• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.195-208
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze whether there are differences in medical expenses according to medical security type in the use of medical services with high disease burden such as coronary intervention. Methods: Chi-square test and covariance analysis(ANCOVA) were conducted to identify the differences in the characteristics and costs according to medical security type of 1,904 patients who underwent coronary intervention in a university hospital from 2011 to 2012. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine whether the cost affects medical expenses. Results: In the medical aid group, the proportion of women, those without a job, those without a spouse, and those who received hemodialysis was high, length of stay was high, patients using the emergency room and those who died was high. The medical aid patients were significantly higher in the non-benefit medical expenses, optional medical expenses, physician and admission, meals, medications and injections. National health insurance patients were significantly higher in procedure. The medical security type was found to be significant as a variable affecting the medical expenses. Conclusions: Provision of medical expenses should be managed in advance by providing prevention and education services for the vulnerable, and care services in the region should be provided to suppress the occurrence of medical expenses due to the increase in the number of days spent. In addition, it is necessary to support medical expenses to prevent unsatisfactory medical services from occurring for non-benefit and optional care.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 1976

The categories of national health problems may be mainly divided into health promotion, problems of diseases, and population-economic problems which are indirectly related to health. Of them, the problems of diseases will be exclusively dealt with this speech. Rurality and Disease Problems There are many differences between rural and urban areas. In general, indicators of rurality are small size of towns, dispersion of the population, remoteness from urban centers, inadequacy of public transportation, poor communication, inadequate sanitation, poor housing, poverty, little education lack of health personnels and facilities, and in-accessibility to health services. The influence of such conditions creates, directly or indirectly, many problems of diseases in the rural areas. Those art the occurrence of preventable diseases, deterioration and prolongation of illness due to loss of chance to get early treatment, decreased or prolonged labour force loss, unnecessary death, doubling of medical cost, and economic loss. Some Considerations of Innovative Approach The followings art some considerations of innovative approaches to the problems of diseases in the rural Korea. 1. It would be essential goal of the innovative approaches that the damage and economic loss due to diseases will be maintained to minimum level by minimizing the absolute amount of the diseases, and by moderating the fee for medical cares. The goal of the minimization of the disease amount may be achieved by preventive services and early treatment, and the goal of moderating the medical fee may be achieved by lowering the prime cost and by adjusting the medical fees to reasonable level. 2. Community health service or community medicine will be adopted as a innovative means to disease problems. In this case, a community is defined as an unit area where supply and utilization of primary service activities can be accomplished within a day. The essential nature o the community health service should be such activities as health promotion, preventive measures, medical care, and rehabilitation performing efficiently through the organized efforts of the residents in a community. Each service activity should cover all members of the residents in a community in its plan and performance. The cooperation of the community peoples in one of the essential elements for success of the service program, The motivations of their cooperative mood may be activated through several ways: when the participation of the residents in service program of especially the direct participation of organized cooperation of the area leaders art achieved through a means of health education: when the residents get actual experience of having received the benefit of good quality services; and when the health personnels being armed with an idealism that they art working in the areas to help health problems of the residents, maintain good human relationships with them. For the success of a community health service program, a personnel who is in charge of leadership and has an able, a sincere and a steady characters seems to be required in a community. The government should lead and support the community health service programs of the nation under the basis of results appeared in the demonstrative programs so as to be carried out the programs efficiently. Moss of the health problems may be treated properly in the community levels through suitable community health service programs but there might be some problems which art beyond their abilities to be dealt with. To solve such problems each community health service program should be under the referral systems which are connected with health centers, hospitals, and so forth. 3. An approach should be intensively groped to have a physician in each community. The shortage of physicians in rural areas is world-wide problem and so is the Korean situation. In the past the government has initiated a system of area-limited physician, coercion, and a small scale of scholarship program with unsatisfactory results. But there might be ways of achieving the goal by intervice, broadened, and continuous approaches. There will be several ways of approach to motivate the physicians to be settled in a rural community. They are, for examples, to expos the students to the community health service programs during training, to be run community health service programs by every health or medical schools and other main medical facilities, communication activities and advertisement, desire of community peoples to invite a physician, scholarship program, payment of satisfactory level, fulfilment of military obligation in case of a future draft, economic growth and development of rural communities, sufficiency of health and medical facilities, provision of proper medical care system, coercion, and so forth. And, hopefully, more useful reference data on the motivations may be available when a survey be conducted to the physicians who are presently engaging in the rural community levels. 4. In communities where the availability of a physician is difficult, a trial to use physician extenders, under certain conditions, may be considered. The reason is that it would be beneficial for the health of the residents to give them the remedies of primary medical care through the extenders rather than to leave their medical problems out of management. The followings are the conditions to be considered when the physician extenders are used: their positions will be prescribed as a temporary one instead of permanent one so as to allow easy replacement of the position with a physician applicant; the extender will be under periodic direction and supervision of a physician, and also referral channel will be provided: legal constraints will be placed upon the extenders primary care practice, and the physician extenders will used only under the public medical care system. 5. For the balanced health care delivery, a greater investment to the rural areas is needed to compensate weak points of a rurality. The characteristics of a rurality has been already mentioned. The objective of balanced service for rural communities to level up that of urban areas will be hard to achieve without greater efforts and supports. For example, rural communities need mobile powers more than urban areas, communication network is extremely necessary at health delivery facilities in rural areas as well as the need of urban areas, health and medical facilities in rural areas should be provided more substantially than those of urban areas to minimize, in a sense, the amount of patient consultation and request of laboratory specimens through referral system of which procedures are more troublesome in rural areas, and more intensive control measures against communicable diseases are needed in rural areas where greater numbers of cases are occurred under the poor sanitary conditions.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.327-339
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• 2018

