• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.100-111
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• 2020

Background: Few studies have examined the performance of the public long-term care insurance (LTCI) from the perspective of geographic equity. This study investigated regional variations and associated factors in the supply and utilization of nursing home care within and also between Japan and Korea. Methods: A comparative dataset was developed by extracting data from 2013-2015 LTCI statistics yearbooks and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development regional statistics, as well as other comparable data in Japan and Korea. The unit of analysis was the prefecture in Japan and the province in Korea. We computed variation indices and conducted regression analyses for regional variations within each country and decomposition analyses to examine the variations between the countries. Results: The overall regional supply and use of nursing home care were higher in Japan, but the regional variations in Korea were larger than in Japan. In both countries, the nursing home supply was negatively associated with the proportion of older people with independent living. Nursing home use was also negatively associated with the supply of hospital beds and home care agencies in Korea; the relationship was the opposite in Japan, however. The country-based differences were more likely to be explained by differences in the distributions of the variables included in the analytical model than country-specific characteristics. Conclusion: Regional-level nursing home supply and use were unequal in both countries, and the contributing factors were not the same. Policy efforts are needed to advance regional equality in long-term care (LTC) and collaboration between health and LTC institutions for frail older people, especially in Korea.

• The Journal of Korea Assosiation for Disability and Oral Health
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-30
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• 2006

Federal disability law has evolved from several laws geared to protect people with disabilities since the late 1960s and early 1970s. When U.S. Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, no federal statute prohibited the majority of employers, program administrators, owners and managers of places of public accommodation and others from discriminating against people with disabilities. Toward the ends to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with the disabilities, the ADA pursues three major strategies: Title I addresses inequality in employment, Title II, inequality in public services, and Title III, inequality in services and accommodations offered by private entities. The purposes of the study were to analyze the impact of the ADA on health care for persons with disabilities and to review the ongoing health policy reforms at the federal and state governments. Essential remedies that the ADA contemplates are based on two principles, simple discrimination and reasonable accommodation, which significantly improved access to quality care, especially long-term care, by persons with disabilities. However, the ongoing Medicaid policy reforms to control rising health care costs in the U.S. could threaten the access to care by persons with disabilities in optional groups and to optional care services by persons with disabilities in mandatory groups.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.495-503
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• 2023

Objectives: While older adults using community care services are known to be vulnerable for depression, community care utilization (CCU) may help to improve the mental health of these elderly. To date, however, it is much less clear how CCU affects depressive symptoms in the elderly population. This study focuses on the trajectory of depressive symptoms across years of CCU among older adults in Korea. Methods: Using the 2006-2019 Korean Welfare Panel Survey, this study is focused on elderly born in 1940 or earlier and selected 3281 persons for baseline interviews in 2006. This consisted of 35 800 person-year observations during a period of 14 years. Panel data analysis were employed to construct years of CCU. Results: After controlling for covariates, linear term of years using community care was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, but a quadratic term was positively significant. The trajectory of depressive symptoms across the years of CCU follows a U-shaped curve. Older adults in the first year of using community care reported the highest level of depressive symptoms. However, a significant and steady decrease in depressive symptoms was observed during the following 9 years of CCU, which then gradually increased. The level of depressive symptoms at the 14th year of using community care remains significantly lower than the level at the outset of its utilization. Conclusions: This finding implies that CCU could be beneficial for improving mental health among older adults.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.485-509
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• 2020

This study reviews empirical studies that investigated the impact of marketization of long-term care services on quality of care in Korea, England, Sweden, United States, and Japan. The trend and characteristics of marketization and regulatory system in those countries were compared. Since 2008 when long-term care insurance was introduced in Korea, we selected and reviewed empirical studies which were listed in the National Research Foundation, PubMed and Web of Science and examined the relationship between marketization and quality of care. Seven Korean, three English, two Swedish, seven American studies and one Japan study were identified and there was little evidence supporting that marketization would lead to better quality of care. Specifically, competition had no consistent relationship with quality of care while there was little evidence supporting that for-profit nursing homes tended to exhibit greater quality of care compared to non-for-profit nursing homes. The chains of for-profit nursing homes were revealed to have greater deficiencies. The findings of this review imply that improvement of quality of care may not be achieved by making for-profit nursing homes have chains. Reconstruction of nursing home markets should be needed, and the number and the proportion of public and non-for-profit nursing homes should be increased.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.279-299
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• 2015

This study examines the impact of Long-Term Care Insurance(LTCI) on family caregivers(especially focused on female household members) labor supply in South Korea. When public care and informal care are substitutes, LTCI will change allocation of time of family caregivers to spend more time to paid work. The impact of LTCI on labor supply depends on each country's institutional level of public care services. If public care can not substitute for informal care, labor supply of family caregivers will not rise significantly. The conclusions of vigorous empirical study from western countries' are incompatible and problem of endogeneity in terms of methodology has been raised consistently. The dataset of this study are used the third and ninth waves of Korea Welfare Panel. As a result, the introduction of LTCI had no effect on labor supply of household members. Robust findings suggest the positive effects of caregiving on labor market outcomes in simple comparison t-test, but not in fixed-effect regression. Compared with western countries, South Korea's public care services can be interpreted as a supplement to only part that remained at the level does not substitute informal care. These findings may suggest that if LTCI become much more prevalent in the future, senior citizens and family members will be able to choose the LTCI arrangement that best suits their needs.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.263-272
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was to identify health needs of the elderly at nursing homes by long-term care grade. Methods: The health needs of 116 elders at two nursing homes in Seoul were measured with resident assessment protocols (RAPs), activities of daily living (ADL), and cognitive performance scale (CPS), and pain and depression were measured by resident assessment instrument (RAI). Results: With regard to RAPs, 11 out of 18 items had different distribution in the 3 groups significantly. The 1st-grade elders had a higher percentage of 9 items than the 2nd- and 3rd-grade ones but the 3rd-grade ones had the highest health needs related with activity. The 2nd-grade elders had similar health needs to the 1st-grade ones. In terms of functional level, the 1st-grade elders had the highest percentage of CPS and ADL but the 3rd-grade ones had the highest score of pain and depression out of the 3 groups. The standardized assessment instrument to identify specific health needs by the 3 groups should be developed. Therefore, care plans to meet health needs of the 3 groups will be made. Conclusion: It is suggested that nursing care is required to the elderly of the 1st- and 2nd-grade and safe activity and environment to the 3rd-graded ones.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.280-291
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• 2002

