• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.195-203
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• 1991

Correlations among body weight and sociodemographic factors, including life - style were tested as social determinants of health in a sample of 5,201 adults in Korea. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which sociodemographic variables and life-style associated health behaviors explain body weight distribution. A second aim was to explain the relation of body weight and health status to stress the importance of body weight as an early risk indicator of health status. The canonical correlation between the weight distribution(underweight and overweight) and the independent variables was 0.29, 17% of the total variance was explained. Perceived health level represented the highest contribution(canonical coefficient 0.82) to body weight. Sociodemographic factors such as sex, economic status, and life-style factors such as smoking, exercise, regular meais and sleep showed comparatively high contributions to body weight. The relevance of body weight for health status including the rate of chronic disease and the rate of medical utilization was significant. Especially, underweight was clarified as being mere important than overweight to morbidity level and medical utilization. These findings suggest that perceived body weight is an important indicator of health status and is thus a valuable variable to be considered for nursing intervention and health education related to the promotion of health.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.277-287
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• 1998

The present study is designed that the herb medicines which are returned to kidney, pancreas and are known by efficacy in growth are supplied to pigs, thereafter the effects to growth and secretion of growth hormone in serum is investigated. For this purpose the 24 days old pigs, which are crossbreeding, castrated are used. The conclusions are that after 4 weeks' supply of herb medicinal compounds, pigs' weight gain has increased in low nutritional group with statistical meaning(p〈0.05). And one day's weight gain has increased with statistical meaning(p〈0.05) in all groups. Regarding food take, the second nutritional group has more significant increase than control group. Utilization rate of nutrition doesn't have any statistical meaning in all groups, but it has the tendency that as herb medicinal compounds are added, utilization rate of nutrition is increased. Increase of vertebra lengths and level of growth hormone in serum according to supply of herb medicinal compound don't have any statistical meaning because of small sample size, but 10 - 20 % increase of vertebra lengths and 10 - 30 % increase of level of growth hormone are observed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.261-269
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to present the effective management strategy of RI based on the results of research on the causal relationship between the regional medical care capacity and the hospital management performance by calculating the RI of the general hospitals in Korea, This research has significance. The results of this study are as follows: First, statistically significant differences were found in Number of beds and recurring profits in urban areas by the general characteristics. Second, the correlations between the RI and the variables of the regional medical use are as follows: Recurring profit ratio, New Outpatient Visits, Operating Margin, Daily Outpatient Visits per 100 Beds, Daily Inpatient Days per 100 Beds, and Average Charge per Inpatient Day. Based on the results of this study, the significance of this study is as follows. First, we calculated the affinity for local medical use, which is the index of local medical utilization. Secondly, it is analyzed according to internal and external environmental factors such as city size, hospital size, etc. It can be said that the hospital provided basic data for establishment of hospital management strategy to increase the utilization rate of local medical care.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.233-244
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual utilization of clinical practice guidelines developed by Hospital Nurses Association. Methods: The subjects were 70 nurses who were in charge of guideline distributions in 70 advanced general hospital and general hospitals with 500 beds or more nationwide. Data were collected between June and August, 2020 by mail (return rate: 88.6%). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA with SPSS/WIN 24.0. Results: Among the clinical practice guidelines developed by Hospital Nurses Association, 72.9~90.1% were placed with book and electronic file in nursing department and 24.3~35.8% were placed with book and electronic file in each nursing unit at hospital. The average number of utilized clinical practice guidelines were 3.96±3.88, and average score of guideline utilization was score 2.85±0.79 which means 'use sometimes'. Conclusion: To improve the distribution and utilization of the clinical practice guidelines, it is necessary to enhance the recognition of values of evidence based nursing practice targeting head of nursing department and to stimulate the distribution and utilization of the clinical practice guidelines using diverse education programs for staff nurses.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 1990

