• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.380-388
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• 2015

Objectives: Poisonous substances experts engage in policymaking regarding poisonous substances, whereas poisonous substances managers perform legal duties related to poisonous substances management systems at worksites. To understand and improve poisonous substances designation systems, it is necessary to distinguish the roles of these experts and managers. We further aimed to identify problems with poisonous substances appointment systems and provide basic data for their improvement by investigating the knowledge and recognition of the need for system improvement among managers and experts. Methods: To determine the $subjects^{\circ}{\emptyset}$ awareness of poisonous substances designation systems, a selfadministered questionnaire comprised of items on general characteristics and knowledge and recognition of the need for system improvement was issued. Data were analyzed via t-tests and ANOVA using SPSS v 16.0 Results: Regarding system comprehension, managers (n=213; mean 3.28, SD 0.63) significantly differed from experts (n=35; mean 4.08, SD 0.59) (P<0.001). No differences were found in recognition of need for improvement between managers (mean 3.11, SD 0.34) and experts (mean 3.24, SD 0.31). Significant differences in comprehension were found among managers by education level (P<0.05) and company size (P<0.05). Regarding industry type, comprehension was greater in the electrical/electronic and chemical/environmental industries compared to in other industries (P = 0.066). Comprehension was higher among those with five years or more of experience compared to those with less than five years. Regarding recognition of need for improvement, managers showed significant differences by company size (P<0.05). $Experts^{\circ}{\emptyset}$ comprehension showed no differences by general characteristics, while need for improvement differed according to work experience (P<0.001). Conclusion: The study found that the bigger the company size, the higher the level of comprehension by managers and the experts. In the case of both groups, where a higher comprehension of the poisonous substances designation system was evident, they recognized the necessity of its improvement.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2011

Between January 2010 and March 2011, there were three outbreaks of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in South Korea. Over 3.45 million animals (5,660 farms) were slaughtered, which was 33.3% of the existing pigs, 8.4% of dairy cows and 3.4% of cattle. FMD disaster costs were estimated at around three billion Korean won. Nine civil servants were killed, over 150 people were wounded and 4,788 landfills were confronted with a pollution problem. Vaccination and slaughter are the two basic alternatives for eradication of FMD. Altho ugh slaughter is more violent, risky and expensive than vaccination, the Korean government had chosen only slaughter eradication by the end of 2010. Even though over three million animals were killed, FMD spread out over most of the country. Finally, the government chose to begin vaccination. Following vaccination, outbreaks decreased dramatically. The purpose of this report is a cultural analysis of the related decision-making process, laws and systems. For the culture analysis, we utilize interviews, symposiums, laws, FMD manual, government reports and press releases. In conclusion, we found that the FMD massacre was influenced by cultural and organizational factors. The cultural factors were economism, cheapening of the value of life, biased perceptions and fears. The organizational factors were a closed process of decision-making, monopoly system, a small homogeneous group and group-think. Therefore, more studies will be needed for those factors of FMD disasters in national-scale cases.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2022

This study aims to compare the healthcare status of South Korea and other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) using the OECD health statistics 2021. We used the position value for relative comparison (PARC) index to measure the five elements of the healthcare system, demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost. For the statistical analysis, Mann-Kendall test was performed to examine the trend of the PARC values from 2000 to the most recent year. The results showed that supply, demand, accessibility, and quality were above median than the OECD median and the cost was below median. In sectors such as primary care, health employment and mental health care were below median average. With these result, necessary steps for a sustainable healthcare should be taken into effort by policy makers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1031-1035
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• 2023

Neutron is an indirectly ionizing particle without charge, which is normally measured by detecting reaction products. Neutron detection system based on measuring gadolinium-converted gamma-rays is a good way to monitor the neutron because the representative prompt gamma-rays of gadolinium have low energies (79, 89, 182, and 199 keV). Low energy gamma-rays and their high attenuation coefficient on materials allow the simple design of a detector easier to manufacture. Thus, we designed a cadmium zinc telluride detector to investigate feasibility of simultaneous detection of gamma-rays and neutrons by using the Monte-Carlo simulation, which was divided into two parts; first was gamma-detection part and second was gamma- and neutron-simultaneous detection part. Consequently, we confirmed that simultaneous detection of gamma-rays and neutrons could be feasible and valid, although further research is needed for adoption on real detection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.3007-3013
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• 2016

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers are common malignancies associated with high mortality rates. Healthcare systems are always faced with high costs of treatment of gastrointestinal cancers including stomach cancer. Identification and prioritization of these costs can help determine economic burden and then improve of health planning by policy-makers. This study was performed in 2015 in Kerman City aimed at estimating the direct hospital costs for patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the medical records of 160 patients with stomach cancer admitted from 2011 to 2014 to Shafa Hospital were examined, the current stage of the disease and the patients' health status were identified, and the direct costs related to the type of treatment in the public and private sectors were calculated. SPSS-19 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Results: Of the patients studied, 103 (65%) were men and 57 (35%) were women. The mean age of patients was 65 years. Distribution into four stages of the disease was 5%, 20%, 30%, and 45%, respectively. Direct costs in four stages of the disease were calculated as 2191.07, 2642.93, 2877, and 2674.07 USD (63,045,879, 76,047,934, 82,783,019, and 76,943,800 IRR), respectively. The highest percentage of costs was related to surgery in Stage I and to medication in Stages II, III, and IV. According to the results of direct costs of treatment for stomach cancer in Kerman, the mean total cost of treating a patient in the public sector was estimated at 74,705,158 IRR, of which averages of 60,141,384 IRR and 14,563,774 IRR were the shares of insurance and patients, respectively. Conclusions: The high prevalence and diagnosis of disease in old age and at advanced stages of disease impose great costs on the patients and the health system. Early diagnosis through screening and selecting an appropriate treatment method might largely ameliorate the economic burden of the disease.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.83-91
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• 2021

