• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8503-8508
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• 2014

Background: After the WHO recommended HPV vaccination of the general population in 2009, government support of HPV vaccination programs was increased in many countries. However, this policy was not implemented in Korea due to perceived low cost-effectiveness. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the cost-utility of HPV vaccination programs targeted to high risk populations as compared to vaccination programs for the general population. Materials and Methods: Each study population was set to 100,000 people in a simulation study to determine the incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR), then standard prevalence rates, cost, vaccination rates, vaccine efficacy, and the Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) were applied to the analysis. In addition, sensitivity analysis was performed by assuming discounted vaccination cost. Results: In the socially vulnerable population, QALYs gained through HPV vaccination were higher than that of the general population (General population: 1,019, Socially vulnerable population: 5,582). The results of ICUR showed that the cost of HPV vaccination was higher for the general population than the socially vulnerable population. (General population: 52,279,255 KRW, Socially vulnerable population: 9,547,347 KRW). Compared with 24 million KRW/QALYs as the social threshold, vaccination of the general population was not cost-effective. In contrast, vaccination of the socially vulnerable population was strongly cost-effective. Conclusions: The results suggest the importance and necessity of government support of HPV vaccination programs targeted to socially vulnerable populations because a targeted approach is much more cost-effective. The implementation of government support for such vaccination programs is a critical strategy for decreasing the burden of HPV infection in Korea.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.271-280
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• 2019

Purpose: This study evaluates the efficacy of a Self-Care Reinforcement Program (SCRP) based on the Selection Optimization Compensation (SOC) model, in socially vulnerable elderly women with metabolic syndrome. Methods: This study adopts a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design. The participants were 64 socially vulnerable elderly Korean women with metabolic syndrome (experimental group: 31, control group: 33). Participants' body composition analysis, nutrient intake, risk factors of metabolic syndrome, depressive symptoms, and social network were measured. Data were analyzed with an independent t-test; statistical significance levels were set at p<.05. The SCRP, including metabolic syndrome education, nutritional education, exercise, and social network, was performed three times a week for 8 weeks. Results: There were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic pressure, fasting blood sugar, triglycerides, sodium intake, depressive symptoms, and social networks. Conclusion: The SCRP is effective and can be recommended as a community health nursing intervention for socially vulnerable elderly women with metabolic syndrome.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.181-193
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• 2017

Purpose: This is a qualitative descriptive study with the purpose of identifyng the health problems and related factors of socially vulnerable school-age children in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: Two focus group interviews and two individual interviews were conducted with eleven participants. They were two class teachers, three school nurses and two daycare teachers working at elementary schools and three social workers and a welfare worker working at community childcare centers. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The identified psychosocial problems were 'distracting and excessive behavior', 'depression and helplessness,' 'aggression and violent behaviors', and 'internet overdependence'. The revealed physical health problems were 'poor hygiene', 'obesity', and 'gastrointestinal problems'. In addition, the fact that physical and psychosocial problems are closely inter-linked was reaffirmed through practical examples. Meanwhile, socioeconomic, family environmental, social experiential and individual factors were found to affect children's health. Relationships within a family or a peer group and healthy lifestyle were considered critical issues to deal with in order to improve the childrens' health status. Conclusion: It was proved that socially vulnerable school-age children have various physical and mental health problems due to multiple factors. Therefore, it is required to design nursing approaches that help them achieve optimal health status.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.383-394
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• 2023

Purpose : This study focuses on improvements in cell broadcast service(CBS) with consideration of socially vulnerable groups, and identifies service factors necessary for elderly people in particular. Method : Multiple regression analysis was applied to test overall satisfaction with cell broadcast service as the dependent variable and each of the service factors as the independent variable. Result : The results showed that fast delivery had the greatest effect on overall satisfaction with cell broadcast service in both groups, followed by the delivery of sufficient content for the elderly group and system quality for the non-elderly group. The results demonstrated that the elderly group cared more about information content, while the non-elderly group considered functions such as system quality and text message transmission criteria more important. Conclusion : Elderly people consider the delivery of sufficient information important as well as fast delivery, which suggests that it is necessary when sending cell broadcast service to give consideration to the characteristics of elderly people, as they tend to have weaker understanding and thinking abilities than the non-elderly.

• Journal of Research and Publication Ethics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2023

Purpose: Adequate public input and participation in environmental health research must be provided to ensure accurate results from studies involving human exposure to potentially hazardous substances. By addressing these ethical issues associated with environmental health research, this study can help reduce risks for individuals participating in studies and whole communities affected by their impactful findings. Research design, data and methodology: The current research should have followed the rule of qualitative textual research, searching and exploring the adequate prior resources such as books and peer-reviewed journal articles so that the current author could screen proper previous works which are acceptable for the content analysis. Results: The current research has figured out four ethical issues to improve environmental health study as follows: (1) Lack of Guidance for Collecting and Utilizing Data Ethically, (2) Insufficient Consideration Is Given to Vulnerable Populations When Conducting Studies, (3) Unclear Standards Exist for Protecting the Privacy Of Participant's Personal Information, and (4) Conducting Socially and Religiously Acceptable Research in Various Communities. Conclusions: This research concludes that future researchers should consider implementing anonymization techniques where possible so that findings are still accessible, but the risk posed by disclosing identifying information remains minimized during the analysis/publication stages.

• 재활복지
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.131-150
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• 2016

This study aims to compare global policies on ICT accessibility and to suggest possible solutions that help to enhance ICT accessibility for socially disadvantaged groups. The results indicated that related laws and standards in Korea are relatively well established than Asian countries' whereas they need improvements when compared to the US or the UK. Particularly, in spite of rapid development in information communication technology industry, incorporating the definition of newly developed technologies into existing laws related to ICT accessibility seemed slow that caused reluctancy of related parties to address accessibility issues the new technologies create. In addition, Korean government seems less effortful to develop policies and standards apart from web and mobile application accessibility. In order to resolve the problems, firstly, the period or process of enacting and amending laws can be shorten. Next, a government affiliated research institute can be established to do research and develop ICT accessibility related to user scenarios so that effective policies and standards could be readily provided. Even though other possible solutions can be suggested, what is more important than that is that any interested parties should sustainably make efforts to provide equal opportunities for the underserved populations.