• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 1991

The medical insurance system has been adopted in rural areas in 1988. Since then, the utilization of medical care services has increased rapidly in rural areas. According to the various study on medical care utilization, the people in rural areas used more curative care services than urban areas. The purpose of this study was to analyze the utilization and expenses of medical care services in designated rural areas : Choonseong Gun, Kangwon Province ; and Soonchang Gun, Cheonbuk province in Korea. Medical care utilization of medical care beneficiaries showed slightly increase, while there was a decrease of 18% and more for the medicaid. Regarding selection of medical care institutions, medical care beneficiaries used more hospitals and clinics than health center networks, but the health center networks was used more by the medicaid. However, the hospitalized Soonchang health center was able to provide more curative care to the people than the other two health centers. More than 50% of the patients treated by hospitalized health center were residents of the place in which health center was located.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 1991

Korea has made a rapid economic development since the last three decades. This has helped Korea narrow the gap in health service differences in resource availability and in quality of care. However urban and rural differentials are still remarkable. This study has maintained that health status of rural residents is inferior to that of urban dwellers. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop policy measures for improving health services in rural areas. In order to achieve the objective of this study the authors collaborated closely and made field visits, interviews and conducted an extensive literature review regarding rural health services. The following policy options are recommended as a summary ; First, the quality of rural health personnel is a single most important factor influencing the level of rural health services. An innovative program for public health doctors to the internship and/or residency training program such as specialty board program of family medicine. Second, dissatisfaction regarding employment of public health doctors is problematic. More rational employment and deployment programs are needed to meet their personal desire. One way to do this is to make it wide open and competitive. Third this study shows how to increase physician productivity in the rural public health sector. Incentive system needs to be elaborated for the career development of rural health workers. University linked job opportunity as clinical professor is an example. Fourth, without straightening the function of health centers and subcenters, the future of rural health services is doomed to failure. Straightening primary health care is one way to enrich the program of public health facilities and reactivating the operation of health center/hospital is another. A close linkage of public facilities with private hospitals is a minimum requirement for the operation of health delivery system within a health district. Fifth, some measures are urgently required to enhance hospital services in medically underserved areas. Financial subsidy, tax exemption, long-term public loans and higher priority of health manpower deployment are some of them. Sixth, new health programs should be in tiated to meet changing needs of peoples in rural areas. Home health care program, hospice program, nursing home, residential program for the elderly are recommended.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide the basic techniques in utilizing the systematic home-rehabilitation service with a Minimum Data Set for Home Care (MDS-HC) 2.0 navigator system. Methods: The present study was conducted with 50 persons receiving home-care services from a Welfare Center. Respondents were selected from urban and rural areas in and around the Wonju area. Results: The results showed that MDS-HC2.0 was useful to evaluate the functional status of disabled persons in the fields of health and home-care services. Furthermore, this navigator system provided basic information about the functional health problems of respondents and therefore can provide guidance for health and home care services for disabled persons. Conclusions: Through the present study, a comprehensive model for health and home-rehabilitation was developed. The author believes that respondents will have the satisfaction of high quality service if the developed model is used as the standard in planning and providing home-rehabilitation services.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify health promotion services in rural areas and factors influencing this service. Method: From March to April, 2007, a structured questionnaire on services in 2006 was used to collect data from community health practitioners in all of the Primary Health Care Posts (PHCP) in North Chungchong Province. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 Win program. Results: The most frequently offered programs were health gymnastics, walking exercise, bathing and vaccination service, and hypertension management. The main obstacles to these health services were lack of adequate space, insufficient budget, and overwork. The most frequently offered health education programs were education on hypertension, exercise, diabetes, volunteer work, and smoking cessation. The main obstacles to health education were lack of adequate space, insufficient education materials and equipment, and lack of cooperation from the citizens. Improvement and reinforcement of health promotion programs should include support of specialist, development of appropriate methods of service delivery, and education materials, and increase ease in using community resources. Conclusions: The research results show that a new model of health promotion must be developed for efficient health promotion programs in rural PHCP.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe health management experience in rural older women. Methods: Qualitative data were collected by focus group interviews with 25 participants from July to September, 2007. All the interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by the content analysis method. Results: Seven main categories were conceptualized, "health concept", "health status", "disease management", "activity for health management", "dependence on the primary health care post", "relationships with families and others", "hope for the rest of life". Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that for health promotion in older women in rural regions, it is important to consider the usefulness of an incorporated program that combines agricultural work with health activity. In addition, complex programs that combine welfare services with health services are needed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate what life safety services the elderly living alone in rural areas need and to propose the life safety services that they actually need. The research subjects were 1,000 people aged 65 years and over living in the rural areas of Korea. Among the total 1,000 respondents, 283 elderly people who did not live together with their married children were included in this study. Data were analyzed through frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, and multiple regression analysis. The results of this study were as follows. First, the needs of health care services and vehicle support services (when the elderly went to the hospital or walked out) were high. These were services related to health, which means that the health of the elderly is not good and that they are interested in health. Of course, it is important to treat the disease. However, it is more important to prevent disease and maintain health. An expansion of these services is urgently needed. Second, the need for life safety services was affected by the frequency of contact with neighbors, uncomfortable housing, exercise, the frequency of contact with children, gas accidents, and nutrition variables. Through this analysis, we propose to include the housing improvement service, nutrition improvement services, and expanding social relations services in the life safety services.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-33
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• 1995

