• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.75-97
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• 2004

Objectives: To examine whether the socioeconomic characteristics of communities (contextual effects) are related to the self-rated health of community residents after controlling individual characteristics (compositional effects). Methods: A linked data set including information on individuals from raw data of 1998 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey(KNHNS) and information on the regions where the individuals lived from the socioeconomic statistical indices of Si-Gun-Gu (city-county-ward) in 1998 was established. The contextual factors of communities were generated from these socioeconomic indices through factor analysis. The contextual effects of community over and above the individual characteristics on the self-rated health were investigated using multilevel analysis. Results: The contextual factors of the community expressed as the factor scores have influence on the self-rated health of their residents above the compositional factors. When the communities were categorized into 5 groups (highest, high, middle, low, lowest) according to each of their factor scores, for factor 1 reflecting urbanization reversely, the residents of the communities that had the high, middle, and low factor scores showed significantly poor subjective health status than the residents of the lowest (most urbanized) group. For factor 2 reflecting community services and health resources, the subjective health status of the residents gradually became poorer when the group went from the highest to the lowest, and the low and lowest groups showed a significant difference. For factor 3 reflecting the manufacturing industry, as compared with the communities that have the highest factor scores, the other 4 groups showed significantly poorer subjective health status. And for factor 4 reflecting the scale of the regional government, as compared with the middle group, the rest of the 4 groups showed significantly better self-rated health. Conclusions: There existed regional contextual effects on their residents' health in Korean adults. To make policies tackling these contextual effects possible, more elaborate researches to find more specific factors and to explain the mechanisms of how health is influenced by the contextual factors are needed.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.115-122
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• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to propose the utilization plan of Ryodoraku in the U-health care systems. Methods : Computerized literature searches were performed for Ryodoraku related articles using the following databases: KISS, RISS, DBPIA, NDSL from 1990 to Oct 2010. Search terms were '양도락' or 'Ryodoraku' or 'U-health'. Due to Ryodoraku coming from Japan, additional literature review(articles published by 2008) on Japanese journal of Ryodoraku medicine was done for compensation. Results : 1. Introduction of U-health : As rapid progress of population aging and strong interest in health, the demand for the traditional Korean medical service is increasing. Until now healthcare service has provided post treatment by face-to-face manner. But according to related researches, proactive treatment is resulted to be more effective for preventing diseases. Particularly, the existing healthcare services have limitations in preventing and managing chronic geriatric degenrative diseases such as metabolic syndrome, CVA, coronary heart diseases, parkinson's diseases, degenerative joint disease, spondylosis, etc., because the cause of the above is complex and even related to life habit. As the advent of ubiquitous technology, patients with the chronic geriatric degenrative diseases can improve life habit such as poor eating habits and physical inactivity without the constraints of time and space through u-healthcare service. Therefor, lots of researches for u-healthcare service focus on providing the personalized healthcare service for preventing and managing that. To cope with this situations, The concept of u-healthcare service should be adopted in the traditional korean medicine and diagnostic devices suitable for it should be also devised and developed based on traditonal korean medine. 2. Review of existing Ryodoraku related articles for applying to U-health : articles investigating feasibility applying Ryodoraku to meridian diagnosis and raising problems of it, articles providing recent research trends of Ryodoraku, Ryodoraku related articles considering usefulness for U-health, and articles confirming the repeatability and reproducity of Ryodoraku were included. Based on the review of the above Ryodoraku related articles, several application of Ryodoraku in the U-health care system. Conclusions : To make preparations for the increasing need of traditional Korean medicine due to rising morbidity rate of chronic geriatric degenerative diseases, it is necessary to appropriately apply Ryodoraku to the U-health care system. The application of Ryodoraku is as follows. 1. To use Ryodoraku additionally to the established diagnostic device of metabolic syndrome, CVA, coronary heart diseases, parkinson's diseases, degenerative joint disease, spondylosis. 2. To apply Ryodoraku to the symptoms or diseases having a tendency to be diagnosed by correlation between the affected meridian and the lesion such as headache, nuchal pain, shoulder pain, low back pain, sciatica, HNP, etc. 3. To secure the repeatability and reproducity of Ryodoraku. 4. To devise and develop Ryodoraku appliance in order to overcome the known drawbacks and to improve error of measurement.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2013

