• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.17-34
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out the difference in the priority level of recognition for universal design application in public spaces by gender. Method: ANOVA(analysis of variance) and post-hoc test were conducted to determine the priority level of recognition and pattern for the disabled, non-disabled, and experts classified into males and females. Results: There was no gender difference in the comparison by sector for all males and females. However, in comparing of domains and facilities, women showed a higher level of recognition than men in the building sector and cross domain. When comparing space consumers and producers by dividing them into male and female groups, women showed a higher level of recognition than men in producers, but there was no gender difference between consumers. In comparison by sector, domain and facility, women producers also showed a higher level of recognition in the road sector, park and recreation sector, sidewalk domain, four-spaces in the park and recreation sector, and six-spaces in the building sector than men producers. Also, in the building sector, women producers and consumers showed a higher recognition level than men. Comparing the disabled, non-disabled people and experts by dividing them into male and female groups, in the case of non-disabled people and experts, women showed a higher level of recognition than men, while men showed a higher level of recognition than women in the disabled. In addition, there were differences in recognition patterns in many spaces and facilities by gender. Implications: This study is meaningful in comparing the differences in the priority level of recognition and patterns between men and women to apply universal design for people of all ages and both sexes.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2024

Purpose: The planning of medical facilities involves formulating a comprehensive medical basic plan, translating it into spatial dimensions through a space program. Feasibility assessment often relies on empirical methods like floor area per bed. However, with the shift towards specialized medical concepts, proportional scaling to bed numbers is challenging. This study proposes scale planning improvements during the feasibility assessment stage for comprehensive hospitals, analyzing cases using area determination factors and standard areas based on medical resources. Methods: The Korean Development Institute's Public Investment Management Center (KDI) identified issues in the scale determination of medical facilities in the Preliminary Feasibility Study Guidelines and investigated alternative approaches for determining the scale of a case that passed the preliminary feasibility study in 2019. The study assessed the feasibility of applying individual factors to determine not only the number of beds but also the scale at the sector and department levels. Additionally, a statistical analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between the total number of beds and various area determination factors. Results: Results suggest a strong correlation between total beds and major equipment needs, but in hospitals with <500 beds, this correlation weakens. Ward section scale is better calculated per ward type, not just total beds. Outpatient department scale depends on specialists, influencing treatment room numbers. Medical personnel play a crucial role in determining the scale of sections like rehabilitation therapy rooms, operating rooms, dialysis rooms, and overall facility scale.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.41-50
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• 2009

Studies about architectural planning for elderly residences have been carried out to examine various factors including the unit plan, site planning, and size planning. However, no studies have been undertaken that focus on the residents' daily life patterns. This study offers the design guidelines to support the daily life patterns of the elderly through the planning of elderly housing. For this study, elderly residents in Tokyo, Yokohama etc. in Japan were interviewed and surveyed. The results indicate that the changes to the daily life patterns of the residents living in elderly housing are the reduction of household, the increase of free time, and the change of social relationships. The elderly want to utilize their free time and focus on their social relationships. However, the elderly residences that we surveyed pay no consideration to social spaces and programs for their residents except for the cafeteria. To support the daily life patterns of the elderly, elderly housing should set a high value on the location, shared spaces, and unit plans of the residences in order to consider the personal diversity of the residents. Accessibility to public transportation systems and facilities should to be considered in the initial location planning. The revitalization of the public spaces should to be considered during the architectural planning stage. Considerations of personal taste during the unit planning stage are also necessary.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.93-104
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• 2017

Purpose: Korean society has already entered an aged society but there aren't many evidence-based studies on the elderly-friendly design elements in the apartment environment, which is the main residential type in Korea. The main purpose of this study is to verify the necessity and expandability of the outdoor environment design in the public rental apartment complex through the evaluation of the effectiveness and satisfaction of SMG(Seoul Metropolitan Government) Cognitive Health Design Project in GR 1 apartment complex. Methods: The research subjects were GR 1-complex as experimental group and the nearby Wolgye Deer 1-complex as control group, both public rental apartment and located in Seoul. As a research method, the survey was conducted before and after the implementation of SMG project for residents of the apartment. A total of 200 preliminary surveys and 203 post surveys were conducted. Results: As a result of this study, residents' accidents related safety have decreased, and both the frequency of use and satisfaction of most facilities have increased. It is noteworthy that the increase in cognitive items in the post-survey. Also, 74.5% of the residents evaluated that the complex was better to live after the project was implement. Implications: The fact that the preliminary surveys were not conducted for the same person is considered as the limitation of the study, but it is meaningful in that it systematically assesses the effectiveness of the project on the cognitive health of the outdoor residential environment towards age-friendly city.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.151-157
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of physical therapy service utilization and user satisfaction depending on the experience with therapeutic exercise or ultrasound intervention among elderly persons using senior centers. Methods: The subjects were adults aged over 60 years (total 215) recruited in 40 senior centers located in each province in South Korea. Subjects responded to questions concerning overall demographics factors, utilized characteristics of physical therapy service and 12 variety user satisfactions with effectiveness, facilities, and therapist using a survey instrument. The collected data were analyzed by Fishers' exact tests and t-tests using the SPSS 21.0 program to compare the results of elderly persons who had or had not experienced exercise therapy or ultrasound therapy. Results: The participants that experienced ultrasound therapy or therapeutic exercise reported significantly higher overall results pertaining to effectiveness of physical therapy and a clear explanation from physical therapist's satisfaction than those who were non-experienced. Satisfaction with pain relief was significantly higher among elderly who experienced therapeutic exercise than those who did not. Those who underwent ultrasound therapy showed significantly higher satisfaction with facilities and location than those who did not. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that satisfaction among users differs by type of physical therapy. In the future, physiotherapy services provided in senior centers needs to be designed to improve the effectiveness of physical therapy, professionalism of physical therapists and comfort of facility.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.211-219
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• 2019

