• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.265-291
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• 2011

Changes in a drug's availability from prescription only to over-the-counter (OTC) status is of concern to physicians from both public health and individual patient perspectives. Government has generally been supportive of changes in medications from prescription(Rx) to over-the-counter (OTC) status in Korea, however, recognizing that there are both benefits and risks to any health care intervention, health care professionals are conservative in implementing changes to either the process or structure of health care. Changes in status of a drug from Rx to OTC can represent a change in both structure and process. Cost and convenience seem to be major factors in determining whether, given the choice, patients purchase a medicine over the counter or obtain it on prescription. With current arrangements, exemption from prescription charges provides an incentive to continue to obtain products on NHS prescription even when they are available over the counter. There is therefore no simple relation between the availability of over the counter medicines and the level of prescribing of deregulated products. The appropriate use of over the counter medicines-particularly those that have only recently been deregulated-places a burden of care on community pharmacists and calls for closer working relationships with general practitioners. In particular, systems for referral and for recording details of both prescribed and over the counter medicines need to be developed, and a direct route needs to be established for community pharmacists to report adverse drug reactions to over the counter products. Reclassification of prescription medicines-by making them available through pharmacies without a prescription-provides the opportunity for consumers to purchase a wider range of medicinal products without making a demand on NHS resources. There is, however, no simple relation between availability of over the counter medicines and demand for NHS prescriptions. In the late 1980s the UK government fuelled the over the counter market by making it easier to reclassify certain medicines from prescription only status to allow over the counter sale in pharmacies. To explore the influence of deregulation of medicines on NHS prescribing, this article presents analyses of consumer behaviour in using medicines and prescribers' attitudes to over the counter medication and collates findings from research. Policy makers should be aware that patients' expectations in relation to OTC medicines may be in conflict with evidence-based practice.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2017

This study examined the predictors of life satisfaction of marriage migrant wives with school-aged children in South Korea. For this purpose, we draw data from the 2015 National Survey on Multi-cultural Families (NSMF). The target group was marriage migrant wives who were in a first marriage and had school-aged children (N=3,004). We used OLS regression to examine the predictors of the target group's life satisfaction with the SPSS 18.0 program. The results are as follows. First, marriage migrant wives with school-aged children had maintained their marriage for at least 14 years. They were satisfied with their relationships with both their spouses and their children. Also, they were satisfied with their spouse's child care roles. They did not support the multi-cultural policy of assimilation. Their Korean proficiency was slightly higher than the middle level. More than half had jobs and had not attended a parent meeting. Second, although they were satisfied with their everyday lives, their levels of life satisfaction were less than that of migrant wives with children below 5 years of age. Third, all variables explained 38.8% of the life satisfaction experienced by marriage migrant wives with school-aged children. Satisfaction with their spouses, subjective health, satisfaction of spouse's child care role, monthly family income, satisfaction with their children, experience attending a parents meeting, and Korean proficiency were positively associated with the life satisfaction of this target group. The findings of this study are significant because they can provide certain implications for family life education and policy within a multi-cultural society.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.146-159
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• 2019

