• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.82 no.1
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2019

Background: Understanding the burden of disease is important to establish cost-effective treatment strategies and to allocate healthcare resources appropriately. However, little reliable information is available regarding the overall economic burden imposed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Korea. Methods: This study is a multicenter observational research on the COPD burden in Korea. Total COPD costs were comprised of three categories: direct medical, direct non-medical, and indirect costs. For direct medical costs, institutional investigation was performed at 13 medical facilities mainly based on the claims data. For direct non-medical and indirect costs, site-based surveys were administered to the COPD patients during routine visits. Total costs were estimated using the COPD population defined in the recent report. Results: The estimated total costs were approximately 1,245 million US dollar (1,408 billion Korean won). Direct medical costs comprised approximately 20% of the total estimated costs. Of these, formal medical costs held more than 80%. As direct non-medical costs, nursing costs made up the largest percentage (39%) of the total estimated costs. Costs for COPD-related loss of productivity formed four fifths of indirect costs, and accounted for up to 33% of the total costs. Conclusion: This study shows for the first time the direct and indirect costs of COPD in Korea. The total costs were enormous, and the costs of nursing and lost productivity comprised approximately 70% of total costs. The results provide insight for an effective allocation of healthcare resources and to inform establishment of strategies to reduce national burden of COPD.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.195-209
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing file-up family stress in the caregivers of patients with dementia. Data was collected by questionnaires from 102 families with a member having a dementia, at neurology departments of hospitals, temporary shelter for dementia patient, and nursing homes for the elderly. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. In results, the score of file-up stress showed a significantly negative correlation with the score of level of family hardiness(r=-.200, p=.026), social support(r=-.361, p=.004), relative and friend support(r=-.416, p=.001), and F-COPES(r=-.345, p=.048). The multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of file-up family stress was family cost for patients with dementia. The results contribute to the understanding of Korean family caregivers' perceptions of caregiveing. Further researches should be conducted with the consideration of Korean traditional custom that family should take care of the elderly family members.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.15-27
• /
• 2013

Because consumers tend to have negative opinion about a company that neglects social issues like poverty or pollution while it focuses on its own profit, a lot of companies have invested their resources in Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR). CSR has merits of image improving and profit gaining, on the other hand, it has also many shortcomings. First, the cost of CSR may become a heavy financial burden. Specifically, CSR tends to be implemented by a company's unilateral backup, and then this may impose a heavy burden on the company. Second, one cannot expect effects of CSR in a short-term. Because of these shortcomings, the unilateral CSR has gone into alteration of the type of CSR since 1980's. Instead of unilaterality, Cause-Related Marketing(CRM) began to be used for mutual profits among company, consumers, and society. That is, CRM has become to be spotlighted as a new type of CSR. It focuses on partnership between a company and consumers based on cause and mutual profit pursuing through this partnership. So, many contemporary companies prefer CRM activities that derive their positive corporate image, that increase their sales, and that reduce their financial cost. The IBM Matching Grants Program, which is the largest of the IBM-Employee partnership programs, is a typical CRM. This program enables employees and retirees to increase the value of their donations to educational institutions, hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and cultural & environmental organizations with a matching gift from IBM. Hundreds of educational institutions and thousands of nonprofit organizations have benefited from the contributions by IBM. There might be various types of matching grants. For example, an employee might choose a lump-sum expense or partitioning a lump-sum into a series of small ongoing expenses for his (or her) donation, and a firm might match the employee's total contribution with a lump-sum expense or might match the employee's total contribution with a series of small ongoing expenses. However, it is not easy to find an academic research on which type of matching grant is preferred by employees. This paper shows that an employee prefers the type of matching grants that consists of a lump-sum expense for his (or her) contribution and a series of small ongoing expenses for a firm's contribution [or the type of matching grants that consists of a series of small ongoing expenses for an employee's contribution and a lump-sum expense for a firm's contribution] to the other types of matching grants.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1525-1531
• /
• 2012

