• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.295-310
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• 2023

Background: The long-term care (LTC) group has higher rates of chronic disease and disability registration compared to the general older people population. There is a need to provide integrated medical services and care for LTC group. Consequently, this study aimed to identify medical usage patterns based on the ratings of LTC and the characteristics of benefits usage in the LTC group. Methods: This study employed the National Health Insurance Service Database to analyze the effects of demographic and LTC-related characteristics on medical usage from 2015 to 2019 using a repeated measures analysis. A longitudinal logit model was applied to binary data, while a linear mixed model was utilized for continuous data. Results: In the case of LTC ratings, a positive correlation was observed with overall medical usage. In terms of LTC benefit usage characteristics, a higher overall level of medical usage was found in the group using home care benefits. Detailed analysis by medical institution classification revealed a maintained correlation between care ratings and the volume of medical usage. However, medical usage by classification varied based on the characteristics of LTC benefit usage. Conclusion: This study identified a complex interaction between LTC characteristics and medical usage. Predicting the requisite medical services based on the LTC rating presented a challenge. Consequently, it becomes essential for the LTC group to continuously monitor medical and care needs, even after admission into the LTC system. To facilitate this, it is crucial to devise an LTC rating system that accurately reflects medical needs and to broaden the implementation of integrated medical-care policies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.27-39
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• 2000

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors associated with respirator usage on the basis of reasoned action theory. Methods : The data were collected from August 1 to September 30 1999, and study subjects consisted of 303 workers who were employed in the manufacturing industries. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure the attitude, subjective norm and related factors. Results : In bivariate analysis, the variables related to protector usage were prevention of occupational disease, protection of toxic material, disturbance during working, troublesome of usage, proper exchange of protector. Multivariate logit analysis was used to estimate factors associated with respirator usage. Significant predictors that are related to respirator usage were attitude toward the behavior, size of industry and proper exchange of protector. Conclusions : The results suggest that it is strongly required to focus on attitude toward the behavior in order to improve workers' usage of respirator.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.441-446
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• 2007

HIV-1 coreceptor usage and phenotype mainly determined by V3 loop are associated with the disease progression of AIDS. Predicting HIV-1 coreceptor usage and phenotype facilitates the monitoring of R5-to-X4 switch and treatment decision-making. In this study, we employed random forest to predict HIV-1 biological phenotype, based on 37 random features of V3 loop. In comparison with PSSM method, our RF predictor obtained higher prediction accuracy (95.1% for coreceptor usage and 92.1% for phenotype), especially for non-B non-C HIV-l subtypes (96.6% for coreceptor usage and 95.3% for phenotype). The net charge, polarity of V3 loop and five V3 sites are seven most important features for predicting HIV-1 coreceptor usage or phenotype. Among these features, V3 polarity and four V3 sites (22, 12, 18 and 13) are first reported to have high contribution to HIV-1 biological phenotype prediction.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.299-306
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• 2017

The Korean medical device industry has increased dramatically due to various investments in the domestic medical device industry and the introduction of new technologies, but the domestic medical device usage rate in great hospital is still low. In this paper, improvement point for domestic medical device was suggested by domestic medical device usage rate and user and manager's perception survey in great hospitals in Korea. To do this, a survey on the types of medical devices and domestic medical device usage rates were conducted at four national university hospitals in Korea. From this results, the priority survey medical devices were selected. Improvements of Korean medical devices were suggested by failure mode analysis and user awareness surveys for the priority survey medical devices.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.276-283
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify levels of knowledge, need, and usage of medical terminology in clinical nurses. Methods: Participants for this study consisted of 127 clinical nurses who work at one general hospital located in Seoul in Korea. The data was collected from April 1st to the 22nd in 2014. Participants responded to self-administered questionnaires about their knowledge, need, and usage of English medical terminology, Chinese character medical terminology, and Korean medical terminology. The data was analyzed using an independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Duncan's test as post hoc and Pearson's correlation. Results: The mean scores of knowledge and needs with English medical terminology were high. English medical terminology and Chinese character medical terminology were more useful tools for disease than Korean medical terminology. Knowledge of medical terminology was positively correlated between needs and correct use with the clinical nursing situation. Conclusion: Based on these results, it can be concluded that medical terminology education for bio-nursing curriculum is important for clinical nurses and standardization of essential medical terminology is needed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.279-291
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• 2021

Objectives: This study investigated the association between air pollutant levels and medical usage rates for environmental disease in a general residential area during the period 2015-2017. Methods: Air pollutant (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, SO₂, NO₂, CO, O₃) data were collected from Air-Korea. Medical usage data on environmental disease (asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis) for the period 2015-2017 in a general residential area in Gyeongsangnam-do Province were provided by the National Health Insurance Corporation. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to investigate the association between air pollutant levels and medical usage rates (SAS 9.4). In the multiple regression analysis, environmental disease was set as the dependent variable and air pollutants were set as independent variables and analyzed using the General Linear Model. Results: Except for PM_2.5, the average concentration of air pollutants in the surveyed area was below than the air environment standards of Korea. NO₂ was higher than Korea's national average, but CO was similar. The others were lower than the Korea's national average. The daily medical usage rates for environmental disease were 1.38‰ for asthma, 9.90‰ for allergic rhinitis, and 0.32‰ for atopic dermatitis. As a result of correlation analysis, PM₁₀ and SO₂, NO₂ and CO were significantly correlated with asthma, PM₁₀ and NO₂ and CO were correlated with allergic rhinitis, and PM₁₀ and PM_2.5, SO₂, NO₂ and CO were correlated with atopic dermatitis. As a result of multiple regression analysis, PM₁₀ and SO₂ were found to have a higher effect on asthma, PM₁₀ and NO₂ on allergic rhinitis, and SO₂ and NO₂ on atopic dermatitis, compared to other air pollutants. Conclusion: According to these results, air pollutants such as PM₁₀ and SO₂ and NO₂ were associated with the medical usage rates of environmental disease even in relatively low concentrations. Therefore, continuous monitoring will be required for general residential areas.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.133-149
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• 2021