This study aimed to provide basic data for establishing the clinical basis for dental hygienist-led dental hygiene process of care by identifying multiple risk factors for self-support program participants in Gangneung city; we also compared oral health status and behavioral changes through customized oral health care. Four dental hygienists who were evaluated for degree of conformity provided dental hygiene process of care to eight self-support program participants who were selected as having an oral health risk among people in the self-support center. The clinical indicators measured during dental hygiene assessment and evaluation and behavioral changes due to dental hygiene intervention were compared and analyzed. With respect to clinical indicators, at the time of probe, the retention rate of patients with gingival bleeding decreased from 61.4% to 14.7% after intervention (p=0.004). Furthermore, the retention rate of patients with a periodontal pocket >4 mm decreased from 15.6% to 5.8% (p=0.001). The average modified O'Leary index of the patients improved from 23 to 40 (p=0.002). Previously, all eight subjects used the vertical or horizontal method of brushing; after dental hygiene care interventions regarding method and frequency of toothbrushing, use of oral care products, and individual interventions, they started using the rolling or Bass method of toothbrushing. Four of eight subjects reported using interdental toothbrushes after intervention. As a result of applying the change model to the transtheoretical behavior change of the subject, the result of strengthening the health behavior was confirmed. For promotion of oral health by the prevention-centered incremental oral health care system, dental hygienist-led dental hygiene management and maintenance is essential. It is thought that continuous research, such as for feasibility evaluation, cost benefit analysis, and preparation of legal systems, is needed to establish and activate dental hygiene management.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2000

