• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.367-381
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• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the status of dental care in underserved areas of Korea. Methods: This study targeted 229 cities in Korea. The analytical index was revised and supplemented with variables related to dental care, and the "oral health level" indexes were further selected to provide a total of 20 analytical indexes. All selected indexes were converted into T scores (cited by the Korea Health Promotion Institute) and subjectively weighted. Finally, the regional oral health indices and areas were derived. PASW Statistics 25.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyze descriptive statistics. Results: Gyeongbuk Cheongsong-gun had the highest dental underserved index. The city with the highest regional oral health underserved index was Jeonnam Shinan-gun. Daegu Jung-gu had the lowest dental underserved index and regional oral health underserved index. Regional gaps existed between dental care and the regional oral health underserved index according to the city province (p<0.001). Conclusions: To continuously evaluate oral health conditions and projects centered on vulnerable areas, it is necessary to develop indicators to derive vulnerable areas for dental care and to develop effective public dental policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.53-65
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the prenatal heath care utilization and expenditure among pregnant women. Method: This was a 5-month follow-up study using a stratified sampling and the data were drawn from the "nationwide claim database of Korean National Health Insurance Corporation". Result: This study found that pregnant women were first diagnosed with pregnancy when they were 7.1 weeks pregnant, received 12.7 times of prenatal examinations and 10.6 times of ultrasonogram. It was revealed that 67.5% of the subjects continued to receive prenatal care at the same medical institutions from the diagnosis of pregnancy to the delivery. The study also showed that the total expenditure of prenatal care per pregnant woman was 700,000 Korean Won (KRW) on average and the insurance coverage rate stood at only 20%. Pregnant women living in metropolitan area spent more on prenatal healthcare expenditure than those who living in medium-sized city or rural area. Conclusion: The results of this study implies that the government needs to provide pregnant women with continuous support by increasing health insurance coverage for prenatal care. Especially, it is considered to provide more support to the pregnant women residing in medically underserved areas.