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the maternal child health services provided by public health centers in Pyungtaek city. Methods: Data were collected based on multiple sources of official records. A questionnaire survey was obtained from 50 mothers with premature babies, and 89 mothers with full- term babies, in order to compare their demographic factors, and physical, obstetrical, and emotional status. In addition, the investigators collected data on pre and post follow-up care for the remature group to evaluate the effects of home visiting services on them. Moreover, additional data were collected from 135 pregnant women and 315 mothers with infants, to assess their degree of satisfaction for prenatal education course and breast feeding practices. Results: 1) The pregnant women's satisfaction for the prenatal education course, knowledge, and practices on self care were considered to be high. 2) Of the mothers with infants, 62.9% experienced breast feeding, but only 35.9% of them did it for six months. 3) Premature birth rate in the region was 5.6%, and 75.6% of all premature babies received follow-up care. 4) The mothers with premature babies experienced premature rupture of membrane. placenta previa, preeclampsia, and cesarean section more frequently than the mothers with full-term babies. 5) At the pre-intervention data collection point. mothers with premature babies experienced significantly less social support than mothers with full-term babies. In addition, mothers with premature babies reported higher levels of stress and care-giving burdens, and lower level of self esteem, than mothers with full-term babies, although the differences were not statistically significant. 6) In the premature group, stress, care giving burdens, and postpartum depression decreased after the intervention, whereas maternal self esteem, and the husband's support were increased after the intervention. Social support from significant others were somewhat decreased. 7) Satisfaction for the home visiting service in the mothers with premature babies was very high. Conclusion: These results showed a possibility that the recently started maternal child health services provided by the public health centers may be efficient. Although statistically significant differences were not found, the investigators found a potential for changes in a positive direction. Long-term effects of the health services on maternal child health needs should be addressed in future studies.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.213-218
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• 2016

Korea faces new social needs of community-based service for senior citizen as aging is getting fasten. Targeting elderly people who are beneficiaries of long-term care insurance and caring service, this paper aims to explore decent and proper services for senior citizens in terms of rehabilitation, health improvement and quality of life. Especially this research approaches from the perspective of service providers, including service facilities and care-service givers. Using FGI methods with care-providers and in-depth interviews with community social workers as well as nurses, convergence approaches are explored. As a result, welfare field and nursing practices are clearly divided in the community, so that the convergence education and team work tool would be developed in the near future.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.105-120
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• 2002

In the United States, the prospective payment system(PPS), under which diagnosis related groups (DRGs) are used to reimburse hospitals for the care of Medicare patients since 1983, Study results showed that the PPS is having a major impact on the quantity of services especially of hospital length of stay. The PPS has increased the likelihood that a patient will be discharged home in an unstable condition and the use of nursing homes or long term care facilities increased. Still, it is insufficient to conclude that the PPS has decreased the Medicare total expenditure, but relatively sufficient to conclude that the quality of care hasn't changed. The maintenance of the quality resulted from the systemic "check-and-balance" composed of three factors; (1) The doctors are reimbursed based on the fee-for-service system, (2) hospitals contact with doctors under the attending system, and (3) there are some public hospitals. In Korea, the reimbursement for hospitals and doctors are not divided, the hospitals have doctors as employees, and 90% of hospitals are private. These differences may weaken the "check-and-balance" existing in the U.S. system. And there are few long term care facilities and the diagnostic coding system using in pilot test are not suitable for Korean situation. In conclusion, for successful implementation of the DRG payment system in Korea, the government should establish the "check-and-balance" system in the health sector to make sure the quality of care before the implementation.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2019

Objectives: We searched and reviewed the literature including the laws or acts, statistics, guidelines, papers and conference proceedings related to home visit nursing care in South Korea. Method: We searched and reviewed the literature including the laws or acts, statistics, guidelines, papers and conference proceedings related to home visit nursing care in Korea. Results: There are three types of home care nursing in Korea. Public health center provides home visit nursing to vulnerable population by registered nurses for free, based on community health act in public health center. As of 2017, 1,261,208 people were enrolled in the visiting health program of public health center. Health behavior and disease management has been improved and showed having cost-benefit effect among the enrolled people in visiting health program. Visiting nursing care in long-term care services is provided by registered nurses or nurse aid, based on long-term care act. The cost is paid as the unit price according to service time. 1,095,764 older people used long-term care services in 2017, only 0.2% of total cost used for home visiting nursing. Even though the number of user of home visiting nursing, it was reported that users spent less medical cost and hospitalized shorter. Hospital-based home care nursing is provided to patients and their families under the prescription of a doctor by family nurse specialists who are employed by medical institute based on medical law. Four hundred sixty family nurse specialists worked for hospital-based home care nursing and hospital-based home care services accounted for 0.038% of total medical expenses in 2017. Conclusion: Even though home visit nursing care services are different in aspect of legal basis, personnel, running institutes, and cost basis, home visit nursing care showed cost-benefit effect and good health outcomes. In order to advance home visit nursing care, the integrated home visiting care, improvement of working condition, and revision of legal basis should be considered.