• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 2019

Objective : This study is a retrospective cost-benefit analysis of cervical anterior interbody fusion and cervical artificial disc replacement, which are the main surgical methods to treat degenerative cervical disc disease. Methods : We analyzed 156 patients who underwent anterior cervical disc fusion and cervical artificial disc replacement from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009, diagnosed with degenerative cervical disc disorder. In this study, the costs and benefits were analyzed by using quality adjusted life year (QALY) as the outcome index for patients undergoing surgery, and a Markov model was used for the analysis. Only direct medical costs were included in the analysis; indirect medical costs were excluded. Data were analyzed with TreeAge Pro $2015^{TM}$ (TreeAge Software, Inc, Williamstown, MA, USA). Results : Patients who underwent cervical anterior fusion had a total cost of KRW 2501807/USD 2357 over 5 years and obtained a utility of 3.72 QALY. Patients who underwent cervical artificial disc replacement received 4.18 QALY for a total of KRW 3685949/USD 3473 over 5 years. The cumulative cost-effectiveness ratio of cervical spine replacement surgery was KRW 2549511/QALY (USD 2402/QALY), which was lower than the general Korean payment standard. Conclusion : Both cervical anterior fusion and cervical artificial disc replacement are cost-effective treatments for patients with degenerative cervical disc disease. Cervical artificial disc replacement may be an effective alternative to obtain more benefits.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.55 no.1
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2022

This study estimated the direct and indirect socioeconomic costs of 238 diseases and 22 injuries from a social perspective in Korea from 2007 to 2015. The socioeconomic cost of each disease group was calculated based on the Korean Standard Disease Classification System. Direct costs were estimated using health insurance claims data provided by the National Health Insurance Service. The numbers of outpatients and inpatients with the main diagnostic codes for each disease were selected as a proxy indicator for estimating patients' medical use behavior by disease. The economic burden of disease from 2007 to 2015 showed an approximately 20% increase in total costs. From 2007 to 2015, communicable diseases (including infectious, maternal, pediatric, and nutritional diseases) accounted for 8.9-12.2% of the socioeconomic burden, while non-infectious diseases accounted for 65.7-70.7% and injuries accounted for 19.1-22.8%. The top 5 diseases in terms of the socioeconomic burden were self-harm (which took the top spot for 8 years), followed by cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, ischemic heart disease, and upper respiratory infections in 2007. Since 2010, the economic burden of conditions such as low back pain, falls, and acute bronchitis has been included in this ranking. This study expanded the scope of calculating the burden of disease at the national level by calculating the burden of disease in Koreans by gender and disease. These findings can be used as indicators of health equality and as useful data for establishing community-centered (or customized) health promotion policies, projects, and national health policy goals.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.103-123
• /
• 2023

This study empirically investigated the relationship between workers' safety behavior and safety leadership, trust in leader, workers' involvement, and safety knowledge in the enterprise, and analyzed the role of the factors to identify and analyze factors that enhance workers' safety behavior that contribute to the prevention of major accidents in the enterprise. When industrial accidents occur, companies have to bear huge loss costs due to direct costs of compensating the victims and indirect costs such as human loss, material loss, production loss, and time loss. Based on the results of previous studies, this study investigated the effects of managerial safety leadership and workers' trust in leader on safety behavior through the mediation of workers' involvement and safety knowledge among production, technical, and labor workers in the manufacturing industry. Statistical analysis was conducted on 271 manufacturing workers using SPSS and PLS. The results showed that safety leadership and trust in leader can lead to workers' involvement and have a positive effect on workers' safety knowledge acquisition, which can lead to workers' safety behavior.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.527-534
• /
• 2020

A significant factor in construction work is cost. At early- and advanced-stage design, costs should be calculated to derive realistic cost estimates according to unit price calculation. Based on these estimates, the economic feasibility of construction work is assessed, and whether to proceed is determined. Through the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, the construction cost index has been calculated by indirect methods after both the producer price index and construction market labor have been reprocessed to easily adjust the price changes of construction costs in Korea, and the Institute has announced it since 2004. As of January 2000, however, the construction cost index was released, and this has a time constraint on the correction and use of past construction cost data to the present moment. Variables were calculated to compute a rough construction cost that utilized past construction costs through surveys of the producer price index and the construction market labor force consisting of the construction cost index. After significant independent variables among the many variables were selected through correlation analysis, the construction cost index from 1970 to 1999 was calculated and presented through multiple regression analysis. This study therefore has prominent significance in terms of proposing a method of calculating rough construction costs that utilize construction costs that pre-date the 2000s.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.20
• /
• pp.8993-9004
• /
• 2014