Objectives: To lay the foundation for future research into Korean Medicine treatment for Rotator Cuff repair surgery patients by analyzing Korean Medical and Western Medical service utilization and treatment duration. Methods: Data sampling was performed on 2015's HIRA patient data (confidence level of 97%) to analyze patients' Korean Medical and Western Medical service usage tendency. Sampled groups were divided into two groups: i) Patients who completed their treatment within five months after the rotator cuff surgery (termination group), ii) Patients who were treated for more than five months after the surgery (continuation group). Then the patients' Korean Medical and Western Medical service usage tendency was investigated and information of these patients are arranged. Results: Out of 1,453,486 patients who were gathered for sampling, 2,461 patients in total had gone through rotator cuff repair surgery. The termination group had 517 patients and the continuation group had 541 patients. The proportion of patients who visited a Korean Medicine clinic was lower in the termination group than the continuation group. Conclusion: The continuation group received more treatments (both in Western Medicine and Korean Medicine) and spent more on medical expenses compared to the termination group. Further research is highly recommended for more efficient Western Medicine and Korean Medicine treatments and reduced medical expenditure.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6237-6241
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• 2015

Usage of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) has gained popularity over the past few years. However, very little is known about TCAM use among Malaysian cancer patients. This study aimed to identify the determinants of TCAM usage among cancer patients with determination of relationships between demographic factors, patient satisfaction with conventional treatment, knowledge on TCAM and healthcare professional influence. Patient's perceptions towards TCAM were also determined. A simple random convenient sampling method was used to recruit 354 patients from Hospital Kuala Lumpur between February to April 2013. All were directly interviewed with a structured questionnaire. In this study, 172 respondents were TCAM users. There was no significant differences between demographic background of respondents in the usage of TCAM. Minimal correlation was found between patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment and usage of TCAM (r=0.091). A poor correlation was found between healthcare professional's influence and TCAM usage (r=-0.213) but the results suggested that increase in influence would decrease TCAM usage. Patient TCAM knowledge correlated negatively with the TCAM usage (r=-0.555) indicated that cancer patients are less likely to use TCAM when they have more TCAM knowledge. Healthcare professionals should be fully equipped with the necessary TCAM knowledge while maintaining patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment. They should also intervene on patient TCAM usage where a potential drug interaction or a harmful adverse event can occur.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.61-73
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• 2017

In the Health Insurance System of South Korea, patients must pay high out-of-pocket expenditures for the medical service by uninsured medical benefits. So, the government implemented a policy to relieve the burdens of patients by lowering the uninsured selective-medical treatment costs in August, 2014. This study investigate the policy effects of selective-medical treatment(SMT) on the medical service's usage and cost with severe lung cancer patients. The patients are selected in one university hospital(with 1,000 beds), between one year before and after policy implementation. The study find that the usages of outpatient(visit number) and inpatient (length of stay) are not changed by statistically significant. It means that there are no effect in medical service behavior between before and after the policy. In medical expenses, outpatients decreased in their out-of-pocket payments by policy, but total medical expenses and insured medical benefits is not changed, because of the increased another medical insurance fees. For inpatient, although the SMT costs are statistically significant decrease, the total out-of-pocket payments and insured medical expenses are not changed statistically significant. Those findings show that the political decision making about SMT made lowing the selective-medical expenses, but total insured cost and patient's out-of pocket money were not changed by the new increased medical insurance fees. It means that the policy about SMT gave no particular benefit for patients. So, it need another benefit plans to lower the medical expenses of severe lung cancer patients with a high medical service usage and much total medical expense.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.79-92
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• 2014

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the medical contents of Korean medical textbooks and intervention usage in clinical practice. Method : We conducted an email survey of Doctors of Korean Medicine(DKMs) registered with the Association of Korean Medicine and analyzed the 259 responses that we received. Results : 1, The study showed that most DKMs used western medical knowledge concerning "history taking and diagnosis"(96.5%), "management and prevention"(95.8%), "causes and overview"(91.9%), and "prognosis"(90.3%). DKMs did not usually use western medical knowledge with regard to "diagnosis and treatment evaluation tools"(40.9%) or "western medical treatments"(25.1%) in their clinical practice. 2. Of the DKMs surveyed, 39.0% usually used traditional and western medical terms at similar levels of frequency in explaining their patients' conditions, while 35.9% used western medical terms more often and 20.8% used Korean traditional medical terms more often. 3. Most DKMs usually used acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping therapy, Moxibustion in their practice and used herbal prescriptions presented in Dongeuibogam(57.1%), Bangyakhappyeon(52.9%), and Sa-Sang Constitutional Medicine(36.7%), although 27.8% used their own herbal prescriptions in creating for patients. In practice, DKMs usually used meridian acupuncture(64.1%), needling myofascial trigger points(54.8%), sa-am acupuncture(42.1%), dong-shi acupuncture therapy(24.7%), and constitutional acupuncture therapy(8.5%). Conclusions : We found that most DKMs use western medical contents as well as Korean medical contents in clinical practice. New Korean medical contents should be establish based on these results.