Cigarette smoking is one of the most important public health concerns in Korea and worldwide. A number of studies have been conducted to measure the health and economic burden of smoking, but these did not reflect recent changes such as the decrease in smoking rate and the increase in the incidence of cancer. The purpose of this study was to provide up-to-date estimates of the health and economic burden of cancer caused by smoking and to compare the results with those of previous studies. Cancer-related burden was assessed with nationally representative data such as claims data from the National Health Insurance Corporation, and cause of death records from the National Statistical Office and the Korea Health Panel. We determined the smoking-attributable burden by multiplying the smoking-attributable fraction by the total burden. As a result, the burden of major cancers due to smoking was found to be substantial despite a recent sharp decrease in smoking by the Korean population. The total economic cost reaches $2,234.0 million in males and $870.0 million in females. Also, the health burden of cancers due to smoking is 2,038.9 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per 100,000 individuals in men and 732.2 DALYs per 100,000 individuals in women. Among all cancers, cancers of the trachea, lungs and bronchus are the leading causes of health and economic burden. The huge burden caused by cancers linked to smoking makes it imperative that adequate policies to decrease the prevalence of smoking be developed, particularly considering the recent increase in smoking rate among women.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.10
• /
• pp.299-307
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the financial hardships affecting the quality of life of cancer survivors. Method: Data were collected from five convalescent hospitals using self-administered questionnaires, and 422 questionnaires were used for the final analysis. We used a 5-step hierarchical multiple-regression analysis by entering each sociodemographic variable, medical variable, and three types of financial hardship (a material situation, the psychological response, and coping behavior coming from cancer treatment cost) into each step. Results: The results of statistical analysis indicate that the most influential factor in the quality of life was the financial difficulty, which was the frustration that they could not work as usual or support their family financially. In addition, the performance of physical activity, accompanying diseases, women patients, psychological burden on cancer treatment cost, the satisfaction of communication with medical staff for medical expenses, and the feeling unsuccessful financial coping strategy were predictors for the quality of life of cancer survivors. Conclusion: This study provides a blueprint for the development of intervention programs in practice to improve the quality of life of cancer patients, clinical intervention plans, and health policies.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.176-185
• /
• 2023

This study is a study to develop a model to measure the economic performance when introducing industrial safety design, which is emerging as a necessity for industrial accident prevention measures due to the increase in the industrial site nursing accident rate and the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act. To this end, studies on the concept of industrial safety management and industrial safety design and economic performance measurement in the field of industrial safety were conducted in terms of theoretical background. Based on the theoretical background, opinions on drafts of related indicators were collected through user opinion surveys, and focus group interviews and Delphi techniques were conducted with experts, and research was conducted to advance the model. In order to secure objectivity, the causal relationship between the introduction of industrial safety design, cost reduction effect, and sales increase effect was tested through regression analysis. After going through these steps, two models of economic performance measurement of industrial safety design were finally developed: a model based on the first-stage disaster loss cost reduction effect and a second-stage sales increase effect. In order to be applied to actual industrial sites, it should be able to be presented as a standard for the degree of service level agreement of industrial safety design beyond a simple checklist.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.203-214
• /
• 2001

Maternal stress was very common symptom that every pregnant women could have experienced during pregnant period. We found that the causative factors of stress for subjects were physical change(50.8%), family relationship(13.6%), change of body image(7.4%), concern baby(6.8%), economic difficulties(6.4%), depress(4.3%), morning sickness(3%), and miscellaneous(3.5%). According to our study, maternal stress during the first trimester negatively correlated with food and nutrients intake of pregnant women and gave low weight gain during pregnancy and low birth weight of infants. It also significantly correlated with monthly income(p<0.001) and monthly food cost(p<0.001) during pregnant period. Mean intake of Calcium and Iron were $47{\sim}60%$ of RDA and $35{\sim}48$ of RDA, respectively. With the Iron supplement the total intake of Iron exceeded 100% of RDA. We also found majority of food items, except seaweeds, fruits and vegetables, were negatively correlated with maternal stress during three trimesters. Additional support system projected by professionals in health-care field could mediate maternal stress and lead to healthy pregnancy outcome.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.78-88
• /
• 1990