Rapid industrialization has induced the migration of rural people to urban areas. Such migration has created enlarged the existing low income group. Residents of low income area have increased health risk owing to their poor living environment, low income. overwork and inappropriate health care. The general objective of this study was to group the pattern of medical care utilization of low income group. The specific objectives were to identify disease prevalence and medical care utilization of low income group. To meet the objectives of this study, household interview method was applied. A total of 1845 households in 5 areas such as Bongchon 5th Dong, Bongchon 2nd Dong, Sanggae 5th Dong, Sanggae 4th Dong, and Shinrim 7th Dong were visited and interviewed by field team during the period from April 19 to May 3. 1989. The major findings obtained from the information collected were as follows : The Number of room per household used was one to two rooms. The employment state of the head of household disclosed that 88.6% had a job and the remaining 11.4% were unemployed. The average monthly income was 502,770won. however, 30% of the total income was less than 300,000 won in Bongchon 5th dong area. and 34.5% in Shinrim 7th Dong area. 41.3% of households had debts, which was consisted of household expense(33.4%), income formulation(22.7%) and medical care cost(15.9%) etc. Prevalence rate of diseases during the preceding 30days before the date of the household interview was 387.7 per 1000 persons. The prevalence rate of female was higher than that of male. 8.9% of the sick persons wasn't receiving any medical treatment, and the main reasons of which were lack of economic availability(43.3%) and feeling of non treatment needed(33.7%). According to the study results it was found that the prevalence rate of chroic diseases and the disabled in low income resident areas was higher than that in the other areas. Therefore, the health status of this group should be improved through PHC approaches. In addition. in order to prevent the diseases and promote the health of those people, the health center as well as health subcenter should be strengthened.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.5 no.9
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• pp.47-59
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• 1999

With the unparalleled rate of aging and rapid modernization, Korean society faces the situation in which it has to increase the supply of elderly care services dramatically in the near future. Among these services, nursing homes are considered as an essential alternative provision because Korea can no longer rely on traditional familism nor medical facilities for the care of her older population. It is necessary, therefore, to prepare a future plan for the delivery of nursing homes in Korea. This paper has identified elderly care context and analyzed elderly care facilities of Korea in the point of supply and utilization rate of nursing homes according to the region and type of facilities. On the bases of this analysis, the delivery planning of nursing homes in Korea has been proposed in order to increase welfare status of older people and efficient utilization of health care resources.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.2 s.24
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• pp.431-441
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• 1988

The purpose of this study was to compare the difference of two survey methods for health services research. Data were collected by means of two types of household survey conducted from March 11 to September 19, 1985. A probability sample of 30,613 persons was taken from 180 Enumerated Districts designated by the Economic Planning Board. The sample was divided into two groups systematically. One group was surveyed by the self-administered questionnaire and the other group was interviewed. Response rates were 81.4% and 90.6% respectively. The data were analysed by the ratio of the results of the self-administered survey to those of the interview survey. No difference was observed in sex, age, residence, or occupation between the two groups. However the respondents' characteristics were statistically different between the two groups. The major findings of this study are as follows : 1. The morbidity rate was 142.5 per 1,000 persons during the two week period by the self-administered questionnaire survey and 74.3 per 1,000 persons with the interview survey method. The ratio of the morbidity rate by the self-administered questionnaire to that by the interview was 1.92, and the difference between the two rates were due to the personal characteristics. 2. The out-patient utilization rate was 10.2 visits per person per year by the self-administered questionnaire survey and 5.4 by the interview survey, and the ratio was 1.89; the admission rate was 3.2 times per 100 persons per year by the self-administered questionnaire survey and 1.9 times by the interview survey, and the ratio was 1.68. Differences due to the sociodemographic characteristics were greater in the out-patient utilization rates than in the adimssion rates. 3. Percentages of effective medical care demand were 90.2% in the self-administered survey and 92.3% in the interview survey; the ratio was 0.98 which was less than that of the morbidity rate and medical care utilization. But, differences of effective medical care demand occurred in persons with no occupation, and aged or low educated respondents. 4. Respiratory illness had the highest frequency in the two survey methods. But there was a slight difference between the two survey methods in morbidity composition. 5. It was concluded that data collected by the interview survey were inclined to be underestimated and this problem can be corrected by a modified self-administered survey.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2007