The objective of the study are two-fold: one is to explore the relationship between environment, organizational structure, and organizational effectiveness of public health centers in Korea, and the other is to examine the validity of contingency theory for improving the organizational structure of public health care agencies, with special emphasis on public health nursing administration. Accordingly, the conceptual model of the study consisted of three different concepts: environment, organizational structure, and organizational effectiveness, which were built up from the contingency theory. Data were collected during the period from 1st of May through 30th of June, 1990. From the total of 249 health centers in the country, one hundred and five centers were sampled non proportionally, according to the geopolitical distribution. Out of 105, 73 health centers responded to mailed questionnaire. The health centers were the unit of the study, and a various statistical analysis techniques were used: Reliability analysis(Cronbach's Alpha) for 4 measurement tools; Shapiro-Wilk statistic for normality test of measured scores of 6 variables: ANOVA, Pearson Correlaion analysis, regressional analysis, and canonical correlation analysis for the test of the relationships and differences between the variables. The results were. as follows : 1. No significant differences between forma lization, decision-making authority and environmental complexity were found(F=1.383, P=.24 ; F=.801, P=.37). 2. Negative relationships between formalization and decision-making authority for both urban and rural health centers were found(r=-.470, P=.002 ; r=-.348, P=.46). 3. No significant relationship between formalization and job satisfaction for both urban and rural health centers were found (r=-.242, P=.132, r=-.060, P=.739). 4. Significant positive relationship between decision - making authority and job satisfaction were found in urban health centers (r=.504, P=.0009), but no such relationship was observed in rural health centers. Regression coefficient between them was statistically significant($\beta=1.535$, P=.0002), and accuracy of regression line was accepted (W=.975, P= .420). 5. No significant relationships among formalization and family planning services, maternal health services, and tuberculosis control services for both urban and rural health centers were found. 6. Among decision-making authority and family planning services, maternal health services, and tuberculosis control services, significant positive relationship was found between de cision-making authority and family planning services(r=.286, P=.73). 7. A significant difference was found in maternal health services by the type of health centers (F=5.13, P=.026) but no difference was found in tuberculosis control services by the type of health centers, formalization, and decision-making authority. 8. A significant positive relationships were found between family planning services and maternal health services and tuberculosis control services, and between maternal health services and tuberculosis control services (r=-.499, P=.001 ; r=.457, P=.004 ; r=.495, P=.002) in case of urban health centers. In case of rural health centers, relationships between family planning services and tuberculosis control services, and between maternal health services and tuberculosis control services were statistically significant (r=.534, P=.002 ; r=.389, P=.027). No significant relationship was found between family planning and maternal health services. 9. A significant positive canonical correlation was found between the group of independent variables consisted of formalization and de cision-making authority and the group of dependent variables consisted of family planning services, maternal health services and tuberculosis control services(Rc=.455, P=.02). In case of urban health centers, no significant canonical correlation was found between them, but significant canoncial correlation was found in rural health centers(Rc=.578, P=.069), 10. Relationships between job satisfaction and health care productivity was not found significant. Through these results, the assumed relationship between environment and organizational structure was not supported in health centers. Therefore, the relationship between the organizational effectiveness and the congruence between environment and organizational structure that contingency theory proposes to exist was not able to be tested. However decision-making authority was found as an important variable of organizational structure affecting family planning services and job satisfaction in urban health centers. Thus it was suggested that decentralized decision making among health professionals would be a valuable strategy for improvement of organizational effectiveness in public health centers. It is also recommended that further studies to test contingency theory would use variability and uncertainty to define environment of public health centers instead of complexity.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.67-80
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• 2006