Background: The purpose of this study is to measure the Korean health literacy level and to analyse its gaps according to the factors of socioeconomic and health status and health behaviors. Based on this, policy implications were reviewed to improve the understandability on health information and to reduce the gap among socioeconomic groups. Methods: HLS-EU-Q47, a tool developed by the European Health Literacy Project, was used to conduct a face-to-face interview survey on the health literacy for the samples from general population. Results: The public general health literacy (HL) index was 34.5 out of 50. HL is consisted of three sub-dimensions: healthcare (HC-HL), disease prevention (DP-HL), and health promotion (HP-HL). And a HL analysis found scores of 34.7 points for HC-HL, 35.4 points for DP-HL, and 33.3 points for HP-HL. The level of all HL was different according to socioeconomic characteristics and health behavior. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, more research activities on health-related literacy need to be conducted, and monitoring system on the HL level needs to be developed and implemented. In addition, a program to improve HL levels needs to be developed in order to strengthen the basis for a more sustainable healthcare system as an agenda with national health policy priority.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.772-783
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was performed to measure the nursing service perceived value by consumer and providers, and to investigate the relationship among nursing service, general satisfaction and hospital revisiting intent, and to examinate the tools that measures nursing service's reliability, construct validity and usefulness. Method: The questionnaire was developed and distributed to 300 patients and 210 nurses at three general hospitals. For data analysis, SPSS/PC program was used. Result: The nursing service perceived value by providers is higher than that by consumers. There are distinctive difference in the expectation, and importance and performance values of the nursing service perceived. In examination of the relationship among nursing service, general satisfaction and hospital revisiting intent, nursing service has a deep relationship with general satisfaction, but doesn't have relationship with hospital revisiting intent. The tool that measures nursing service has a good reliability and construct validity. In analysis on the usefulness between the tools, SERVPERF tool is more useful than SERVQUAL tool. conclusion: The nursing service perceived value by consumer is different that by providers, and the tool that measures nursing service has a good reliability and construct validity. The SERVPERF tool is more useful than SERVQUAL tool.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.644-649
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Targeting consumers who consume lunches at their worksite cafeterias would be a valuable approach to reduce sodium intake in South Korea. To assess the relationships between socio-demographic factors, consumer satisfaction, attitudes, barriers and the frequency of sodium-reduced meal intake. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We implemented a cross-sectional research, analyzing data from 738 consumers aged 18 years or older (327 males and 411 females) at 17 worksite cafeterias in South Korea. We used the ordinary least squares regression analysis to determine the factors related to overall satisfaction with sodium-reduced meal. General linear models with LSD tests were employed to examine the variables that differed by the frequency of sodium-reduced meal intake. RESULTS: Most subjects always or usually consumed the sodium-reduced meal (49%), followed by sometimes (34%) and rarely or never (18%). Diverse menus, taste and belief in the helpfulness of the sodium-reduced meal significantly increased overall satisfaction with the sodium-reduced diet (P < 0.05). We found importance of needs in the following order: 1) 'menu diversity' (4.01 points), 2) 'active promotion' (3.97 points), 3) 'display of nutrition labels in a visible location' (3.96 points), 4) 'improvement of taste' (3.88 points), and 5) 'education of sodium-reduction self-care behaviors' (3.82 points). CONCLUSION: Dietitians could lead consumers to choose sodium-reduced meals by improving their taste and providing diverse menus for the sodium-reduced meals at worksite cafeterias.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.362-372
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the perception gaps of nursing services quality between consumers and providers, and identify the perceived influences of nursing services quality on general satisfaction of medical services and revisiting intent of hospital by consumers. Method: The Joo's questionnaire founded on SERVQUAL was modified and distributed to 300 patients and nurses at 6 general hospitals in 5 provincial cities, Korea. Result: It is identified that the perception gaps between consumer and providers exist, and consumers perceive nursing services quality has a influences on general satisfaction of medical services and revisiting intent of hospital. And it is also identified that consumers also perceive general satisfaction of medical services has a powerful influences on revisiting intent of hospital. Conclusion: It is concluded that the marketing strategies being based on the perception gaps between consumers and providers should be specifically planned and applied to improve the perceived nursing services quality by consumers. And it is needed to accurately identify the impact attributes and factors of nursing services quality on general satisfaction of medical services and revisiting intent of hospital that consumers perceive.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 2011

World consumers are now focusing on their health, well-being and appearance more than ever before. This trend is creating heightened demand for products formulated as cosmeceuticals with active ingredients. A significant number of innovative formulations are now being used in cosmetics with real consumer-perceivable benefits and optimized sensory attributes, resulting in an economic uplift of cosmetic industry. To obtain skin care formulations with real consumer-perceivable benefits through dermal delivery of active ingredients, formulators are resorting to technology that until recently was used in pharmaceutical products. These various delivery systems are now being used in cosmecuetical formulations. Novel delivery systems reviewed here possess enormous potential as next-generation smarter carrier systems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 2013

