• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.124-133
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• 2020

Objectives: Mask fit is a crucial factor in preventing respiratory infections among healthcare workers. The current coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic calls for the replacement of imported N95 medical masks with domestic N95 versions. In this study, we aimed to determine whether these masks provide proper protection. Methods: Thirty-five participants from three healthcare institutions donned four types of masks and Quantitative Fit Tests(Portacount, USA) were performed. The order of fit test for the four types of masks was randomized, and a three-minute washout period was applied between test times(2 min 29 sec) to reduce potential error stemming from physical exhaustion. Results: There were no significant differences in the Fit Factor for the four types of masks, and there were no gender differences. However, the Fit Factor significantly differed across the three healthcare institutions (p=0.007). With eight of the 35 participants passing, the pass rate with the criteria of 100 or higher was 21%. Conclusions: The mask used in this study was a new domestic N95 medical mask, and the participants were unfamiliar with how to wear it. They reported difficulties with mask fitting. In light of a previous finding that mask fit improved with frequently used masks, wearer preferred masks, or when masks that are regularly worn are used during fit training, the fact that participants were unfamiliar with the mask used in this study is a limitation that should not be overlooked.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2013

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the perspective of consumers in healthcare services regarding patient safety. Methods: The study was a descriptive study using a self-reported questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on the Senior Empowerment and Advocacy in Patient Safety (SEAPS) questionnaire, which was designed to assess patient safety health beliefs. The survey was conducted online and a convenient sample of 302 adults participated in total. The reliability of the measurement (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$) was 0.758 in attitude (ATT), 0.546 in out-come efficacy (OE), 0.757 in self-efficacy (SE), and 0.703 in behaviors (BEH). Results: The average patient safety awareness score of the healthcare service consumers was 2.72 (ATT), 2.91 (OE), 2.87 (SE), and 2.27 (BEH). Our analysis indicated that there were no differences in ATT, BEH, or SE by gender, age, or education level. However, in OE and the total score of the four subscales, there were significant differences by age and gender. Correlations were identified between BEH and SE (r=0.409, p<.01), BEH and OE (r=0.202, p<.01), ATT and SE (r=0.358, p<.01), and OE and SE (r=0.241, p<.01). Conclusion: This study measured consumer perspectives concerning patient safety. The findings demonstrate the need for developing a measurement tool to assess consumer's perception of patient safety, considering Korean healthcare system and cultural context.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.21-38
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• 2019

This study starts from the question, "Are people of the age 60 and over equally 'old?' "As the aging population has rapidly become a global issue, it is a timely question to think about whether it is appropriate to classify people aged 60 and over as senior citizens monolithically based on their chronological age. Thanks to the advancement of medical technology and ever-increasing life expectancy, there may be more differences than we thought in terms of cognitive and behavioral patterns among the elderly population. In order to further investigate this question, this study focuses on technology acceptance behavior of 132 participants over the age of 60 towards a wearable healthcare device. The results show that there were interesting behavioral differences among participants depending on their cognitive capabilities. More specifically, participants with high cognitive capability (Superagers) consider the usefulness and the social aspects (social norm and image) of using wearable healthcare technology. Whereas for those with relatively low cognitive capability (non-Superagers), usefulness of using the technology was not a significant factor, and they mainly considered social norm and image. Our findings imply that the current monolithic application of chronological age to classify the elderly population should be carefully reconsidered because people aged over 60 years old may not always share homogeneous cognitive and behavioral patterns.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7981-7986
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• 2015

Background: As coverage of public insurance is not sufficient to cover diagnosis or treatment of cancer, having private health insurance is important to prepare for unexpected expenses of cancer. The purpose of this study was to assess factors associated with having private cancer insurance, considering gender among the socio-demographic factors and health behavior. Materials and Methods: We used data from the 2011 Korea Health Panel, which included 10,871 participants aged 20 years and older. Socio-demographics, health behavior, and perceived cancer risk were the independent variables and having private cancer insurance was the dependent variable. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with having private cancer insurance. Results: The variables relating to middle age, higher education, higher household income, married men, and the perceived cancer risk groups of 1-10% and 11-30% were significantly associated with having private cancer insurance. Additionally, females who had private non-cancer health insurance were positively associated with the dependent variables (OR=1.36; 95% CI=1.17-1.57). Education, smoking status, exercise, and perceived cancer risk possibility were significantly associated with having private cancer insurance only among women. The men lowered the overall percentages of those having private cancer insurance (OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.45-0.63). Conclusions: We found that there were significant differences between men and women who had private cancer insurance. Women with private cancer insurance are more likely to follow precautionary health behavior than men. This could be interpreted as resulting from masculine ideologies. It is important to make males recognize the seriousness of the cancer risk. In general, household income was highly associated with private cancer insurance. These results reveal an inequity among the buyers of private cancer insurance in terms of economic status level, education level, and health condition.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.293-301
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to redefine 7 social exclusion factors and to derive association between social exclusion factors and depression of middle and older elderly, focused on gender differences. The elderly aged over 50 years old were extracted from the data of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) in 2016. The data was analyzed by descriptive analysis, chi-squared test, and binary logistic regression analysis, using SAS 9.4. As a result, the elderly who were excluded from labor, residence, health, and relationship were found to be associated to depression. In addition, male with resident exclusion were associated with depression compared to non-excluded. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the local community programs in which elderly people can participate in labor and cultural activity. It is necessary to improve labor and culture exclusion by increasing the participation opportunities of various cultural programs. In addition, it is needed to establish specific guidelines for eliminating the social exclusion of overall elderly.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2010

