experiences of health management among twenty elderly workers living in urban areas. Methods: Corbin and Strauss's grounded theory approach was used to capture the meaning of health management. Theoretical sampling technique was used in the interviews. Using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, data were collected and analyzed simultaneously. Results: The core category was 'pursuing health to take root in the workplace.' Four stages of the elderly workers' health management were identified as 'awareness of health changes', 'having the will to be healthy', 'utilization of health care resources', and 'reorganization of health habits.' However, when the elderly workers reported limited capacity to manage their health, then two new categories were described: 'awareness of health changes' and 'settlement with current health.' Conclusion: To the elderly workers the concept of working was equated with being healthy. Further, the participants reported having a future oriented view of health and sought health to extend their working lives. The specialized intervention of health management targeting elderly workers in the settlement stage of current health habits should be provided.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2231-2238
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• 2014

This study investigated how self-rated health and socioeconomic status are associated with behaviour of cancer survivors regarding desire for information. For this association, we compared survivors who did not seek information about cancer with those who did. We examined how sociodemographic, socioeconomic, cancerrelated, and health information factors are associated with self-rated health (SRH) by health information seeking/avoiding behavior in a survey of 502 post-treatment cancer patients. In the information seeking group, all four factors exhibited significant relationships with SRH. SRH values were significantly high for women (p<0.05), non-Hispanic White (p<0.05), and educated (p<0.01) participants, and for those who had high self-efficacy to use health information by themselves (p<0.01). Furthermore, in the information avoiding group, not only were there no significant relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and SRH, but there were negative associations between their attitude/capacity and the SRH. In terms of communication equity, the promotion of information seeking behavior can be an effective way to reduce health disparities that are caused by social inequalities. Information avoiding behavior, however, does not exhibit a negative contribution toward the relationship between SRH and SES. Information seeking behavior was positively associated with SRH, but avoiding behavior was not negatively associated. We thus need to eliminate communication inequalities using health intervention to support information seeking behavior, while simultaneously providing support for avoiders.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.73-81
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was (1) to examine the effects of a Health Promotion Exercise Program (HPEP) on functional improvement, physical strength (PS) and muscle activation (MA), and the interactive influence with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IDAL) in the elderly, and (2) to develop and provide a HPEP for the elderly in order to prevent declines and impairments in integrated nerve function and physical capacity. Methods: Our study included relatively healthy elderly people aged 65 years or older. The experimental group, which was composed of 30 people, participated in a HPEP 50~60 minutes a day, 3 times a week, for a total of 12 weeks. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated the measurement models for MA, physical strength, ADL and IADL with a p<0.01. This confirms (i) the beneficial effects of the ADFP on their MA and PS, and (ii) that their improvement in PS, in turn, can improve their IADL. The results of this study indicates that ADFP can help Korean seniors 65 years or older improve their MA, PS, ADL, and IADL, and do so synergistically. Conclusion: An HPEP, when organized in such a way that the elderly can easily do it, and when exercise items and intensity can be programmed and reorganized accordingly to individual physical and physiological characteristics by presenting 5 categorized health domains of physical strength, may be useful, especially because it can be practiced irrespective of time and place.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.219-225
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• 2016

Background: Intention to leave was an important managerial issue among physicians working in public health centers. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between job participations and intention to leave among physicians working in health centers. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about job participation, intention to leave and demographics among physicians (n=243) in public health centers in Korea. Job participation was measured by 15 items categorized 3 dimensions. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of job participation on intent to leave among physicians working in public health center. Results: Participation of medical treatment and administrative job were significantly associated with intention to leave adjusted for sex, age, income, working area, working duration, tenure, and overall job satisfaction. Therefore, physicians who actively participated in administrative job showed a lower turnover intention. Physicians who actively participated in medical treatment job had a higher quit intention. Conclusion: To retain qualified physicians in public health center, education should be reinforced to physician for administrative capacity building.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.186-190
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• 2014