The subjects of this study were the patients of H Dental Hospital in Busan, who visited for the purpose of treatment in patients over 18 years of age and 151 patients, analyzed the data of the results of the selection criteria of the dental health care consumer. The gender of the subjects by cross-analysis, importance order of selection criteria for dental hospital were cleanness and hygiene(78.1%), equipment and facilities(60.9%), career and word-of-mouth(57.6%), staff kindness(57.6%), ease of use(32.5%) and scale of dental hospital(22.5%), it was appeared similar in comparison of cross-analysis and average-analysis. Major consideration of the study subjects to select criteria for dental hospital was pain control(31.8%), infection control(30.5%), cost(29.8%), time(7.9%) respectively. Gender as a primary consideration to the part of a man in pain control(39.2%), women cost(39.1%) was most common (p<0.001). In dental health care consumer to select criteria, clean hygiene and infection control at the heavily appeared to affect the direction of change in the consciousness of consumers seeking and it is necessary to improve hospital services for the dental care of their qualitative changes.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.5-24
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to serve as a basis for providing quality medical service and mapping out consumer-centered marketing strategies to successfully cope with the rapidly changing medical environment and meet consumer needs, by examining what affected the satisfaction and revisit of health Promotion center Client. The subjects in this study were 186 of visitor to health Promotion center in a university hospital in the city of Busan. A survey was conducted with structured questionnaire from March 2 to 30, 2001. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS for Windows (ver10.0). For more statistical analysis, frequency analysis, component analysis, t-test, ANOVA and correlation analysis procedures were utilized. Results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Regarding demographic characteristics, 51.6% of the Client investigated were male, and 48.4% were female. The greatest number of them were in their 40s(38.9%). 86.5% were married, and 34.2% were self-employed. 44% were a high-school graduate, and the monthly mean income of 59.4% was one to three million Won. And, the residential area of 46.8%, the largest percentage, was a half-an-hour distance from health Promotion center. 2. The most common motivation of their selection of the health Promotion center was a recommendation by Staff and neighborhood(59.7%), followed by excellent facilities and services(17.2%), the tradition and reputation of the hospital(7.5%), and its publicity pamphlets(7.5%). 3. 45.9%, the largest percentage, acquired health-related information from their friends or acquaintances. 43.8%, the greatest percentage, visited there because they felt there's something wrong with their body. 53.4% worried about the possibility of being attacked by cancer, and 57.5% wanted to take a precise cancer examination. For health maintenance, 50.1% got regular exercise. Regular exercise was considered most crucial for health maintenance or promotion. 4. The largest reason they used that examination center again was the kindness of employees(52.7%), followed by the tradition and reputation of the hospital(21%) and excellent examination setting and equipment(10.8%). 5. By demographic factor, there was no significant difference between the man and women in satisfaction level with examination and expenses. The women expressed more satisfaction at facilities, and the high-school graduate group were more contented with expenses. 6. As a result of investigating their satisfaction level according to the motivation of selecting that examination center, the group that chose the center due to excellent facilities and services were more satisfied with examination and expenses. 7. As for the relationship of total examination satisfaction to revisit. intention, there was a higher correlational relationship between total health examination satisfaction and expense satisfaction. Especially, the more they were satisfied with examination, the more they were willing to revisit there for another examination.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.60-70
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• 2018

Recently with the entrance to the aging society, the demand on health care services is being increased. However, there are still few GUI types of research considering the characteristics of new-silver generation progressively preparing for their golden(old) age. As the new-silver generation showed less reluctance to the information acquired through the Internet comparing to general seniors, but it is urgent to conduct researches about GUI of mobile healthcare services considering their physical, psychological and social characteristics. Hence, the purpose of this study was to propose some guidelines of GUI evaluation so that new-silver generation being emerged as main consumer group in future medical consumption could efficiently use mobile health care services. As the research methods, first, this study analyzed the characteristics of new-silver generation through reviewing literature and previous studies and understood the status quo of mobile health care services, and second, it analyzed the visual composition factors being preferred in each field of current mobile healthcare application and drew out a usability evaluation matrix of mobile GUI design appropriate for elderly people's characteristics. Third, with the drawn evaluation matrix, this study conducted the usability evaluation of 8 subjects in new-silver generation ranging from 57 years old to 65 years old through a heuristic way. This study expects that it would be contributed in increasing the GUI usability by proposing some guidelines for GUI being appropriated for new-silver generation user's characteristics, and thinks that researches about developing health-care mobile applications will be continued in future at the same time.