This study is to realize the importance of the therapeutic environment of nursing facilities for elderly people; to comparatively analyze the therapeutic environment elements of the facilities in Gwangju, Jeonnam area, Seoul, and Japan by classifying the therapeutic environment elements according to two aspects on the basis of preceding studies; and to find out the differences among the three regional groupsnaFirst, all therapeutic elements were put together on the basis of two preceding studies based on the two aspects. Second, an expert group was organized primarily with architects and care-givers to find out the therapeutic environment elements of nursing facilities for elderly people with dementia, and to draw up an evaluation standard. Third, the regional differences were analyzed, by comparing the distribution of therapeutic elements of the facilities in Gwangju-Jeonnam area, Seoul, and Japan, through the found therapeutic environment elements. Consequently, eighteen therapeutic environment elements were found out of total 32 elements, and the elements were classified into nine factors based on the meaning of each element. The therapeutic environment elements were showed highest in Japan, and lowest in Gwangju-Chonnam area according to the comparative case analysis based on the nine factors. Especially, there were great regional differences in terms of awareness, safety, orientation, privacy, and freedom of choice.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-68
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• 2014

Since the introduction of National Health Insurance(NHI) in 1977, it has grown rapidly and contributed to extend patient's access to the health care services. However, limited coverage for health care services of NHI has been ongoing challenge and private health insurance(PHI) has been rising as an alternative source of enhancing coverage and saving out-of-pocket(OOP) expenditure for patients. In this study, after controlling for socio-demographic, economic, health related variables, we identified the patients' healthcare utilization and subsequent OOP expenditure depending on their PHI enrollment and their enrollment types(fixed benefit, indemnity, fixed benefit plus indemnity). Data were collected from the 2010 Korean Health Panel. The unit of analysis was a member of household(n=13,324). Of the 13,324 cases, 70.7% of patients held PHI, in detail, fixed benefit(47.0%), indemnity(3.6%), fixed benefit plus indemnity(20.1%). Major findings showd that patients who enrolled in PHI used more outpatient services(outpatient visit, number of physician visit, number of examination) and spent more OOP expenditure than non-PHI patients. There were also differences of healthcare utilization and OOP expenditure among the types of PHI. In addition, PHI patients used more inpatient services(inpatient use, number of hospitalization, LOS), but there was no significant difference between PHI and non-PHI patients with regard to the OOP expenditure. Thus, we could not find any distinct relationship between the types of PHI and patients' tertiary hospital use. Policy-makers should need careful political deliberation for monitoring the effect of PHI on health care utilization and subsequent expenditure not only to improve patients' coverage but also to save their OOP expenditures.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.66-77
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• 2009

This study aims to examine the effect of socioeconomic status (hereafter, SES) on healthcare utilization of the patients with rare and incurable diseases. Information of 2,973 patients who were self-employed insured and utilized healthcare service in 2007 was drawn from the National Health Insurance (hereafter, NHI) claim data. SES was set as four groups based on the monthly contribution. Outcome variable was the expense for outpatient and in-hospital services, which was log-transformed and square-rooted in oder to obtain normal distribution. Covariates included age, gender, residence and diagnosis. To examine the effects after controlling for covariates, we employed generalized estimating equation model, since patients with the same diagnosis are likely to have similar characteristics of demographics and healthcare utilization. Univariate statistics showed that lower SES was associated with less utilization of healthcare services. After controlling for covariates, a significantly smaller amount of money was expended for the lowest SES group compared to the highest one. Rural residence was associated with less utilization, except that residents in Seoul significantly more utilized outpatient services in tertiary hospitals. Considering that there is a subsidy program for the low income patients, such differences in healthcare utilization according to SES seems to result from the burden of out-of-pocket payments for uncovered services of the NHI.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2009

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to develop the radiographic technique for detecting the demineralization which is known as indication of dental caries. Materials and Methods: This technique was based on the comparing of multiple radiographs which was irradiated by multiple X-ray spectra. For the meaningful comparing, the multiple radiographs were reconstructed to the dosimetrically consistent images using a standard material. The difference of resulting images of same target with multiple spectra represents the difference of response of material as regards the spectra. Results : We have found about 10% of demineralization of dental hard tissues particularly in the proximal region through the analyzing of differences. Conclusion: Most intriguing thing in this investigation was that the method to analyze difference shows us to an anatomic structure of dental hard tissues even if absolute values of optical density were excluded during the procedures. (Korean J Oral Maxillofac Radiol2009; 39: 61-8)

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.518-520
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• 2019

As life expectancy has increased, health status becomes an important factor on life. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has led to the development of a variety of healthcare devices and applications that make it easier and more convenient to manage health. In particular, the area of individual genetic analysis with Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) has expanded, and genetic information is used to treat and prevent diseases according to individual differences. This study analyzes the genetic information of individuals, that is, SNP variant, and identifies specific chronic disease risk groups such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. After then we will propose a customized nutrition information service. In addition the service of regional exercise management will be provided, to encourage exercise based on walking courses and sports center information in residential areas. Based on the GPS, it will design the service of exercise management that can encourage exercise by providing walking course and sports center information in the residential area.