Health is an outset of psychological, social, financial, and physical state. Several macroeconomic factors are entangled with health and mortality. Infant mortality and life expectancy are two keyguard on demographic research context on last few decades. On the other hand, foreign inflows play an unprecedent role for raising economic circulation and providing more opportunities to build a better society. The study aims to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, and Bangladesh's health. This study employs time-series data from 1980 to 2018. Results show, with Auto-regressive Distribute Lag (ARDL) model, that there is significant cointegration among variables. Foreign investment and economic output relate significantly and positively to health. On the contrary, education is quasi-linked with a different sign-on different model. For model validation, pitfalls of time-series multicollinearity, heteroscedasiticy, and autocorrelation are not present. Also, CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests are validating the model as stable and fit for future prediction. Medical assessment and education need more attention from the government as well as the private sector. FDI can play a catalyst role for improving the health sector, raising opportunity in educating and creating a better lifestyle. In order to optimize foreign investment, the government should implement necessary reforms and policies.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.337-342
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• 2012

The medical industries are integrated with information technology with mobile devices and wireless communication. The advent of mobile healthcare systems can benefit patients and hospitals, by not only providing better quality of patient care, but also by reducing administrative and medical costs for both patients and hospitals. Security issues present an interesting research topic in wireless and pervasive healthcare networks. As information technology is developed, many organizations such as government agencies, public institutions, and corporations have employed an information system to enhance the efficiency of their work processes. For the past few years, healthcare organizations throughout the world have been adopting health information systems (HIS) based on the wireless network infrastructure. As a part of the wireless network, a mobile agent has been employed at a large scale in hospitals due to its outstanding mobility. Several vulnerabilities and security requirements related to mobile devices should be considered in implementing mobile services in the hospital environment. Secure authentication and protocols with a mobile agent for applying ubiquitous sensor networks in a healthcare system environment is proposed and analyzed in this paper.

• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.345-356
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• 2022

The fungal distribution, diversity, and load were analyzed in the geographically segregated island groundwater systems in Korea. A total of 79 fungal isolates were secured from seven islands and identified based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. They belonged to three phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Chlorophyta), five classes, sixteen orders, twenty-two families, and thirty-one genera. The dominant phylum was Ascomycota (91.1%), with most fungi belonging to the Cladosporium (21.5%), Aspergillus (15.2%), and Stachybotrys (8.9%) genera. Cladosporium showed higher dominance and diversity, being widely distributed throughout the geographically segregated groundwater systems. Based on the diversity indices, the genera richness (4.821) and diversity (2.550) were the highest in the groundwater system of the largest scale. As turbidity (0.064-0.462) increased, the overall fungal count increased and the residual chlorine (0.089-0.308) had low relevance compared with the total count and fungal diversity. Cladosporium showed normal mycelial growth in de-chlorinated sterilized samples. Overall, if turbidity increases under higher fungal diversity, bio-deterioration in groundwater-supplying facilities and public health problems could be intensified, regardless of chlorine treatment. In addition to fungal indicators and analyzing methods, physical hydrostatic treatment is necessary for monitoring and controlling fungal contamination.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2131-2136
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• 2016

Background: Cancer is currently one of the main public health problems all over the world and its economic burden is substantial both for health systems and for society as a whole. To inform priorities for cancer control, we here estimated years of potential life lost (YPLL) and productivity losses due to cancer-related premature mortality in Iran from 2006 to 2010. Materials and Methods: The number of cancer deaths by sex and age groups for top ten leading cancers in Iran were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. To estimate the YPLL and the cost of productivity loss due to cancer-related premature mortality, the life expectancy method and the human capital approach were used, respectively. Results: There were 138,228 cancer-related deaths in Iran (without Tehran province) of which 76 % (106,954) were attributable to the top 10 ranked cancers. Some 63 % of total cancer-related deaths were of males. The top 10 ranked cancers resulted in 106,766,942 YPLL in total, 64,171,529 (60 %) in males and 42,595,412 (40%) in females. The estimated YPPLL due to top 10 ranked cancers was 58,581,737 during the period studied of which 32,214,524 (54%) was accounted for in males. The total cost of lost productivity caused by premature deaths because of top 10 cancers was 1.68 billion dollars (US$) from 2006 to 2010, ranging from 251 million dollars in 2006 to 283 million dollars in 2010. Conclusions: This study showed that the economic burden of premature mortality attributable to cancer is significant for Iranian society. The findings provide useful information about the economic impact of cancer for health system policy/decision makers and should facilitate planning of preventive intervention and effective resource allocation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.33-43
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to verify the effects of a self-regulation program for management of hypertension. Method: Thirty patients with hypertension registered in a community health center were selected as the experiment group, and control group were patients in another community health center, matched for age and gender. The self-regulation program included daily blood pressure checks, periodic counseling, and health education. A self-check digital device with instructions was provided for self-monitoring of blood pressure, and the participants were interviewed before they took part in the program. Results: The first hypothesis was supported: There will be a greater reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure for patients with hypertension who participate in the self-regulation program compared to patients in the control group. The second hypothesis was also supported: Patients with hypertension who participate in the self-regulation program will perform self-care activities better than those in the control group. Conclusion: The findings indicate that a self-regulation program reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure and improves self-care in patients with hypertension. It is recommended that this self-regulation program be used in community health clinics for management of hypertension and prevention of complications.