• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.53-66
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• 2020

This study is aimed at investigated and compared the differences in the affect of hospital specialization according to hospital size using claims data of the Health Insurance and Review Assessment National Inpatient Sample in 2018 for diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue. To this end, we used multivariate hierarchical linear models(a.k.a., multi-level models) using two-tier data from 106,599 patients discharged after diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue from 734 hospitals. Multivariate results indicate that patients who were discharged with diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue from specialized hospitals with 200 beds or less stayed shorter and paid less inpatient charge than those who were discharged from less specialized hospitals. But for hospitals with 201-300 beds, no positive impact relationship was found between hospital specialization and operational performance. This finding may be limited evidence that the affect of a hospital's specialization strategy may vary depending on the size of the hospital. We discussed several managerial and health policy implications below.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify nursing demands according to general characteristics and diseases of inpatients to whom comprehensive payment systems apply. Methods: This study was designed as a retrospective research study using the electronic medical records of Hospital Information Systems (HIS). Participants were 836 subjects who received seven Diagnostic-Related Group diagnoses among inpatients of one tertiary hospital from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0. Results: Nursing demand among inpatients'seven Diagnostic-Related Group diagnoses was relatively higher for appendectomy, cataract surgery, and hysterectomy, while there was a significant difference depending on the age, duration of admission, admission path, hospital entry method and Diagnostic-Related Group. Conclusion: The results can be utilized as basic data on accurate nursing demands that reflect various features of patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2019

Objective: Suicide has recently become an important social problem. Thus, we analyzed prescription drugs that cause suicidal ideation. Methods: Of 156 drugs on the the Minister of Food and Drug Safty (MFDS) EZ-Drug site that had "suicide" listed as a side effect, 78 had "suicide" listed as a warning or contraindication; those 78 drugs were analyzed using data from the 2016 Health Insurance and Review and Assessment Services National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS). Results: 51 "suicide risk" drugs was identified. Of all patients, 5.2% had received such drugs. The prescription rate was 0.8% of all prescriptions, accounting for 1.6% of all prescription days. From logistic regression analysis, the prescription rate for the drugs was approximately 1.1 times higher for women than for men. With regard to age, the prescription rate for patients 66 years and older was 15.5 times higher than those for patients 25-years and lower. With regard to medical departments, the prescription rates in psychiatry and dermatology departments were 8.1 times higher and 0.6 times lower than those in internal medicine departments, respectively. With regard to region, the prescription rates in Daegu and Jeju were 1.3 times higher and 0.79 times lower than those in Seoul, respectively. Conclusion: Drug-induced suicidal behavior is possible, and therefore efforts are needed to prevent it.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.117-129
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of demographic characteristics and oral health status on unmet dental needs among preschool children and to provide a basis for improvement of the dental care equality and accessibility using data from the $6^{th}$ National Health and Nutrition Survey. Methods: This study was performed using data collected from the $6^{th}$ National Health and Nutrition Survey. The subjects were 1,472 out of 22,940 people, who participated in the survey and under went oral examination. IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 20.0) was used for statistical analyses based on the complex sampling design. Frequency analysis was performed to determine the distribution of unmet dental needs according to the characteristics of the subjects. The Rao-Scott ${\chi}^2$ test was performed to examine the relationship of unmet dental needs with general characteristics and health- and oral health-related variables. Relevant factors were determined using binary logistic regression analysis. Results: The factors that had statistically significant relations with unmet dental needs included age, medical insurance, household income, limited physical activity, history of dental caries in deciduous teeth, and subjective health status. Logistic regression analysis of complex samples was conducted to determine factors related to unmet dental needs. The results of analysis showed that limited physical activity and history of dental caries in deciduous teeth were related to unmet dental needs. Conclusions: The results show the factors affecting, and the reasons for, the unmet dental needs of preschool children. Future studies are needed to develop national projects and oral health education reforms to address inequalities in preschool children's dental care.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.4067-4076
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• 2015

This study aims to examine the trend in household catastrophic medical expenditure according to the healthcare coverage types and its associated factors based on the raw data of the Korean Health Panel over the years 2008 to 2011. Correspondence analysis was used to investigate the trend in the incidence rates of annual catastrophic medical expenditure and generalized estimating equation to examine the factors influencing the incidence of catastrophic medical expenditure. The annual mean incidence rates of household catastrophic medical expenditure were 25.1%, 15.4%, 10.1%, 5.4% and 3.2% in the threshold levels of 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 40% respectively. The incidence rate of household catastrophic medical expenditure was higher when the total annual household income was lower, the education level of the householder was lower, the healthcare coverage type was National Health Insurance, the householder had disability, the age of the householder was older, the number of household members was smaller, the subjective health status of household members was lower, and the prevalence rate of the chronic disease of the household was higher(p<0.05). Therefore, a policy for vulnerable households with older or patient members of chronic diseases should be established.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.46
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• pp.288.1-288.12
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• 2018

Background: Diarrheal and intestinal infectious disease caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is not only a great concern in developing countries but also a problem in low-income populations and rural areas in developed countries. In this study, we assessed the exposure to inadequate WASH in Korea and estimated the burden of disease attributable to inadequate WASH. Methods: We used observational data on water supply, drinking water, sewage treatment rate, and hand washing to assess inadequate WASH conditions in Korea, and estimated the level of exposure in the entire population. The disease burden was estimated by applying the cause of death data from death registry and the morbidity data from the national health insurance to the population attributable fraction (PAF) for the disease caused by inappropriate WASH. Results: In 2013, 1.4% of the population were exposed to inadequate drinking water, and 1.0% were living in areas where sewerage was not connected. The frequency of handwashing with soap after contact with excreta was 23.5%. The PAF due to inadequate WASH as a cluster of risk factors was 0.353 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.275-0.417), among which over 90% were attributable to hand hygiene factors that were significantly worse than those in American and European high-income countries. Conclusion: The level of hand hygiene in Korea has yet to be improved to the extent that it shows a significant difference compared to other high-income countries. Therefore, improving the current situation in Korea requires a continuous hand washing campaign and a program aimed at all people. In addition, continuous policy intervention for improvement of sewage treatment facilities in rural areas is required, and water quality control monitoring should be continuously carried out.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.39-43
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• 2021

