• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 1991

Since it was found out that the degree of medical contribution to health was timid. the direction of health policy studies has been focused on the personal health behavior. Participation in health has been closely related to the behavior. Those who have insisted on the new direction believe that the health policy laying stress on low cost and personal responsibility can avoid the pathology of medical policy and medical crisis. Participation in health has been very important method of changing health behaviors. It is certainly important to change bad health behaviors. But there is no deliberation of social structure here. Most health behaviors are the adaptation to social structure. The attempt to change the established adaptation behaviors without considering social structure is difficult to succeed. It is little meaningful to say the importance of the health behavior to those who have no choice but to be ill due to the poor environment and health risks. What can guarantee the real direction of community participation at least is the consciousness and behaviors of people's right.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 2014

Objectives: The main purpose of this review is to introduce the current status of environmental health indicators of Korea and to share our experience of the developmental process of Korean version of environmental health indicators. Methods: This paper describes 1) the background of environmental health indicators; 2) the ways how we developed environmental health indicators of Korea; 3) the current status of selected indicators; and 4) suggestions for the further policy development. Results: The 6-year long project for the development of environmental health indicator systems in Korea could provide outputs on three major distinct aspects on the indicator issues. Firstly, we have developed the rational process/manual so that the government can select and advocate the potential indicators with a relatively objective manner. Secondly, we have suggested the potential candidate indicators which can be implemented immediately. We also pooled all indicators in order to evaluate the summary index which we expect to tell the status of environmental health. Third, we provided suggestions on the further utilization of this indicator system. Conclusion: The mission of environmental health policy is to resolve the public health problems occurring because of hazardous environment. In order to identify the environmental determinants of the community health problems and to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy implemented, these environmental indicators can be used. Therefore, the government should implement this ready-prepared system of environmental health indicators.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.447-453
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• 2007

Although the New National Health Promotion Plan 2010 target to reduce health inequalities, whether the program will be effective for reducing the health inequalities in Korea remains quite unclear. More and more developed countries have been started to concentrate on comprehensive policies for reducing health inequalities. The health policies of the UK, Netherlands, and Sweden are the most wellknown. I propose that a comprehensive blueprint for tackling health inequalities in Korea should be made and that it must contain five domains: a target, structure and process, life-course approach, area-based approach, and reorganization of health care resources. The target should be based on determinants of health and more attention should be paid to socioeconmic factors. The structure and process require changes from the national health care policy based on medical services to the national health policy that involves the establishment of a Social Deputy?Prime Minister and the strengthening multidisciplinary action. A life-course approach especially focused on the early childhood years. Area-based approach such as the establishment of healthy communities, healthy schools, or healthy work-places which are focused on deprived areas or places is also required. Finally, health care resources should be a greater investment on public resources and strengthening primary care to reduce health inequalities. The policy or intervention studies for tackling health inequalities should be implemented much more in Korea. In addition, it is essential to have political will to encoruage policy action.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.312-327
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• 2021

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) to manage healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) has emerged as one of the most significant public health issues in Korea. The purpose of this study is to draw implications in IPC policies by analyzing the context, process, and major actors in policy development and comparatively analyzing IPC policy contents of Korea with three other countries. Additionally, IPC policies were analyzed in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to provide implications for future pandemics and HCAI events. Methods: This study incorporates a qualitative approach based on document and content analysis, applying codes and thematic categorization. IPC policy contents are comparatively analyzed by adopting the concept model, developed by the World Health Organization, which consists of core components of IPC structure at the national and facility level. Results: National IPC policies were developed within a complex social and political context, through the involvement of various stakeholders. IPC policies in Korea place a high emphasis on establishing IPC programs and built environments in healthcare facilities, whereas there were potentials for improvement in policies involving patients and promoting a safety culture. IPC policies, which currently focus on general hospitals and certain functions of hospitals, should further be expanded to target all healthcare facilities and functions, to ensure more efficient and sustainable IPC responses in the current and future disease outbreaks. Conclusion: IPC is a complex policy arena and lessons learned from the analysis of existing policies in the context of COVID-19 should provide valuable strategic implications for future policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.128-138
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• 2017

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of differential coinsurance policy on prescription drug coverage of outpatients by types of medical institutions. Methods: In this study, we used a sample cohort database of the National Health Insurance Service and frequency analysis and marginal logistic regression model using generalized estimating equation were used for statistical analysis. Results: The summary on the major research is followed. First, about 16% of patients who used only tertiary or general hospital due to 52 ambulatory care sensitive conditions before policy implementation moved to hospitals and clinics. However, about 57% of them still use tertiary or general hospital. Second, the factors influencing the utilization of hospitals and clinics after the implementation of the policy were gender, age, and income level. As a result, the policy is effective to reduce the medical use of outpatient mental patients in tertiary or general hospital, but the effect is not significant. Conclusion: Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of the policy for establishing the health care delivery system, it is necessary to adjust the co-payment so as to feel the burden on the co-payment when the outpatient for 52 ambulatory care sensitive conditions is used at the tertiary or general hospital.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.151-164
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• 2001

