• Health Policy and Management
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.125-143
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• 2002

The objectives of this study were analysis of patient\`s characteristics and market segmentation in oriental medical care and western medical care. This study focused on medical utilization using Anderson's health utilization model. The source of data was 1998 National Health and Nutrition Survey which Korean Institute For Health and Social Affairs carried out. A stratified multistage probability sampling design was used in this survey. The analysis was conducted using the statistical software package SPSS version 10.0 and Answer Tree 2.1 which is one of data mining methodology. The results were as follows ; 1) 44.9% of respondents reported visiting oriental medical center within recent two weeks. 3.4% of them used oriental medical care. The group of age, kind of disease and medical expenditure are associated with the difference western and oriental medical utilization rate. 2) There were several factors related to utilization of oriental medical care according to decision tree. Especially, important factors that patient chose his medical center were kinds of disease, kinds of common medical use, and expenditure. 3) in the results of CART analysis, market of oriental medical care were classified by seven categories. The major groups who have a preference for oriental medicine were those musculo-skeletal, cerebra-vascular disease, or chronic headache patients, and they had a preference fur oriental medical care in common use. These results show that oriental and western medical market were divided into various areas by market segmentation.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.828-839
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of present study was to explore relationship between physical activity (PA) behavior and self-efficacy among older Korean-Americans (OKAs) based on reviewing major theories that are used to understand PA behavior, particularly as they relate to older adults within sociocultural contexts. Methods: 151 OKAs, living in California, were recruited and interviewed once. Self-efficacy and PA level were measured by Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors (K-CHAMPS) questionnaire, respectively. Results: 82.8% of OKA women and 72.4% of OKA men had relatively low ($38.8{\pm}29.3$) self-efficacy related to PA. Exercise self-efficacy was statistically significant and positively associated with frequency for moderate and greater PA (r = 0.25, p < .01), frequency for all listed PA (r = 0.21, p < .05), caloric expenditure for moderate and greater PA (r = 0.23, p < .01), and caloric expenditure for all listed PA (r = 0.31, p < .01). Conclusion: Social Cognitive Theory including self-efficacy can provide insight about how to shape strategies that encourage OKAs to adhere to regular PA because it focuses on environmental as well as personal factors. Increased efforts are needed to understand the other factors associated with being active in OKAs.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.101-118
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• 2008

Japanese national health expenditure was 8.0% of GDP in 2004, and it was lower than average of OECD countries. But it has increased rapidly in recent years. Japan has relatively many acute care beds and high-price medical equipments, and the average length of stay is long. Japanese government is trying healthcare reform to contain healthcare expenditure, increase the efficiency of management and improve the quality of healthcare. As healthcare policies for hospitals such as DPC (Diagnosis Procedure Combination) for acute care beds, reduction of long-term care beds, and functional differentiation and liaison among healthcare institutions are implemented, the number of hospitals in financial difficulties is increasing. The serious situation urges hospitals to adapt to changes and search new directions of management. They need to establish and implement appropriate positioning strategy, and increase management efficiencies. Korean healthcare system has similarities with Japanese in many aspects. The recent reform and changes in Japanese healthcare system and hospitals give suggestions to Korean hospitals as to how they can prepare for environmental changes and improve management.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.17-39
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• 2005

Social solidarity, equity in financing, and efficiency in administration have been core issues in the development of Korean health insurance reformation since 1988. This study is to investigate the trend of administrative cost in Korean National Health Insurance from various aspects. For the analysis of administrative cost, the expenditures of each insurance society and the National Health Insurance Corporation are divided into 4 items of (1) insurance benefit, (2) administrative cost, (3) an agency provision accounts, (4) other expenses, and then they are reorganized. The analyses based on 5 types of the health insurance administrative cost showed that efficiency in administration has been improved generally. We, however, should consider qualitative aspects such as customer's satisfaction with health insurance administration, prompt service, control of unjust expenditure (unjust claims), and provision of medical service including health consultation in assessing efficiency of administration. And, in order to connect the administrative costs of health insurance with efficiency, we need to give a fundamentally new definition, which can contain elaborateness of expenditure in details including the structure and evaluation method of administrative costs. It may be necessary to develop new indicators or analyzing methods hereafter.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.447-462
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• 2021

In insurance, the surrender rate is an important variable that threatens the sustainability of insurers and determines the profitability of the contract. Unlike other actuarial assumptions that determine the cash flow of an insurance contract, however, it is characterized by endogenous variables such as people's economic, social, and subjective decisions. Therefore, a microscopic approach is required to identify and analyze the factors that determine the lapse rate. Specifically, micro-level characteristics including the individual, demographic, microeconomic, and household characteristics of policyholders are necessary for the analysis. In this study, we select panel survey data of Korean Retirement Income Study (KReIS) with many diverse dimensions to determine which variables have a decisive effect on the lapse and apply the lasso regularized regression model to analyze it empirically. As the data contain many missing values, they are imputed using the random forest method. Among the household variables, we find that the non-existence of old dependents, the existence of young dependents, and employed family members increase the surrender rate. Among the individual variables, divorce, non-urban residential areas, apartment type of housing, non-ownership of homes, and bad relationship with siblings increase the lapse rate. Finally, among the financial variables, low income, low expenditure, the existence of children that incur child care expenditure, not expecting to bequest from spouse, not holding public health insurance, and expecting to benefit from a retirement pension increase the lapse rate. Some of these findings are consistent with those in the literature.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2023

