• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.333-342
• /
• 2016

Background: The use of therapeutic materials based on new health technology has increased in recent years in the field of medicine, raising concerns for medical practitioners regarding increased spending on the new therapeutic materials amid the rapid population ageing and increase of chronic diseases in Korea. While therapeutic materials have significant importance in the health care system, they have not been given appropriate attention in the academic world of Korea. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that affect the growth of expenditure on therapeutic materials and to derive implications for an effective management considering the diversity of therapeutic materials. Methods: Using the claims data of the National Health Insurance Services, specific utilization patterns of groups of therapeutic materials in the middle classification level of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service from 2007 to 2014 were analyzed. Four categories (J5083: drug eluting coronary stent, D0302: nonmetallic anchor, K6014: gauze, K6023: gauze) that exhibit unique patterns with respect to price and volume were selected. Then, decomposition analysis was performed to identify the largest contributor to the spending growth by dividing the products into existing, new, and abandoned products for the period between 2010 and 2013. Results: The effect of new products had larger impact on spending growth than the effect of core items in drug eluting coronary stent (J5083) and nonmetallic anchor (D0302). In addition, existing products in general included items priced relatively lower when compared with another item manufactured by the same company. In the gauze category, however, existing products had the largest impact on expenditure and the effect of volume was greater than that in other categories. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that appropriate management measures classified by the characteristics of therapeutic materials are required for therapeutic materials pricing and reassessment in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.53-76
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of child care type on infant's developmental outcomes assessed by K-ASQ, focusing on the child-centric role of nurture policy. For this, this study categorized child care type into types including home nurturing, child care center, and subtypes of each category. The findings of multiple regression analysis using the first-third wave data of Panel Study of Korean Children(PSKC) are as follows. First, the child care center experience had rather positive effect on the development of all abilities in the infants comparing to home nurturing. Second, the time of attending child care center was differently related to the development of motor, communication, and personal-social skill in infanthood. Finally, the accreditation of child care showed a difference only in terms of social development of infants. In conclusion, even if the experience of using child care center has positive impact on infant's developmental level, it is still in need of improving service quality such as reinforcing accreditation system.

• Annals of Laboratory Medicine
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.495-502
• /
• 2018

Background: Molecular genetic abnormalities are observed in over 90% of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) cases. Recently, several studies have demonstrated the negative prognostic impact of ASXL1 mutations in CMML patients. We evaluated the prognostic impact of ASXL1 mutations and compared five CMML prognostic models in Korean patients with CMML. Methods: We analyzed data from 36 of 57 patients diagnosed as having CMML from January 2000 to March 2016. ASXL1 mutation analysis was performed by direct sequencing, and the clinical and laboratory features of patients were compared according to ASXL1 mutation status. Results: ASXL1 mutations were detected in 18 patients (50%). There were no significant differences between the clinical and laboratory characteristics of ASXL1-mutated ($ASXL1^+$) CMML and ASXL1-nonmutated ($ASXL1^-$) CMML patients (all P >0.05). During the median follow-up of 14 months (range, 0-111 months), the overall survival (OS) of $ASXL1^+$ CMML patients was significantly inferior to that of $ASXL1^-$ CMML patients with a median survival of 11 months and 19 months, respectively (log-rank P =0.049). An evaluation of OS according to the prognostic models demonstrated inferior survival in patients with a higher risk category according to the Mayo molecular model (log-rank P =0.001); the other scoring systems did not demonstrate a significant association with survival. Conclusions: We demonstrated that ASXL1 mutations, occurring in half of the Korean CMML patients examined, were associated with inferior survival. ASXL1 mutation status needs to be determined for risk stratification in CMML.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.303-310
• /
• 2019

Background Prosthetic hands with a myoelectric interface have recently received interest within the broader category of hand prostheses, but their high cost is a major barrier to use. Modern three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has enabled more widespread development and cost-effectiveness in the field of prostheses. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical impact of a low-cost 3D-printed myoelectric-interface prosthetic hand on patients' daily life. Methods A prospective review of all upper-arm transradial amputation amputees who used 3D-printed myoelectric interface prostheses (Mark V) between January 2016 and August 2017 was conducted. The functional outcomes of prosthesis usage over a 3-month follow-up period were measured using a validated method (Orthotics Prosthetics User Survey-Upper Extremity Functional Status [OPUS-UEFS]). In addition, the correlation between the length of the amputated radius and changes in OPUS-UEFS scores was analyzed. Results Ten patients were included in the study. After use of the 3D-printed myoelectric single electromyography channel prosthesis for 3 months, the average OPUS-UEFS score significantly increased from 45.50 to 60.10. The Spearman correlation coefficient (r) of the correlation between radius length and OPUS-UEFS at the 3rd month of prosthetic use was 0.815. Conclusions This low-cost 3D-printed myoelectric-interface prosthetic hand with a single reliable myoelectrical signal shows the potential to positively impact amputees' quality of life through daily usage. The emergence of a low-cost 3D-printed myoelectric prosthesis could lead to new market trends, with such a device gaining popularity via reduced production costs and increased market demand.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.33-40
• /
• 2019

