• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.148-161
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• 2018

A traffic fatality by young people marked average annual decrease of 4.5% since 2011. Meanwhile, a traffic fatality by senior over 65 years old marked average annual increase of 7.9% for the last five years which means that the annual increase of traffic fatality by senior will be a serious problem. This study started questioning that senior drivers over 65 years old did not retain the same causal factor of fatal traffic accidents and thus extensively analyzed a risk of it by age group quantitatively, dividing the senior driver group into the early, middle and latter stages. Depending on the aging level, the risk of traffic fatality showed a wide difference in seven different types of traffic accidents generally, and happened to increase with latter and middle parts of the senior driver more than the early part. Therefore, this study proposes four policy suggestions: 1) The senior driver need to be offered customized driving educations and the improvement of road environment is also recommended. 2) Political assistance is needed to support and guide a safety related technology installation for the new or existing car. 3) Renewal of driving license and an aptitude test(physical examination, cognitive test) for drivers over 75 years old should take in a less than 3 years and an additional road test is needed as occasion demands. 4) Like the United States and Europe, development and extension of customized treatment guidebook for medical teams who examine senior drivers is needed and establishment of education and administration system that a supervisor of driving license renewal can impose safety restriction and American anonymity reporting system is considered to institutionalize in the medium to longer term.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.248-254
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• 2023

Objectives: Measuring the quality of care is paramount to inform policies for healthcare services. Nevertheless, little is known about the quality of primary care and acute care provided in Korea. This study investigated trends in the quality of primary care and acute care. Methods: Case-fatality rates and avoidable hospitalization rates were used as performance indicators to assess the quality of primary care and acute care. Admission data for the period 2008 to 2020 were extracted from the National Health Insurance Claims Database. Case-fatality rates and avoidable hospitalization rates were standardized by age and sex to adjust for patients' characteristics over time, and significant changes in the rates were identified by joinpoint regression. Results: The average annual percent change in age-/sex-standardized case-fatality rates for acute myocardial infarction was -2.3% (95% confidence interval, -4.6 to 0.0). For hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, the age-/sex-standardized case-fatality rates were 21.8% and 5.9%, respectively in 2020; these rates decreased since 2008 (27.1 and 8.7%, respectively). The average annual percent change in age-/sex-standardized avoidable hospitalization rates ranged from -9.4% to -3.0%, with statistically significant changes between 2008 and 2020. In 2020, the avoidable hospitalization rates decreased considerably compared with the 2019 rate because of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Conclusions: The avoidable hospitalization rates and case-fatality rates decreased overall during the past decade, but they were relatively high compared with other countries. Strengthening primary care is an essential requirement to improve patient health outcomes in the rapidly aging Korean population.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4399-4402
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• 2013

Objectives: To analyze underlying disease, fatality rate and the major causes of death of in-patients with malignant tumors in Sichuan Cancer Hospital. Methods: Clinical data of in-patients from 2002 to 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The top 10 tumors (82.0%of the total) of the malignant tumors of the in-patients were lung, cervical, esophagus, breast, colorectal, nasopharynx, liver and gastric cancers, lymphomas and ovarian cancers. The overall fatality rate was 2.7% during these eleven years, 3.4% and 2.0% for male and females, respectively with statistical significance for the difference (${\chi}^2$=164.737, P<0.001). The top 10 death causes were lung cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer, esophagus cancer, gastric cancer, lymphoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and nasopharynx cancer. In-patients with pancreatic cancer had the highest fatality rate (9.6%). There were different ranks of death causes in different sex groups and age groups. Conclusion: Prevention and control work of cancer should be enhanced not only for cancers with high incidence such as lung cancer, esophageal cancer but also for the cancers which have low incidence but high fatality rate, such as pancreatic cancer and gallbladder cancer, which would help to improve the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.745-754
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• 2012

The correlations between Large Early Release Frequency (LERF) and Early Fatality need to be investigated for risk-informed application and regulation. In Regulatory Guide (RG) -1.174, while there are decision-making criteria using the measures of Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and LERF, there are no specific criteria on LERF. Since there are both huge uncertainties and large costs needed in off-site consequence calculation, a LERF assessment methodology needs to be developed, and its correlation factor needs to be identified, for risk-informed decision-making. A new method for estimating off-site consequence has been presented and performed for assessing health effects caused by radioisotopes released from severe accidents of nuclear power plants in this study. The MACCS2 code is used for validating the source term quantitatively regarding health effects, depending on the release characteristics of radioisotopes during severe accidents. This study developed a method for identifying correlations between LERF and Early Fatality and validates the results of the model using the MACCS2 code. The results of this study may contribute to defining LERF and finding a measure for risk-informed regulations and risk-informed decision-making.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.246-251
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• 2005