This study conducted research on the actual state of community-oriented services for elderly rural inhabitants and their desire related to them to develop a local community service network model suitable to the characteristics of rural longevity villages. The research was conducted on 906 elderly people over 65 living in 20 rural longevity villages through questionnaires assessing filming and economy, economic activity, health care, learning and leisure activities as well as asking their wants and needs relative to local community services. As a result, it was found rural elderly people showed a high desire for local community services such as health, transportation and economy activity. In addition, they were mainly cultivating farm products as their economic activity and showed a high demand in the future as well. Most were found to take a walk in the healthcare field and showed a high demand for health examinations, health education, health consulting, hot spring bathing and basking in the woods. Respecting learning, social and leisure activities, they were mostly found to watch TV and do house chores, and showed a high desire for village environment repair, traditional farm music, visiting and tourism. With the above results, it is expected that the desire of rural elderly for such services can be satisfied, and the development of a local community service network model suitable to the characteristic of a local community is recommended.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.5-18
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a client-centered integrated home nursing care model for rural areas by analyzing public health nursing, hospital-based home care services, and long-term nursing care in Korea. Methods: The literature review performed included data from the National Assembly Library, DBpia, RISS, and KISS, Google Scholar, the Ministry of Government Legislation, Statistics Korea, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Results: The client-centered and integrated home nursing care model in a rural area was opened as the Home Nursing Care Center in a public health center operating directly or on consignment. This model provides both a hospital-based home care services as well as long-term care, in accordance with the health status of the client and difficulty of nursing services. Moreover, the nurse who worked in a sub-organization (Centers for Supporting Healthy Living, Public Health Units, and etc.) of the public health center as care coordinator and case manager facilitates to connect home nursing care services and social welfare services. Conclusions: Our data indicates that the client-centered integrated home nursing care model in rural areas effectively combines professional services, regional accessibility, and social welfare services.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.183-202
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• 1998

This study is to investigate patient's choice of health care and the demand for Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas in 1995. It tried to evaluate the effect of out-of-pocket expenditure, travel time, and waiting time on improving care-seeking and substituting clinical medicine for pharmacy care and Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas. The statistical model of this study is conditional logit to estimate effects of choice-specific and individual-specific characteristics on the choice of type of services. This study used, as explanatory variables, average out-of-pocket payment, travel time, and waiting time of services required to use the services. The model was empirically tested using data from 1995 Korean National Health Survery. The results showed that rural Koreans responded to out-of pocket payment and travel time. Increases of out-of-pocket payment and travel time decreased the probability to choose care in rural Korea. Rural Koreans were more likely to seek care than others with low out-of-pocket payment and travel time. The probability of choosing Korean traditional medicine were higher among the members of the households with higher education level and older persons, while they were lower in the households with large family than others compared with the probabilities of choosing public health facilities. The result of this study implies that policy on use of health care in rural Korea can be focused in managing travel time and out-of-pocket payment.