This study examined changes in dietary life and dietary life satisfaction in one-person households during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 916 one-person households from the Food Consumption Behavior Survey, we applied ANOVA and a system of equations model for our analysis which produced four main results. Firstly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, eating homemade and delivered meals increased, whereas eating restaurant, group, and HMR meals decreased. Eating breakfast and regular eating habits also increased during the pandemic. Secondly, approximately 30% of the sample reported increased expenditure on fresh food and HMR meals. The proportion of positive changes in dietary life was also greater than negative changes, and dietary life satisfaction was about three times higher than it had been before the pandemic. Thirdly, having breakfast and regular eating fully mediated the relationship between spending on fresh food and dietary life satisfaction, as well as the relationship between HMR purchases and dietary life satisfaction. Changes in expenditure on fresh food and HMR meals positively affected dietary life satisfaction through eating breakfast and regular eating. Fourthly, increased consumption of delivered food had a positive direct effect on dietary life satisfaction. Among sociodemographic variables, gender, education, occupation, and age were also significantly related to changes in dietary life satisfaction.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.457-467
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• 2012

The purpose of the study was to explore the general characteristics of sports for all through the patterns of sports for all policy and analysis of causal relation of the determinants. To achieve this goal, 26 countries among OECD 30 members which provide useful data sources were selected. The data were analyzed by Qualitative Comparative Analysis(QCA) with cluster analysis. GDP, leisure time, social expenditure, Gini's coefficient, poverty rate and tax burden ratio were used as casual variables for Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The findings of this study were as follows. First, three patterns were examined and Korea was classified into the pattern which has low sports for all participation and sportsclub participation. Second, as a result of Qualitative Comparative Analysis for analyzing the determinants of sports for all patterns, the pattern in which includes Korea showed that GDP, leisure time, social expenditure, tax burden ratio had negative relationship and Gini's coefficient, poverty rate had positive relationship.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2017

Objectives: As in many low-income and middle-income countries, out-of-pocket (OOP) payments by patients or their families are a key healthcare financing mechanism in Bangladesh that leads to economic burdens for households. The objective of this study was to identify whether and to what extent socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioral factors of the population had an impact on OOP expenditures in Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 12 400 patients who had paid to receive any type of healthcare services within the previous 30 days were analyzed from the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, 2010. We employed regression analysis for identify factors influencing OOP health expenditures using the ordinary least square method. Results: The mean total OOP healthcare expenditures was US dollar (USD) 27.66; while, the cost of medicines (USD 16.98) was the highest cost driver (61% of total OOP healthcare expenditure). In addition, this study identified age, sex, marital status, place of residence, and family wealth as significant factors associated with higher OOP healthcare expenditures. In contrary, unemployment and not receiving financial social benefits were inversely associated with OOP expenditures. Conclusions: The findings of this study can help decision-makers by clarifying the determinants of OOP, discussing the mechanisms driving these determinants, and there by underscoring the need to develop policy options for building stronger financial protection mechanisms. The government should consider devoting more resources to providing free or subsidized care. In parallel with government action, the development of other prudential and sustainable risk-pooling mechanisms may help attract enthusiastic subscribers to community-based health insurance schemes.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.9-30
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• 2017

Generally, regime shift occurs less frequently than policy change and/or government change. Regime shift needs alterations and changes along the three critical components which constitute a domestic regime: (1) the character of the socioeconomic coalition that rules the country; (2) the political and economic institutions through which power is acquired and exercised; and (3) the public policy profile that give political direction to the nation. This paper tries to examine characteristics of the welfare regime of Korea, and explore policy reform options for the welfare regime shift in Korea. From the viewpoint of livelihood security perspective, I firstly tries to examine development process of Korean welfare regime and specify the main characteristics of that regime. Secondly, I present three policy reform options: (1) reform of the formal political institutions such as electoral system and government type; (2) restructuring of the composition of government expenditure structure; and (3) reduction of the informal employment. These three policy reform options are related to the alteration of socioeconomic coalitions and the changes of the political and economic institutions. Instead of concluding remarks, I finally suggest two debate topics to the round table discussion.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.735-744
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• 2001

After providing the purpose, scope and methods of present study in the first chapter. the second chapter discusses a theoretical overview on the social implication of medical expenditure and the medical insurance program for the aged population. In conclusion, to realize the reduction of aged population's medical expenditures, some possible plans are conceivable. Firstly, the payment level of medical insurance should be upgraded and the insurance coverage in oriental medicine treatment and the drug-store protection program need to be implemented. Secondly, the medical facilities and man-power have be expanded for the sake of reducing the social and geographical distances the aged population has to overcome to receive the medical benefits. Thirdly, the expansions of medical services for the home-stay aged are all the more required. Finally, a wide range of programs needs to be augmented to promote health for the aged population.