Nutrition education should be an important component of ongoing health promotion for older adults and their caregivers. This is because prevention through sound nutrition and food hygiene practices and regular excercise is the most cost-effective way to reduce risks for and deal with their major health problems. nutritions education services should effectively promote optimum intake and successful self-care. Unfortunately, however relative to other vulnerable groups, nutrition education for older adults has not been systematically developed or evaluated. Usually oder adults care a lot about their health, so this should be a relatively easy group to teach - but their increasing numbers, longevity and great diversity with respect to health, physical, and economic status and educational level present challenges. Some older adults may not perceive they would benefit from nutrition education, so interesting and motivating them is a challenge. The food and nutrition knowledge of older people has been acquired through a lifetime of experience. For most older adults in the Asian region, their sources are restricted by their restricted education, so that their major sources of information have been informal sources, such as television, radio, friends, family, and perhaps newspapers and magazines if they are literature. Nonetheless, dietary advice for older people should build on their existing knowledge and ingrained values. It should provide information useful in daily food selection, and focus on food, not nutrients - the same foods and groups considered appropriate for younger people, with consistent messages as given throughout the population. Attention must also be paid to discovering learning styles in older people. When we teach in schools, the young students are a captive audience resigned to their learning role. Learning by an older adult, however, reflects an effort to meet his or her perceived needs. Therefore, nutrition education should be a positive experience in a non-threatening environment, relaxed and non-competitive, and perhaps even social environment. The messages also need to be practical and achievable. A needs assessment is essential, because our ability to provide the most effective nutrition education will depend on our success in matching the needs, both perceived and unperceived. of this vulnerable group. Therefore, go to the potential older learners to assess their interest and preferences. Nutrition education activities for older adults are widespread, but few have been evaluated. Evaluation is therefore also recommended, particularly when new methods are used. Tips from other countries for giving successful nutrition education will be given, including some examples of applications as attempted in Hong Kong. Research needs will also be described. In conclusion, successful nutrition education for older adults depends on positive needs-based messages. This is may be hard to do, as few good examples are available to illustrate these principles.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.9015-9019
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• 2014

The study aimed to compare the 2 main types of insurance used by colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in a university hospital in Thailand: universal coverage (UC) and 'Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme' (CSMBS) in terms of hospital expenditure and survival outcomes. CRC cases in stages I-IV who were operated on and had completed their adjuvant therapy in Songklanagarind Hospital from 2004 through 2013 were retrospectively reviewed regarding their hospital expenditure, focusing on surgical and chemotherapy costs. Of 1,013 cases analyzed, 524 (51.7%) were in the UC group while 489 (48.3%) belonged to the CSMBS group. Cases with stage IV disease were significantly more frequent in the UC group. Average total treatment expenditure (TTE) was 143,780 Thai Baht (THB) (1 US$ =~ 30 THB). The TTE increased with tumor stage and the chemotherapy cost contributed the most to the TTE increment. TTE in the CSMBS group was significantly higher than in the UC group for stage II-III CRCs. The majority of cases in the UC group (65.5%) used deGramont or Mayo as their first line regimen, and the proportion of cases who started with a capecitabine-based regimen (XELOX or $Xeloda^{(R)}$) was significantly higher in the CSMBS group (61.0% compared to 24.5% in the UC group, p-value < 0.01). On survival analysis, overall survival (OS) and progress free survival in the CSMBS group were significantly better than in the UC group. The 5-year OS in the CSMBS and UC groups were 84.3% and 74.6%, respectively (p-value < 0.01). In conclusion, the study indicates that in Thailand, the type of insurance influences resource utilization, especially the choice of chemotherapy, in CRC cases. This disparity in treatment, in turn, results in a gap in treatment outcomes.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.240-260
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• 2006