Background: Physical exercise during leisure time is known to increase physical capacity; however, the long-term effects on work ability and work strain are inconclusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a 6-month physical exercise program on work ability and work strain after 6 months and 30 months, among women with menopausal symptoms at baseline. Methods: A questionnaire including questions on work ability and work strain was mailed in the beginning, at 6 months and after 30 months after the intervention to occupationally active women participating in a randomized controlled study on physical exercise and quality of life. The intervention included aerobic exercise training 4 times per week, 50 minutes per session. Work ability was measured with the Work Ability Index (WAI) and with questions about physical and mental work strain. Results: Women aged 47-62 years (N=89) who were occupationally active at baseline were included in the analyses. The increase in WAI from baseline to the end of the exercise intervention (6 months) was statistically significantly greater among the intervention group than among the control group (regression coefficient 2.08; 95% confidence interval 0.71-3.46). The difference between the groups persisted for 30 months. No significant short- or long-term effects on physical and mental work strain were found. Conclusion: A 6-month physical exercise intervention among symptomatic menopausal women had positive short-term as well as long-term effects on work ability.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2024

This study aims to compare the role of the public sector in the U.S. and Korean medical security systems and study response measures in the social risk situation of the COVID-19 virus. The COVID-19 pandemic was a typical case of a 'disaster' that spread across the world across borders in a short period of time and caused serious social welfare losses by increasing the annual number of deaths by approximately 4% in 2020. Threats to health security, such as changes in social order, unpredictable endings, prolonged control of daily life, and deepening inequality, affected the economy, politics, and environment as a whole, and people had to experience anxiety and confusion due to mental and physical stress. Furthermore, developed countries failed to provide help to low-income countries in the face of global disasters. In this situation, the country's disaster management capacity to minimize harm and secure resilience, especially disaster response capacity in the health and medical field, is inevitably very important. Therefore, this study compares how the health insurance system, which is a system to guarantee citizens' right to life, differs from the United States, a liberal health care country, and raises the need to strengthen the role of the public sector.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.190-202
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was designed to determine visiting nurses' job performance and self confidence by career and number of visiting households. Methods: The subjects were 120 visiting nurses fully in charge of the visiting health care program working in 18 community health care centers, who were checked for 5 domains of visiting nurses' job, 39 tasks of job performance and self confidence. ANOVA test, Scheffe test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. Results: The level of job performance and self confidence indicated highest in understanding of the visiting health care program among 5 domains of visiting nurses' job. The level of job performance and self confidence indicated lowest in community resource connection. When nurses were classified by a career with approximately 5 years of working experience, nurses with a career of more than 5 years were highly significant. Job performance and self confidence were positively correlated. Conclusion: Based on the result of this study, it is recommended that the education program for newly hired nurses should be differentiated from that for visiting nurses with a career in order to improve quality of the visiting nursing program and capacity of residents' health care.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between self-rated health and Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and self-care behavior of rural elderly in Korea, focused on the difference among three distinctive living arrangements; living alone, living only with his/her spouse, and living with their married children. For this purpose, data were gathered from a nationwide survey, a total of 586 elderly aged 65 or older and living in rural area, using the structured questionnaire. Also, self-care behavior were categorized into 4 groups; life-style practice, medical self-care, adaption to functional limitation, and emotional management. The major findings are as follows; 1) Rural elderly perceived their health little and more 'bad' but their ADL capacity were 'not difficult', especially among elderly living with spouse. 2) The level of 20 items in self-care behavior ($1{\sim}5$score) was ranged from 2.51 to 3.81 score. The behavior level of regular exercise, setting up additional phone, taking a nutrient, and testing BP or pulse regularly were low but that of taking a medicine according to prescription, close contact with other people, and regular eating were proportionally high. 3) The majority of self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health positively but medical self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health or ADL negatively. Based on these results, policy implications are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.526-543
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how public health nurses (PHNs) perceive their roles and duties (R&D), as well as to investigate the change of their R&D, how they manage and solve problems. Methods: The data were collected through focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using Morgan (1998) and Krueger (1998)'s four step analysis. A total of 17 experienced PHNs participated in this study. Results: The results found 5 themes and 19 sub-themes: R&D of health managers and health service providers, factors affecting the changes of PHN's R&D, R&D in adjusting with trends and expanding work field (R&D being reduced, increasing R&D, need to expand R&D), problem with the structure and quality of workforce (lack of nurse manpower, lack of promotion opportunities, increasing non-regular workers, lack of refinement as an expert), and strategies for solving personnel issues (strengthening the job capacity, cultivating professional refinement, strengthening outside activities and political activities, strengthening the roles of PHN-related associations and academy, engagement policy of non-regular workers, expansion of the activity area) Conclusion: PHNs need to recognize their changing R&D and ways they manage and solve problems to enhance their professionalism.