Objectives : Health cooperative movement is of increasing concern among medical consumers and professionals in Korea. Most health cooperative clinics provide Western Medicine and Korean Medicine(KM) to patients. This study aimed to evaluate the primary care level of health cooperative KM clinics and compare it with local KM clinics in Korea. Methods : Face to face survey was performed at the 3 health cooperative KM clinics and 5 local KM clinics with the Korean Primary Care Assessment Tool (KPCAT). The KPCAT consists of 5 domains (21 items): first contact (5), coordination function (3), comprehensiveness (4), family/community orientation (4), and personalized care (5). Subjects were patients or guardians who had visited KM clinics five times or more during the last 3 months. We compared primary care scores of each domain between health cooperative KM clinics and local KM clinics. Results : Data were collected from 200 respondents (100 patients from health cooperative KM clinics and 100 local KM clinics). Total average scores of the KPCAT for health cooperative clinics and local KM clinics were $81.1{\pm}12.0$ and $75.4{\pm}9.5$, respectively. Among primary care domains, personalized care was the highest ($89.2{\pm}12.0$, $89.6{\pm}8.4$, respectively), and comprehensiveness function was the lowest ($68.5{\pm}22.5$, $54.5{\pm}22.0$, respectively). Significant differences between two groups were noted in comprehensiveness function (68.5 vs. 54.5, P=0.000), family-community orientation (79.5 vs. 73.0, P=0.004), first contact(89.2 vs 84.0, p=0.001) and coordination function(74.0 vs 68.7, p=0.025). Conclusions : Based on the patients assessment, health cooperative KM clinics provide more primary care-oriented services than local KM clinics. This means that health cooperative clinic can be one of alternatives to strengthen the primary health care in Korea. Future researches are recommended to measure patients satisfaction and treatment effectiveness in the health cooperative clinics.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.335-343
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• 2021

Background: The purpose of this study was to extract the major areas of interest in health insurance research in Korea, and infer policy agendas related to health insurance by analyzing research keywords. Methods: For this study, 2,590 articles were selected from among 7,459 academic papers related to health insurance published between January 1987 and December 2018, which were looked up using the Research Information Sharing Service (RISS). Keyword extraction and keyword network analysis were performed using the KrKwic, KrTitle, and UCINET software. Results: First, the number of studies in the area of health insurance continued to increase in all government terms, and it was not until after the 2000s that the subjects of health insurance researches were diversified. Second, degree centrality showed that 'medical expenditure' and 'medical utilization' were consistently high-ranking keywords regardless of the government in power. Aging and long-term care insurance-related keywords were ranked higher in the Lee Myung-bak government, Park Geun-hye government, and Moon Jae-in government. Third, betweenness centrality showed the same high ranking in key topics such as medical expenditure and medical utilization, while the ranking of key keywords differed depending on the interests and characteristics of each government policy. Conclusion: We confirm that health insurance as a research topic has been the main theme in Korean health care research fields. Research keywords extracted from articles also corresponded to the main health policies promoted during each government period. Efforts to systematically investigate policy megatrends are needed to plan adaptive future policies.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.147-155
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the research trends of the articles published in the Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services in the past 10 years. Methods: A total of 236 articles published between 2009 and 2018 were analyzed. For analysis of the collected data, frequencies and percentages were calculated using SPSS 23 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Most of the articles (47.9%, 113) were authored by 2 researchers, and most first authors were affiliated with university (81.4%, 192). Most of the articles were presented with 3 key words (34.3%, 81), and the most studied subjects of emergency medical technology was clinical researches (26.7%, 63). The majority of the research was performed quantitatively (99.6%, 235) and retrospectively (72.5%, 171), and research design was the most surveyed (68.2%, 161). For the majority of articles, the size of the sample was less than 100 (35.6%, 84), and the study participants were students (38.1%, 91). Only 12.7% (40) of the articles were reviewed by institutional review boards. Conclusion: In future studies on emergency medical technology, active participation of field emergency workers is needed. In addition, qualitative and prospective studies should be conducted on various types of research subjects.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.47-58
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• 2014

Objective : In Oriental medicine, the concept of Preventive Treatment Disease(治未病, PTD) is intended to actively deal with changes in modern disease patterns due to increase in chronic diseases. In China, preventive health service program based on PTD Theory are being carried out aimed at improving and/or preventing people's health. Method : For the introduction of PTD program based preventive service in Korea for the promotion of people's health, I would like to consider its possibility by reviewing the PTD program being conducted in China. Results : China's preventive health service programs based on PTD Theory started in 2008 for the purpose of promoting people's health and reducing medical expenses by providing medical services tailored to individuals. Regarding the effects of PTD program based preventive health service, improvement of discomforting symptoms comprised 73.04% of responses. As to service items, health guidance, Traditional Chinese Medicinal diagnosis, and preparation of health records were answered as being important. The importance of food and internal medicines for preventing and/or curing PTD Theory are also recognized. Also, as to satisfaction level, 90.64% responded as being satisfied in the order of the level of service providers, their attitudes, service processes, items, costs, and environments. Conclusion : As shown above, according to assessments on China's PTD programs, the PTD Theory is being applied to actual public health programs with highly effective results. Hence, it can be seen that such attempt could also be implemented in Korea as part of a scheme for promoting health by means of Korean medicine health promotion programs. However, further researches into concrete implementation schemes will have to be developed in the future as medical systems are different in Korea from in China.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.301-309
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• 2007