Objectives : There have been few studies examining the differences in health care utilization across social classes during the last year of life. Therefore, in this study we analyzed the quantitative and qualitative differences in health care utilization among cancer patients across educational classes in their last year of life, and derived from it implications for policy. Methods : To evaluate health care utilization by cancer patients in the last year of life, Death certificate data from 2004 were merged with National Health Insurance data (n=60,088). In order to use educational level as a social class index, we selected the individuals aged 40 and over as study subjects (n=57,484). We analyzed the differences in the medical expenditures, admission days, and rates of admission experience across educational classes descriptively. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between medical expenditures and independent variables such as sex, age, education class, site of death and type of cancer. Results : The upper educational class spent much more on medical expenditures in the last one year of life, particularly during the last month of life, than the lower educational class did. The ratio of monthly medical expenditures per capita between the college class and no education class was 2.5 in the last 6-12 months of life, but the ratio was 1.6 in the last 1 month. Also, the lower the educational class, the higher the proportion of medical expenditures during the last one month of life, compared to total medical expenditures in the last one year of life. The college educational class had a much higher rate of admission experiences in tertiary hospitals within Seoul than the other education classes did. Conclusions : This study shows that the lower educational classes had qualitative and quantitative disadvantages in utilizing health care services for cancer in the last year of life.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.70 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2011

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide and one of the most prevalent diseases in Korea. We examined trends and risk factors of health care utilization for COPD in Korea. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the database of Patient Surveys from 1990 through 2008, which were nationwide surveys of health services utilization through outpatient department (OPD) visits and hospitalization. Physician-diagnosed COPD patients whose ages were 45 years and older were included. Results: OPD visits and hospitalization of COPD patients between 1990 and 2008 were estimated to be 68,552 and 17,774 persons, respectively. Trends in OPD visits and hospitalization for COPD significantly increased from 1990 through 2008 (p=0.019, p=0.001, respectively). The increment rate for OPD visits was 2.0 fold over those years; for hospitalization it was 3.3 fold. Risk factors for OPD visits for COPD were male gender (odd ration [OR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.39~1.43), those aged 65 years and older (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.47~1.53), residential area other than a metropolis (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.07~1.010) and access to a physician's office (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.14~1.21). Risk factors for hospitalization were male gender (OR, 2.15; 95% CI, 2.07~2.23), those aged 65 year and older (OR, 2.86; 95% CI, 2.72~3.00), residential area other than a metropolis (OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.90~2.07) and access to a hospital (OR, 2.88; 95% CI, 2.59~3.22) (p<0.001, both). Conclusion: Health care utilization for COPD subjects increased from 1990 to 2008. Risk factors for the utilization were male gender, older age, and residential area other than a metropolis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2017

Objectives: The accurate measurement of geographic patterns of health care utilization is a prerequisite for the study of geographic variations in health care utilization. While several measures have been developed to measure how accurately geographic units reflect the health care utilization patterns of residents, they have been only applied to hospitalization and need further evaluation. This study aimed to evaluate geographic indices describing health care utilization. Methods: We measured the utilization rate and four health care utilization indices (localization index, outflow index, inflow index, and net patient flow) for eight major procedures (coronary artery bypass graft surgery, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, surgery after hip fracture, knee replacement surgery, caesarean sections, hysterectomy, computed tomography scans, and magnetic resonance imaging scans) according to three levels of geographic units in Korea. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance database in Korea. We evaluated the associations among the health care utilization indices and the utilization rates. Results: In higher-level geographic units, the localization index tended to be high, while the inflow index and outflow index were lower. The indices showed different patterns depending on the procedure. A strong negative correlation between the localization index and the outflow index was observed for all procedures. Net patient flow showed a moderate positive correlation with the localization index and the inflow index. Conclusions: Health care utilization indices can be used as a proxy to describe the utilization pattern of a procedure in a geographic unit.