Purpose: Determining appropriate ways to assess health care quality within the National Health Insurance System is of interest to both the Korean government and the medical community. However, in the trauma field, the number of indicators used to evaluate surgical quality is limited. Using data collected over 5 years at Wonju Severance Christian Hospital Trauma Center in Korea, this study aimed to determine whether the unplanned reoperation rate in the field of trauma surgery could be used to assess the quality of an institution's surgical care. Methods: In total, 665 general surgical procedures were performed at the Trauma Center in 453 patients with abdominopelvic injuries from January 2015 to December 2019. Data were collected from the Trauma Center's data registry and medical records, and included information regarding patients' demographic characteristics, the type of index operation, and the reason for unplanned reoperations. Results: A total of 453 index operations were evaluated. The proportion of patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) >15 was 48-70% over the 5-year period, with an unplanned reoperation rate of 2.1-9.3%. Patients had an average ISS score of 17.5, while the average Abbreviated Injury Scale Score was 2.87. Unplanned reoperations were required in about 7% of patients. The most common complications requiring reoperation were recurrent bleeding (26.9%), wound problems (26.9%), intestinal infarction (15.4%), and anastomosis site leakage (7.7%). The procedures most frequently requiring unplanned reoperations were bowel surgery (segmental resection, primary repair, enterostomy, etc.) (24.5%) and preperitoneal pelvic packing (10.6%). Conclusions: The proportion of reoperations was confirmed to be affected by injury severity.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2017

Background: This study aimed to analyze the impact of community health care resources on the place of death of older adults with dementia compared to those with cancer in South Korea, using public administrative big data. Methods: Based on a literature review, we selected person- and community-level variables that can affect older people's decisions about where to die. Data on place-of-death and person-level attributes were obtained from the 2013 death certification micro data from Statistics Korea. Data on the population and economic and health care resources in the community where the older deceased resided were obtained from various open public administrative big data including databases on the local tax and resident population statistics, health care resources and infrastructure statistics, and long-term care (LTC) insurance statistics. Community-level data were linked to the death certificate micro data through the town (si-gun-gu) code of the residence of the deceased. Multi-level logistic regression models were used to simultaneously estimate the impacts of community as well as individual-level factors on the place of death. Results: In both the dementia (76.1%) and cancer (87.1%) decedent groups, most older people died in the hospital. Among the older deceased with dementia, hospital death was less likely to occur when the older person resided in a community with a higher supply of LTC facility beds, but hospital death was more likely to occur in communities with a higher supply of LTC hospital beds. Similarly, among the cancer group, the likelihood of a hospital death was significantly lower in communities with a higher supply of LTC facility beds, but was higher in communities with a higher supply of acute care hospital beds. As for individual-level factors, being female and having no spouse were associated with the likelihood of hospital death among older people with dementia. Conclusion: More than three in four older people with dementia die in the hospital, while home is reported to be the place of death preferred by Koreans. To decrease this gap, an increase in the supply of end-of-life (EOL) care at home and in community-based service settings is necessary. EOL care should also be incorporated as an essential part of LTC. Changes in the perception of EOL care by older people and their families are also critical in their decisions about the place of death, and should be supported by public education and other related non-medical, social approaches.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2021

Objectives : QTc prolongation due to antipsychotics is of major concern because it may lead to fatal ventricular arrhythmia such as torsade de pointes. However, few studies have been conducted on QTc prolongation due to antipsychotics, especially in South Korea. This study aimed to investigate how demographic and clinical variables affect QTc interval in patients with schizophrenia. Methods : By retrospectively reviewing medical records, we assessed QTc interval, demographic data and clinical features of 441 (175 males) patients with schizophrenia who admitted to the psychiatric ward of a general hospital. To explore the predictive factors for QTc interval, hierarchical regression analysis was performed with QTc interval as the dependent variable. Results : The mean QTc interval was 417.2±28.4 ms. In the hierarchical regression analysis, the use of short-acting antipsychotic injection was the strongest predictor of the QTc prolongation. Conclusions : This study demonstrated that the use of short-acting antipsychotic injection may affect QTc prolongation in patients with schizophrenia. This result suggests that more attention should be paid to the use of short-acting antipsychotic injection in the treatment of schizophrenia.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.362-373
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the costs and benefits of individual home visiting health care using secondary data and literature review. Methods: The total number of subjects was 1,008,837. A specific program was classified into disease management, care of infant, child and women, or elderly care. The costs and effects of a program were identified from a societal perspective, and the effects were converted into monetary terms or benefits. The total cost was calculated in the way that medical expenses, travel costs and productivity losses were offset by the decrease in benefits and thus only the program budget was included in the total cost. Results: The total program cost was 47.6 billion won per year and the total annual benefit was estimated at 435.6 billion won. The benefits of arthritis management were the biggest among disease management programs. The net benefit was 388.0 billion won per year and the benefit/cost ratio was 9.16. Conclusion: Home visiting health care was validated to be economically effective. It made a positive contribution to improving the health status of vulnerable populations and reducing medical expenses. These results suggest that home visiting care should be extended more broadly to vulnerable populations.