Purpose: Based on the results of a survey on college freshmen's smoking this study examined the application of smoking cessation programs. Methods: The opinions of 89 smokers who were college freshmen were investigated and analyzed using a survey questionnaire. Results: Among the survey respondents, the largest percentage (47.2%) replied 'little satisfied' to the question on the with campus life. Of the participants, 57.3% considered that their health state was bad because of smoking. As to motives for smoking, 'curiosity' was most frequent. Smokers had more smoking friends than nonsmoking ones. The 82% of the smokers had experience in stopping smoking. Among smoking cessation methods, the self overcoming was most frequent(50.6%). During the survey, 28 smokers applied for the cessation program and they favored e-mails for information. E-mails were sent to them once in a week for 6 weeks and short messages were sent to their cell phone in order to encourage them to read the e-mails. Conclusions: To encourage and maintain smoking cessation, it is recommended to have a personalized or small group program. More researches are needed to execute the program and evaluate results. Colleges need to have an innovative approach on smoking prevention and cessation services.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.279-294
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• 2012

The study compared refractive surgery patients' hospital selection factors and satisfaction, through this to see the factors influencing patients' satisfaction, aiming at 235 patients visiting two Eye hospitals. The research results are followed. First, target group's hospital selection factors appeared facilities and environment factor, reliability factor, personal service factor, and accessibility factor in the order. Second, patients' satisfaction appeared reliability factor, facilities and environment factor, and personal factor in the order. Fourth, in the result comparing patients' expectation on hospital selection and satisfaction score, all factors of facilities and environment, personal service, and reliability had high satisfaction score than expectation. Third, in the result of factors influencing refractive surgery patients' satisfaction, in surgery determination period, surgery expenditure, and hospital selection factors among characteristics relating to refractive surgery, facilities and environment, personal service, and reliability appeared as satisfaction influencing factors. In conclusion, the study found that hospital selection factors and satisfaction influencing factors by refractive surgery patients' surgery type are considered to be able to be used to establish marketing strategy in the fields excluded from insurance application, the researches to improve patients' satisfaction in patient-oriented medical market should be continuously proceeded.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-80
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• 2009

Objectives: This study identified how personal characteristics, healthy behavior and social capital might influence on physical activity of adults. Methods: This study used data from the health survey of a city of Korea. We surveyed 1,000 adults sampled by stratified sampling methods from 67,889 households. Outcome variable was the stage of physical activity which was broken into 5 categories. Sociodemographic factors, healthy behavior, self-rated health status and social capital were used as control variables. Sociodemographic factors included age, sex, educational status, economic status measured by deprivation score, residential period within survey city. Social capital was measured by Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of Social Capital (SC-IQ). This study used chi-square test and ordered logistic regression models to examine the associations between independent variables and physical activity. Variables were added to the regression model in three groups using a hierarchical approach. Results: Physical activity was significantly more likely to become active if they have higher educational status, healthier behavior. Among the six dimensions of SC-IQ, only "groups and networks" that is structural dimensions of social capital and "trust and solidarity" that is cognitive dimensions of social capital were significantly related to physical activity of adults. We found that a person having higher density of membership and having larger size of networks showed the high possibility of active physical activity. A person having high solidarity was significantly associated with physical activity, but general trust was inversely related to physical activity. Output dimensions of social capital did not show significant relationship to physical activity. Conclusion: We found that social capital is useful concept to explain health behaviors like physical activity. However we must consider social, cultural and political context of the study to evaluate the effect of social capital to health status and health determinants and to capture the exact meaning of relationship between them. We suggest further researches to refine the concept of social capital and to explain the relationship of social capital to diverse health determinants.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.97-107
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• 2005

This paper considers the possibilities of health promotion from the following perspectives; (1) IUHPE, (2) socio-cultural similarities, (3) action research, and (4) learning from our past. 1. The IUHPE values decentralized activities through regions, and countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China belong to NPWP region. Since IUHPE World Conference was held in Japan in 1995, Japan used to occupy more than 60% of NPWP membership. After 2001, membership is increasing rapidly in Chinese speaking sub-region. The transnational collaboration is still in its beginning phase. 2. Confucianism is one of key points. Confucian tradition should not be seen only as obstacles but as advantages to seek a form of health promotion more acceptable in East Asia. 3 Within the new public health framework, people are expected to create and live their health. However, especially in Japan, the tendency of 'lacking of face-to-face explicit interactions' is still common at health-promotion settings as well as academic settings. Therefore, the author tried participatory approaches such as asking WIFY(interactive questions designed for subjects to review their daily life and environment) and as introducing round table interactions. So far, majority of participants welcome new trials. 4. The following social phenomena are comparatively discussed after Japanese invasion and occupation of Korea ended in 1945; status of oriental medicine, separation of dispensary services, and health promotion specialist as a national license. In contrast to Japanese' tendency of maintaining the status quo and postponing of substantial social change, trend toward rapid and dynamic social changes are more commonly observed in Korea. Although all of above possibilities are still in their beginning stages, they are going to offer interesting directions waiting for further challenges and accompanying researches.