This study is to investigate the level of understanding of the separation of dispensing and prescribing health policy in Korea and its associated factors. A questionnaire survey was conducted upon a sample of college students responded from 540, response rate 77.1%, 4 months after the introduction of the policy. The understanding level was measured using 4 question items describing the goal and motivation of the policy, and 8 items describing its operational rules. For each item, respondents were asked to mark whether the description was true or false. While the goal and motivation of the policy was relatively well informed (mean understanding score: 69.6 out of 100), the students did not have good understanding of the operational details of the policy (mean score: 32.5). The results of regression analyses showed that personal interest and agreement with the need of the policy were the most significant factors affecting the understanding level. It is suggested that, for other health policies in the future, policy makers in Korea need to develop more effective media communication strategies to inform general public of the practical details of the policy.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.140-149
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• 2020

Purpose: This study analyzed the effects of a health policy capacity development education program as a publicprivate partnership (PPP) model in official development assistance (ODA) for health policy administrators. Methods: Between October 2015 and September 2017, 41 participants from underdeveloped countries completed the three-week education program at K university, following the official selection process of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and each country's embassy. Results: The effects of the health policy capacity development education program differed significantly according to participants' age (p=.043), country region (p=.045), and academic or professional degree (p=.007). Academic or professional degree significantly predicted the effects of the program (β=.41, p=.007), explaining 21.7% of the variance in the regression model. Conclusion: The current selection process for ODA program participants considers recommendations from each country's embassy to determine eligible candidates. The hosting institution's opinions or suggestions regarding participants' professional expertise or work experience, country region, or demographic characteristics should also be considered in the participant selection process.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.193-205
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• 2007

Purpose: To evaluate the current status of utilization and implementation of health promotion programs for Korean middle-aged women in public health centers. Methods: Three-phase stratified sampling was done to select 1304 middle-aged women (aged 40-64 years) from all regions of Korea. The data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire for individual responses and mailed surveys to 126 public health centers. Descriptive statistics and $x^2$-test were done for data analysis. Results: Only 12 of the 126 public health centers (9.9%) implemented health promotion programs for middle-aged women, with the lack of manpower being cited as the main reason for the absence of programs. From individual responses, 11.3% had participated in health promotion programs offered by public health centers. The main reasons for not participating were inconvenient times and lack of information. Significant differences were found in the frequency of participation in programs, exercise programs and diabetes management according to the size of region. The majority of the respondents cited the need for medical services, followed by programs focused on stroke prevention and leisure time management. The responses on the willingness to participate followed a similar pattern. Conclusion: There are gaps between the utilization of health promotion programs by middle-aged women and what is offered by public health centers. The results of this study support the need to develop more health promotion programs focusing specifically on the needs of middle-aged women.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.55-76
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• 1999

In order to understand the local council members' attitudes to the health policy, we conducted mail surveys using self-administered questionaire for 2 months(February and March. 1995). The study subjects were 2.312 local council members in Korea, but only about 11% among whom. 257 persons, responded to 2 times mail survey. This response rate revealed that the local council members was not interested in health care fields. The main results were as follows; The respondents thought that the economic and income development was most important among 15 regional policy agendas and the health care was the 5th or 7th important agenda. They. who had more health needs of and poor access to health care, tended to think that the health care was more important. They considered lobbying to and persuading the civil servants as the best method to tackle the local health care policy agenda. The respondents, who had poor access to health care facilities. tended to set the highest priority for the expansion of public and private health care resources. They expected that the election of local governor would activate the public health program more than thought that the program was implemented more actively than other region. The main opinion of respondents was that the central government had to take over planning and financing for the public health program, and the basic local government had to implment the program and budgeting. The majority of respondents agreed the private dominant medical care delivery system and nation-wide uniformed financing mechanism. Over 60% of them suggested that they were ready to suffer environmental pollution inducing health hazards for the purpose of regional economic and income development. About 75% of them favour the campaign for antismoking regardless of reducing local government's revenue from sale tax.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 1994

The article reviewed the elderly health care management problems in policy development issue of the nation. Policy of Korean government on elderly health care has still not yet developed. The main stream of policy which is effective on elderly welfare policy is 'Elderly care are responsible by their families'. Now only those aged whose family members are not able to take care of their parents are receive custodial care at the non-profit nursing homes. This article examined the main stream policy in pro and cons aspects in relation to social changes such as: demographic changes. family structure changes. attitude changes. health care delivery system. and political settlement view points in connection with medical insurance program. Finally. a model for the elderly health care management was proposed which will provide chronic care services at the community level. such as nursing homes. day care centers. day hospitals, respite care units, and special care institute for dementia.