Background: The incidence rate and the treatment costs of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are high, especially in Thailand. Previous studies indicated that early detection by a surveillance program could help by down-staging. This study aimed to compare the costs and health outcomes associated with the introduction of a HCC surveillance program with no program and to estimate the budget impact if the HCC surveillance program were implemented. Materials and Methods: A cost utility analysis using a decision tree and Markov models was used to compare costs and outcomes during the lifetime period based on a societal perspective between alternative HCC surveillance strategies with no program. Costs included direct medical, direct non-medical, and indirect costs. Health outcomes were measured as life years (LYs), and quality adjusted life years (QALYs). The results were presented in terms of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in Thai THB per QALY gained. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were applied to investigate parameter uncertainties. Budget impact analysis (BIA) was performed based on the governmental perspective. Results: Semi-annual ultrasonography (US) and semi-annual ultrasonography plus alpha-fetoprotein (US plus AFP) as the first screening for HCC surveillance would be cost-effective options at the willingness to pay (WTP) threshold of 160,000 THB per QALY gained compared with no surveillance program (ICER=118,796 and ICER=123,451 THB/QALY), respectively. The semi-annual US plus AFP yielded more net monetary benefit, but caused a substantially higher budget (237 to 502 million THB) than semi-annual US (81 to 201 million THB) during the next ten fiscal years. Conclusions: Our results suggested that a semi-annual US program should be used as the first screening for HCC surveillance and included in the benefit package of Thai health insurance schemes for both chronic hepatitis B males and females aged between 40-50 years. In addition, policy makers considered the program could be feasible, but additional evidence is needed to support the whole prevention system before the implementation of a strategic plan.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2015

This study first addresses the ineffectiveness of indirect regulation on industrial machines. Analysis of causes of industrial accidents associated with industrial machines further reveals the fact that technical causes need to be resolved at the manufacturing stage to reduce the frequency and strength of industrial accidents. Balanced safety certification on manufacturers and safety inspection on users of industrial machines are then suggested to effectively resolve such technical causes. The effectiveness of such safety certification and safety inspection can be justified by cost-benefit analysis. Particularly, balance in expected benefits of safety certification and safety inspection is a key issue for validity of such analysis. The accumulated benefit-costs for press brake and portable sawing machine confirm the effectiveness of such safety system.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.93-100
• /
• 1993

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between the traffic signal systmes and the air pollutants emitted by the motor vehicles at Kangnam Intersection. One of the most important measures of effectiveness (MOE) in traffic studies is the delay to vehicles in the system. Delay represents indirect costs to the motorist in terms of time loss and a direct cost in terms of fuel consumption during idling. The results of TRANSYT-7F modeling was correlated among delay, fuel consumption and total travel tiem. Air pollutants emission rate can be calculated by the results of modeling and the Korean type emission factor. As expected the highest emissions, for air pollutants, are observed during the morning rush hours (07 : 00-10 : 00). For better results of modeling, the TRANSYT-7F model needs to modify for the Korean type of traffic model. The results of this study indicate that the variation of air pollutants emission rates were closely related to the traffic signal system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.579-587
• /
• 2015

Landslides are major natural geological hazards that result in a large amount of property damage each year, with both direct and indirect costs. Many researchers have produced landslide susceptibility maps using various techniques over the last few decades. This paper presents the landslide susceptibility results from the geographically weighted regression model using remote sensing and geographic information system data for landslide susceptibility in the Inje area of South Korea. Landslide locations were identified from aerial photographs. The eleven landslide-related factors were calculated and extracted from the spatial database and used to analyze landslide susceptibility. Compared with the global logistic regression model, the Akaike Information Criteria was improved by 109.12, the adjusted R-squared was improved from 0.165 to 0.304, and the Moran’s I index of this analysis was improved from 0.4258 to 0.0553. The comparisons of susceptibility obtained from the models show that geographically weighted regression has higher predictive performance.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.137-160
• /
• 2001

A study on the structural change in the U.S. textile industry. The U.S. textile industry has undergone significant changes over the last fifty years, including a steady decline in the relative scale of domestic production, employment reduction, and increased competition from imported products. In order to weather a crisis, the responses of the U.S. textile industry have been made such as investment in technology, specalization in the textile and apparel industries. The textile and apparel industries have taken steps to increase labor productivity through automations to speed management to create and introduce new products and new methods, and have lowered indirect overhead costs. Regarding these response of the U.S. and other situation of world textile and apparel trade market, much of the sense of crisis that pervades korean textile and apparel industries has to do with the problem of adjusting corporate policy.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2011

Osteoporosis in gastric cancer patients is often overlooked or even neglected despite its high prevalence in these patients. Considering that old age, malnutrition, chronic disease, chemotherapy, decreased body mass index and gastrectomy are independent risk factors for osteoporosis, it is reasonable that the prevalence of osteoporosis in gastric cancer patients would be high. Many surviving patients suffer from back pain and pathological fractures, which are related to osteoporosis. Fractures have obvious associated morbidities, negative impact on quality of life, and impose both direct and indirect costs. In the era of a >55.6% 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer and increased longevity in gastric cancer patients, it is very important to eliminate common sequelae such as osteoporosis. Fortunately, the diagnosis of osteoporosis is well established and many therapeutic agents have been shown to be effective and safe not only in postmenopausal females but also in elderly males. Recently, effective treatments of gastric cancer patients with osteoporosis using bisphosphonates, which are commonly used in postmenopausal woman, were reported.