It is important meaning that the middle ages are to reenter the labor market. The middle age's reemployment give an opportunity to provide mental health improvement and to get self-confidence in their life. If governments make full use of the middle age's capital, it bring about. having a good opportunity to reduce finance burden. In this respect, this study is to design for investigating the impact of the middle age's positive psychological capital to reemployment. Thus, this study has conducted the survey on a random sample of the middle age who has lived in Uijeongbu cities. The findings are the follows. (1) The middle age's educational level has positive relationship to reemployment will. To this, in order to revitalize the reemployment, we have to develop suitable occupational category and to operate educational program systematically. (2)The middle age's positive psychological capital has an effect on reemployment will positively. In this respect, in order to improve the middle age's reemployment we need to energize self-esteem, the effort of obtaining reemployment information, and social network.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.29-33
• /
• 2022

Background: There have been many reports of nasal bone fractures in adults, but there are few clinical reports of them in adolescents, although adolescence is the main growth period of the nasal bone. In addition, previous studies have tended to classify and describe child and adolescent nasal fractures in the same category. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical aspects of nasal fractures in adolescents, and to evaluate the characteristics of nasal fractures in the growth period. Methods: Our institution's database was reviewed to extract data on adolescent patients between the age of 13 to 18 who had isolated nasal bone fractures from March 2012 to February 2020. The study excluded patients with other facial fractures, previous facial fractures, or congenital deformities. Results: This study included 243 boys and 26 girls. Interpersonal violence and sports-related accidents accounted for 85 and 79 cases, respectively. There were 128 frontal impact injuries and 132 lateral impact injuries, and 97 patients had accompanying septal fractures. An accompanying septal fracture was present in 36.06% of all patients, but in 51.20% of those who underwent surgery. Conclusion: The prevalence of adolescent nasal fractures was significantly higher in boys, to a greater extent than observed for pediatric or adult fractures. The main causes of fractures were interpersonal violence and sports-related accidents. An explanation for these results is that adolescent boys are more prone to have violent accidents or companionship with active sports than other age or sex groups, leading to substantially more fractures.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.156-163
• /
• 2022

Loss of leg muscle and muscle weakness, which are caused by aging, affect muscle function and sense of balance. As a way of preventing seniors from falling, we developed the idea of wearing functional supporters based on graduated compression technique and in the form of a taping supporter. Their impact on power, sense of balance, overcoming fatigue, and subjective wearing sensation was investigated. The following results were obtained. After wearing functional compression supporters, body temperature increased from 24.5 ± 0.5℃ to 26.3 ± 0.6℃. Calf size, which assesses the level of edema, decreased from 26.1 ± 1.8cm to 25.7 ± 1.8cm. The result of dynamic balance test, which helps estimate the fall prevention effect, increased from 6.4 ± 0.9sec to 7.1 ± 0.6sec. Lactate level, which indicates the level of fatigue, decreased from 8.1 ± 0.6mmol/L to 7.3 ± 0.8mmol/L. Standing long jump record, which assesses power, increased from 110.1 ± 3.1cm to 112.0 ± 2.8cm. Standing on one leg with eyes closed, which assesses sense of balance, increased from 4.2 ± 1.1sec to 6.5 ± 0.8sec. Ankle angle, which assesses joint stability, increased from 75.3 ± 4.0° to 80.1 ± 1.7°. In metabolism and physical performance testing, which assesses keep, the score increased from 26.3 ± 1.7 to 28.8 ± 1.2. Muscle supporting score, which assesses joint stability, increased from 7.3 ± 0.6 to 7.8 ± 0.4. In the category of body type, which assesses wearing sensation and body shaping function, the score increased from 5.7 ± 1.4 to 6.4 ± 1.2