Purpose : The objective of this study is to serve guidelines for the investigation and management of uterine myomas with KM therapies. Methods : English-language articles from PubMed and Korean-language articles from the database of the journal of oriental gynecology were reviewed from 2000 to 2005, using the key words 'uterine myoma', 'uterine leiomyoma', 'fibroid', 'uterine artery embolization', 'endometrial ablation', 'myomectomy', and jagungguenjong(子宮筋腫)'. Results and Limits : The areas of clinical practices considered in formulating this guideline are assessment, KM therapies, medical treatments, myolysis, selective artery occlusion, endometrial ablation and surgical therapies including myomectomy and hysterectomy. Implementation of this guideline would optimize the decision-making process of women with uterine myomas and further investigation or therapy of their KM doctors. But we don't have abundant evidences of clinical trials of uterine myoma treated with KM therapy, though we treat or manage that with every-day clinical practices. Moreover cultural gaps between Korea and other western countries make many differences in the attitude to surgical therapies, especially hysterectomy. So it is very difficult to compare W therapies with other therapies. Moreover it is much difficult to estimate cost-effectiveness and benefit of those therapies in QOL. Conclusions : The majority of uterine myoma is asymptomatic and will not require any intervention or further investigation. But unmarried women who wish to marry and get pregnant want to find safe therapy for their asymptomatic uterine myomas. In that case, most of the patients prefer non-surgical therapy to surgical therapy. So KM herbal medicinal therapy is a good alternative method for those patients. For the symptomatic myomas, hysterectomy offers a definitive solution. However, it is not the best solution for women who wish to preserve their uterus. So KM therapy is a good alternative for them. But the predicted benefits of alternative therapies including KM therapy must be carefully weighed against the Possible risks of these therapies. To improve the quality of life of both women with asymptomatic and symptomatic myomas, selecting and treating patients should be done carefully. Moreover, the effect of KM therapy has to evaluated, comparing the possible situation without treatment and the benefit of constant treatment as a health-care system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.131-143
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• 2001

The primary aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the improvement of methods in physical examination by providing quality information for the current school system and advice for improving status. Present status, controversial points and possible remedies in physical examination were analyzed on a frequency and percentage basis. An $x^2$-test was used to verify the statistics between the results from the examination and each variable. In case of multiple categories of variables, an $x^2$ cs was adopted. Chronological data as well as both total and sampling physical examination data verified the statistics using an $x^2$-test. This thesis is based both on the data from middle school health care specialists in Gyunggi Province and on the analysis of physical examinations reported from local schools to the municipal education agency from 1997 to 1999. The results of the study are as follows: First, according to the survey, only 29.0% of the total schools had their school doctors examine all the students while most of the educational institutions failed to implement the whole process of physical examination on the list. It also turned out that the more students the schools have, the lower the rate of implementation of physical examination by school doctors(p=0.014). Second, the average time a school doctor spends for checkup turned out to be approximately 1.7 minutes per student This means that the quality of the physical examination is not guaranteed in the process. Third, 47.7% of those surveryed say that a dental examination was performed, each taking 21.24 seconds on average. In addition, it shows that some 31.5% wanted to have a task force team for dental checkups at the local health center. Given the fact that dental caries among students is progressively on the rise, the dental health centers that are now set up in some elementary schools should be expanded to cover the whole educational institution in order to raise awareness of the importance of dental care. Fourth, 48.5% of those surveyed say that a comprehensive physical examination should be adopted to promote the health of high schoolers. Since it takes a lot of public funds to implement a comprehensive method, it is essential to make sure that in-depth studies should be based on the frequency and methods of physical examination. Fifth, regarding such diseases among 3rd year middle school students in 1999, statistics shows that there was a slight difference in the prevalence rate of color blindness, and allergic diseases for male students ; and color blindness, hearing disturbance and allergic disease for female students. For those items, however, it is too little to say that there is a significant difference and accordingly it is assumed to be a problem of the measuring process. Sixth, the result of analysis on the sample physical examination and the total physical examination of the year 1999 shows as follows: For male students in the 3rd year of middle school, a slight difference appeared to those students in 11 items including eye problems and eye disease, otitis media, tonsillar hypertrophy, spinal shape, respiratory urinary allergic disease and other abnormal diseases(p<0.05). Particularly, the prevalence rate between students with and without disease was shown to be two times more in the following: eye problems, otitis media, tonsill hypertrophy, allergic diseases, etc. For female students in the 3rd year, prevalence rate showed little difference in 14 items(p<0.05). For items including eye problem, otitis media, tonsill hypertrophy, allergic disease, etc. it was shown that the rate was two times more between students with and without diseases. Physical examinations under the current school system are not producing any fundamental results for the health of the students. Methods and results are not trustworthy. Accordingly, a drastic overhaul of the current practices is needed in frequency, methods and items on the list in order to promote the health of the students. Cost-benefit studies as well as political considerations to ensure the development of efficient methods for physical examination are urgently needed at this moment.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-155
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• 2008