The subject of this study is to review the practical approaches of Home Care Services. Included is a brief overview of its nature, providers of Home Care Services, recent history of Home Care Services, and the impact of the national movement toward cost containment in health care. The data used in this study are obtained from the Elderly Program of the Medical Services and other data on the Home Care Services in Japan. With the growing elderly population in Japan, it is to be expected that the medical care expenditure for this sector will continue to increase. With the aim of keeping expenditure for medical care within reasonable bounds, it is essential that this increasing expenditure on the elderly be used effectively. With the Health and Medical Services Law for the Aged was enforced, therefore, remuneration for medical treatment of the elderly and what is known as the staff placement standard at hospital for the elderly were rationalized. In addition to rationalization from the point of view of medical care supply, it is necessary to guarantee the appropriate treatment within the community and at home for those elderly who are bedridden but not in need of hospital care. For this it is required that Home Care Services, such as health services like visiting guidance by public health nurse in hospital of Health Center. So that the elderly can feel secure in receiving treatment within the community and at home, allowances for guidance on leaving hospital and for intermittent nursing and guidance thereafter are to be newly introduced. Home care Services in one aspect of comprehensive health care, it is comprised of health services provided to individuals and families in their homes. Its purposes include promoting, maintaining and restoring health, specifically maximazing independent functioning and minimizing the disabling effects of illness, including terminal illness. Services appropriate to the needs of clients and their families are planned, coordinated, and delivered by providers organized for the delivery of home health care through the use of contractual arrangement, employed staff, or a combination of the two.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.118-122
• /
• 2000

An extensive investigation has been made for the possible utilization of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics in rice seedling nursery. Considering the cropping systems available in southern part of Korea, sowing dates were fixed at April 5 and April 20 for single cropping and May 6 and May 26 for double cropping. Nursery period was fixed to 35 days for each sowing date. Four different thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics, 40, 60, 80, 100 g/$m^2$, were tested in rice seedling nursery. The temperature and light intensity were not significantly different among the thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics. Light intensity was significantly reduced in polypropylene spunbonded fabric (72.2 Klux) compared with polyethylene mm (85.5 Klux), however, the reduced light intensity was enough for seedling growth. The temperature in the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering during low air temperature was higher than that in polyethylene mm tunnel. At transplanting, the rice seedlings grown in polypropylene spunbonded fabric condition was shorter (17cm) but healthier than those in polyethylene mm (23cm). The estimated possible nursery periods using the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering may start from April 1 at Chinju (plain area in Southern Korea, 20m altitude) and April 15 at Susang (mountainous area, 430m altitude). Labour hours and cost were reduced by about 28% and 48%, respectively.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.43-56
• /
• 2010

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the attitude of healthcare consumers toward the East-West Collaborative Medical Practices(hereafter EWCMP). Method : The participants were 245 healthcare consumers who visited outpatient clinic of an university hospital, and attended at an emergency rescue educational program held by an emergency medical center, Busan. Data were collected by interviewing or self-reporting with questionnaires and analyzed with descriptive statistics and $X^2$ test with SPSS win 14.0. Results : 53.1 percent of 245 participants has heard, 13.9 percent has ever used, and 82.4 percent wanted to use EWCMP in the future. For participants who has used EWCMP, the decision to use it was made by themselves(58.8%), 26.5% of them was satisfied with EWCMP, and 79.4% showed the intention to introduce EWCMP to others. The use of EWCMP was significantly different by gender($X^2$=4.702, p=0.030) and having job or not($X^2$=14.305, p<0.001). Preferred type of EWCMP was to use both medical and Korean medical treatment at the same time(42.4%). Musculoskeletal disease(51.0%) and circulatory disease(51.0%) were expected to be the most effective when the EWCMP applied to them. Utilization of EWCMP was expected to be effective in disease treatment(88.2%), diagnosis(83.3%), and prevention(75.1%), and to increase medical cost(66.1%). Intention to use of EWCMP was not significantly different by demographic characteristics. Conclusion : Considering low proportion of utilization of and positive attitude toward the EWCMP among general populations, it is needed to introduce or advertise EWCMP to them.