Accident scenarios analysis is a course to understand, analyze, and describe a process of an accident and behavior pattern of the parties to an accident. The method of accident scenarios is that we described patterns represented between accidents and hazardous conditions, and then provide data to prevent the accident. We have carried out scenarios analysis in various fields so far, but it was not taking account of system. In this research, we made a study on technology of accident scenarios analysis using QFD (Quality Function Deployment) to analyze systematically and evaluate quantitatively types of hazards and scenarios of railway accident. And we analyses accident scenarios of a subject of work-related fatality accident to railway employee and conducted risk assessment for different scenarios. Also we defined relation between unsafe events and hazardous conditions caused to work-related fatality accident, and attempted to quantitatively assess work-related fatality accident and the parties to accidents. The results of this research will be used in analyzing for important causes and contributing factors of work-related fatality accidents at the step of risk assessment of railway system, and quantitatively assessing frequency of work-related accidents and risk.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.599-607
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• 2016

The first patient of Middle East respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus infection in Korea was confirmed on May 20, 2015. After that, MERS spread over the country. In recent years, patients of MERS have been found around the Arabian Peninsula and the case fatality ratio of MERS in those area was been reported to range from 30 to 40%. In this paper, we estimate the case fatality ratio of MERS of Korea using data of 186 infections until December 1, 2015. In this study we propose a novel estimator of the case fatality ratio using information of the patients severity condition as well as records on the days of confirmation and death or recovery of the patient. By using publicly available data of the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control, we evaluate a performance of the estimator and demonstrate a stability of the estimator from the early stage of the epidemic.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.3-10
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• 2014

As the income level of a country gets improved, people's social, economic, and cultural expectation will grow at the same time. Although the income level of Korea has been remarkably improved, her work-related fatality rate is the highest among OECD countries. Moreover, the rate hasn't been reduced for more than 10 years. This study aims to provide appropriate measures for work-related fatality reduction by comparing the income levels and the work-related fatality rates of countries and by analysing the problems of our worker-oriented accident prevention policy. For the comparison of income level and work-related fatalities, this study suggests income-level incorporated fatality rate, and it turned out that the rate of Korea is the highest among the countries. In order to find out the causes of that result, this study has found that our law enforcement is much weaker than that of UK, which implicates more strict law enforcement policy is needed to improve our work-related safety.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.680-687
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• 2021

Coronavirus disease, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), has a higher case fatality rate in European countries than in others, especially East Asian ones. One potential explanation for this regional difference is the diversity of the viral infection efficiency. Here, we analyzed the allele frequencies of a nonsynonymous variant rs12329760 (V197M) in the TMPRSS2 gene, a key enzyme essential for viral infection and found a significant association between the COVID-19 case fatality rate and the V197M allele frequencies, using over 200,000 present-day and ancient genomic samples. East Asian countries have higher V197M allele frequencies than other regions, including European countries which correlates to their lower case fatality rates. Structural and energy calculation analysis of the V197M amino acid change showed that it destabilizes the TMPRSS2 protein, possibly negatively affecting its ACE2 and viral spike protein processing.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.144-152
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the social and policy determinants of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection across 23 countries. Methods: COVID-19 indicators (incidence, mortality, and fatality) for each country were calculated by direct and indirect standardization. Multivariable regression analyses were used to identify the social and policy determinants of COVID-19 infection. Results: A higher number of doctors per population was related to lower incidence, mortality, and fatality rates of COVID-19 in 23 countries (β=-0.672, -0.445, and -0.564, respectively). The number of nurses/midwives per population was associated with lower mortality and fatality rates of COVID-19 in 23 countries (β=-0.215 and -0.372, respectively). Strengthening of policy restriction indicators, such as restrictions of public gatherings, was related to lower COVID-19 incidence (β=-0.423). A national Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination policy conducted among special groups or in the past was associated with a higher incidence of COVID-19 in 23 countries (β=0.341). The proportion of the elderly population (aged over 70 years) was related to higher mortality and fatality rates (β=0.209 and 0.350, respectively), and income support was associated with mortality and fatality rates (β=-0.362 and -0.449, respectively). Conclusions: These findings do not imply causality because this was a country-based correlation study. However, COVID-19 transmission can be influenced by social and policy determinants such as integrated health systems and policy responses to COVID-19. Various social and policy determinants should be considered when planning responses to COVID-19.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.421-431
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• 2023

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to socio-economic issues, highlighting the importance of strengthening health systems for future infectious diseases. This study aims to analyze the relationship between health system preparedness, response levels, and COVID-19 fatality rates across 194 countries. Methods: This study examined various indicators of national health system preparedness and response, including health service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, essential medicines and health products, health financing, and leadership and governance. Results: A correlation was found between the health system and the COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR). Further examination of specific indicators within health service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, health financing, and leadership/governance showed significant correlations with the CFR. Multiple regression analysis, considering aging and urbanization rates, identified reproductive/maternal/newborn and child health, infectious diseases, nursing and midwifery personnel density, birth registration coverage, and out-of-pocket health expenditure as significant factors affecting the CFR. Conclusion: Countries with strong health system indicators experience lower case fatality rate from COVID-19. Strengthening access to essential health services, increasing healthcare personnel and resources, ensuring reliable health information, and bolstering overall health systems are crucial for preparedness against future infectious diseases.