The rate of antibiotics prescription for an acute airway infection significantly varies depending upon the diagnosis type, specialty, and the location of the hospital along with many other related factors. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the possible relationship between the antibiotics prescription rates for an acute airway infection and the degree of competition in the hospital market regions of mainly the providers of primary medical care services such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics and otorhinolaryngology department. Using the data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) regarding the hospitals' antibiotics prescription rates for the acute airway infection and controlling for selected variables of demand and supply sectors, this study tries to figure out that the degree of competition in the hospital market, regardless of what type of competition indexes we employed, has a statistically significant effect on the variations of antibiotics prescription rate of the clinics in local areas. This result implies that as an economic consideration itself, the change in the degree of competition in the hospital market can play a crucial role influencing the treatment behaviors of the medical doctors. More specifically, this study reveals that as the degree of competition increases the antibiotics prescription rate goes up. This result means that if the market becomes more competitive in a specific region so that it might cause a reduction in doctor's income, doctors with rational decision-making process, recognize that the benefit created from inducing patients' seemingly unnecessary demand for medical care (income effect) would be higher than the costs associated with sustaining their targeted income (substitution effect). It is because that the doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics which create relatively higher margins than other medical care services in order to sustain their targeted income when the hospital market competition becomes tighter. Even though this study empirically confirms that antibiotics prescription can be affected by the economic incentives, it still raises following issues as limitations of the study: first issue is about the representativeness of the hospital regions segregated for this study, which might be weak in explaining whether these regions are mutually exclusive in reality. Patients actually consider the quality of services, transportation cost, time costs, and any other related factors choosing the doctors or hospitals, and in that sense, this study rules out 'border-crossing' in using the medical care services. Second issue arises in capturing the data of antibiotics prescription rate. Since we use the average rate for each medical institution, we cannot figure out the average rate for each patient so that we are not able to control for the variation of patients' medical conditions. It is because of the unavailability of data regarding each patient's medical condition from HIRA. Thirdly, since this study mainly analyzes the medical institutions providing primary care such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics, and otorhinolaryngology department, it is skeptical of whether those institutions can represent the hospital market in respective regions and truly reflect the degree of competition. It needs to extend the study areas and disease types as well as any micro data for future studies.

• Journal of The Korean Ophthalmological Society
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• v.59 no.11
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• pp.1039-1048
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• 2018

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment on the healthcare-related finances of patients with age-related macular degeneration. Methods: Changes in health care financing due to newly introduced benefit standards were predicted over the coming 5-year period (2018-2022). We also analyzed the financial impact of scenarios in which agents similar to anti-VEGF, such as the over-licensed drug bevacizumab, were introduced. For this purpose, the future number of patients receiving anti-VEGF treatments was estimated for various scenarios based on National Health Insurance Corporation claims data followed by an estimate of the financial burden. Results: In the case of age-related macular degeneration, the current standard of care (14 times in a lifetime) was maintained in scenario 1. In 2018, the insurance budget for the coming 5-year period was estimated at approximately 440.3 billion won. The insurance cost for that period was estimated at approximately 560.1 billion won under the revised standard of December 2017 (scenario 2). For scenarios wherein, after 2020, similar treatments (scenario 3) and bevacizumab (scenario 4) were introduced, the estimated health insurance costs were 521 billion won and 419.7 billion won, respectively. Conclusions: Health insurance costs are projected to increase substantially due to the elimination of the 14 time pay standard; however, the actual budget will only moderately increase, due to new limitations of visual acuity ${\leq}0.1$ or in case of scarring/atrophic lesions. Clinically similar agents and bevacizumab could be considered as alternatives to anti-VEGF treatment for age-related macular degeneration.