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2020.06a
• /
• pp.168-168
• /
• 2020

This study is to evaluate the drought-related bigdata characteristics published from South Korean by developing crawler. The 5 years (2013 ~ 2017) drought-related posted articles were collected from Korean internet search engine 'NAVER' which contains 13 main and 81 local daily newspapers. During the 5 years period, total 40,219 news articles including 'drought' word were found using crawler. To filter the homonyms liken drought to soccer goal drought in sports, money drought economics, and policy drought in politics often used in South Korea, the quality control was processed and 47.8 % articles were filtered. After, the 20,999 (52.2 %) drought news articles of this study were classified into four categories of water deficit (WD), water security and support (WSS), economic damage and impact (EDI), and environmental and sanitation impact (ESI) with 27, 15, 13, and 18 drought-related keywords in each category. The WD, WSS, EDI, and ESI occupied 41.4 %, 34.5 %, 14.8 %, and 9.3 % respectively. The drought articles were mostly posted in June 2015 and June 2017 with 22.7 % (15,097) and 15.9 % (10,619) respectively. The drought news articles were spatiotemporally compared with SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) and RDI (Reservoir Drought Index) were calculated. They were classified into administration boundaries of 8 main cities and 9 provinces in South Korea because the drought response works based on local government unit. The space-time clustering between news articles (WD, WSS, EDI, and ESI) and indices (SPI and RDI) were tried how much they have correlation each other. The spatiotemporal clusters detection was applied using SaTScan software (Kulldorff, 2015). The retrospective and prospective cluster analyses were conducted for past and present time to understand how much they are intensive in clusters. The news articles of WD, WSS and EDI had strong clusters in provinces, and ESI in cities.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.835-845
• /
• 2022

Objective: To analyze the characteristics and trends of scientific publications on thyroid ultrasound (US) from 2001 to 2020, specifically examining the differences among disciplines. Materials and Methods: The MEDLINE database was searched for scientific articles on thyroid US published between 2001 and 2020 using the PubMed online service. The evaluated parameters included year of publication, type of document, topic, funding, first author's specialty, journal name, subject category, impact factor, and quartile ranking of the publishing journal, country, and language. Relationships between the first author's specialty (radiology, internal medicine, surgery, otorhinolaryngology, and miscellaneous) and other parameters were analyzed. Results: A total of 2917 thyroid US publications were published between 2001 and 2020, which followed an exponential growth pattern, with an annual growth rate of 11.6%. Radiology produced the most publications (n = 1290, 44.2%), followed by internal medicine (n = 716, 24.5%), surgery (n = 409, 14.0%), and otorhinolaryngology (n = 171, 5.9%). Otorhinolaryngology and internal medicine published significantly more case reports than radiology (p < 0.001, each). Radiology published a significantly higher proportion of publications on imaging diagnosis (p < 0.001 for all) and a significantly lower proportion of publications on biopsy (p < 0.001 for all) than the other disciplines. Publications produced by radiology authors were less frequently published in Q1 journals than those from other disciplines (p < 0.005 for internal medicine and miscellaneous disciplines and < 0.01 for surgery and otorhinolaryngology). China contributed the greatest number of publications (n = 622, 21.3%), followed by South Korea (n = 478, 16.4%) and the United States (n = 468, 16.0%). Conclusion: Radiology produced the most publications for thyroid US than any other discipline. Radiology authors published more notably on imaging diagnosis compared to other topics and in journals with lower impact factors compared to authors in other disciplines.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.11 no.12
• /
• pp.4873-4880
• /
• 2010

This study adopted two instruments, i.e. Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14: index of patient's subjective oral health impact) and Todai Health Index (THI: index of patient's subjective systemic health) The Purpose of this study was to determine potential effects of oral health upon systemic health and quality of life (QOL) and provide required basic reference data for developing oral diseases prevention program and public oral health improvement As a result, it may contribute to improving health and quality of life in local community. Analysis on OHIP for subjective oral health conditions revealed that there were significant differences among all categories of self-aware oral health conditions on statistic basis and good oral health group showed significantly higher total OHIP points (4.33) than any other group. Analysis on THI for subjective oral health conditions showed that there were significant differences among all categories of self-aware oral health conditions on statistical basis and very good oral health group got higher total THI points (3.83) than any other group. Analysis on QOL for subjective oral health conditions suggested that there were significant differences among all categories of self-aware oral health conditions but social category and good oral health group got highest total QOL points (3.39) of all groups.