Since improper management practices of solid medical waste (SMW) could potentially result in serious health risks and environmental problems, it is very important to properly treat and dispose of the medical wastes. In this study, current practices of SMW management from storage to final disposal stage in 12 health care facilities (HCFs) of Burundi were investigated using the official government reports. The results showed that 75% and 92% of HCFs used uncovered wheelbarrows and trucks for on-site or off-site SMW transportation, respectively, indicating that most transportation equipment and waste workers are not safely protected. The results also showed that 92.8% of SMW (15,736.4 ton) from all 12 HCFs were inappropriately disposed of through uncontrolled land disposal and incineration. If pharmaceutical wastes and discarded medical plastics (29.5% of SMW) can be separated and treated properly, the treatment costs can be reduced and resource savings can be achieved. Raising awareness of healthcare workers and general public about potential health effects arising from improper SMW management, sufficient financial and human resources for the treatment facilities (especially incinerators), and effective regulations and guidelines for transportation and treatment of SWM are some of the major tasks for safe and sustainable medical waste management in Burundi.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.386-393
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• 2016

Objectives: General practitioners (GPs) retention in rural and underserved areas highly effects on accessibility of healthcare facilities across the country. Education seems to be a critical factor that affects GPs retention. Thus, the present study aimed at inquiry into medical education challenges that limit their retention in rural and underserved areas. Methods: A qualitative approach was applied for the aim of this study. Data were gathered via 28 semi-structured interviews with experts at different levels of Iran's health system as well as GPs who retained and refused to retain working in rural settings. Interviews mainly were performed face-to-face and in some cases via telephone during 2015 and then coded and analyzed using content analysis approach. Results: Iran's medical education is faced with several challenges that were categorized in four main themes including student selection, medical students' perception about their field of study, education setting and approach, curriculum of medical education. According to experts this challenges could results in making GP graduates disinterested for practicing in rural and underserved areas. Conclusions: Challenges that were found could have negative effects on retention. Modification in student's perception about rural practice could be done via changing education setting and approach and curriculum. These modifications could improve GPs retention in rural and underserved areas.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.213-231
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• 2021

Due to the absence of rehabilitation sports service systems linked to post-discharge medical measures and rehabilitation, disabled people cannot participate in physical activities suitable for individual disability types, characteristics, and physical functions. In December 2017, the Act on the Rights of Health for the Disabled) was implemented to provide an institutional basis for disable people to address their needs for rehabilitation sports. Based on related studies conducted in Korea, this study aims to collect the results of a demand survey conducted on experts who are rehabilitation sports service providers and analyze the demand for rehabilitation sports services from a policy perspective. This study extracts the needs of experts presented in the literature and presents the extracted content as an inductive content analysis. The criteria for selecting the literature were selected based on studies related to "adaptive physical activity and exercise," "sports for all for the disabled," and "rehabilitation sports" conducted in the Republic of Korea, including the results of a demand survey on experts. The study results were categorized into seven categories (perception of sports activities, programs, leaders, facilities, accessibility, cost/support/financial resources, and others) of field experts who are rehabilitation sports service providers. In a future study, it will be necessary for people with disability, who are consumers who will provide actual services, to identify problems at the disabled sports site and come up with measures to improve them.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.185-190
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• 2020

The rapid aging is increasing as the shortage of medical facilities and the resulting of decline in the quality of public health. In order to ease the burden of rising medical expenses, advanced medical institutions are expanding their remote medical care to lower the cost of services. U-healthcare detects the changes in physical and chemical phenomena occurring in the human body and converts them into electrical signals that can be processed and feeds back to the results through analytical and visualization processes to select only the desired information from the measured signals. The service is provided through a process of providing an alarm to a user. However, traditional biometric methods of attaching sensors directly to the body can be annoying and rejected in daily life. Therefore, there is a need for a method of continuously measuring biometric information without causing inconvenience to daily life. In this paper, we propose an IR-UWB-based non-contact and non-responsive respiratory measurement system that can continuously monitor biological information without any inconveniences to daily life.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2019

Purpose: At the time of consensus on the necessity of appropriate guidelines for health care facilities suitable for Korea, the paper aimed to analyze the characteristics in the aspect of the system of the US Health Care Facility Guidelines(FGI Guidelines) and to suggest implications. Since the system is significant for the guidelines to be socially accepted and operated, this study focuses on the system. Methods: Literature studies focusing on the analysis of prior studies and the 2018 edition of the FGI Guidelines were conducted. Results: As a result of reviewing the history and outline of the FGI Guidelines, the derived characteristics of the system were governance, procedure, and composition. First, it had multi-layered organization and multidisciplinary members. Secondly, the focus is on the procedure of gathering opinions from industry and the public. Third, the Guidelines have been continuously evolving to reflect the needs of the times and changes in the medical environment, and the content framework and method of writing are user-friendly in order to prevent confusion caused by vast contents. Implications: First, we need to consider the composition of a private organization to prepare Korean health care facility guidelines. Second, it needs a system that can induce the participation of multidisciplinary experts. Third, a comprehensive and user friendly guideline needs to be constructed.