• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.11-23
• /
• 2023

Purpose : This study investigates the experiences of patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and the factors influencing these experiences. Method : We used a cross-sectional survey design to analyze previously collected cohort data from 891 patients who spent over 24 hours in 19 ICUs across four university hospitals in Busan, South Korea between June 2019 and July 2020. Within a week of ICU discharge, participants completed the Korean version of the Intensive Care Experience Questionnaire, covering four areas: "awareness of surroundings," "frightening experiences," "satisfaction with care," and "recall of experiences." We used multiple linear regression to identify factors associated with the ICU experience. Results : Low income (𝛽 = -.08, p = .016), unplanned hospitalization (𝛽 = -.09, p = .006), sedation (𝛽 = -.16, p < .001), and delirium (𝛽 = -.15, p < .001) reduce patients' awareness of their surroundings. Frightening experiences are associated with being female (𝛽 = -.07, p = .027), experiencing delirium(𝛽= -.15, p<.001), and longer stays in the ICU (𝛽= -.14, p <.001). Using sedatives decreases satisfaction with care (𝛽 = -.08, p = .048). Living alone (𝛽 = -.08, p = .013) and using painkillers (𝛽 = -.08, p = .020) reduces recall of experiences. Conclusion : Negative ICU experiences are significantly associated with being female, living alone, lower income, unplanned admission, using sedatives and painkillers, delirium, and longer stays in the ICU. Thus, improving ICU experiences requires interventions that address modifiable factors, such as delirium, medication, and length of ICU stays.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.50 no.2
• /
• pp.91-99
• /
• 2017

Objectives: As in many low-income and middle-income countries, out-of-pocket (OOP) payments by patients or their families are a key healthcare financing mechanism in Bangladesh that leads to economic burdens for households. The objective of this study was to identify whether and to what extent socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioral factors of the population had an impact on OOP expenditures in Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 12 400 patients who had paid to receive any type of healthcare services within the previous 30 days were analyzed from the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, 2010. We employed regression analysis for identify factors influencing OOP health expenditures using the ordinary least square method. Results: The mean total OOP healthcare expenditures was US dollar (USD) 27.66; while, the cost of medicines (USD 16.98) was the highest cost driver (61% of total OOP healthcare expenditure). In addition, this study identified age, sex, marital status, place of residence, and family wealth as significant factors associated with higher OOP healthcare expenditures. In contrary, unemployment and not receiving financial social benefits were inversely associated with OOP expenditures. Conclusions: The findings of this study can help decision-makers by clarifying the determinants of OOP, discussing the mechanisms driving these determinants, and there by underscoring the need to develop policy options for building stronger financial protection mechanisms. The government should consider devoting more resources to providing free or subsidized care. In parallel with government action, the development of other prudential and sustainable risk-pooling mechanisms may help attract enthusiastic subscribers to community-based health insurance schemes.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.102-110
• /
• 2024

Objective: This study evaluated the health behavior level of urological cancer survivors after surgery. Understand the experience of change and identify the factors that affect it for health. Selection of the best intervention steps and effective intervention adopt a lifestyle. It is intended to contribute to the creation of basic data for development of guidelines. Methods: The study was conducted with patients diagnosed with urological cancer at a hospital in Seoul. Study data were obtained by having 100 patients who agreed to the study self-fill out a questionnaire through interviews, and the 2018 World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research Score (2018 WCRF/AICR SCORE) was used to estimate the level of health behavior. Results: The study examines health behavior among urolgical cancer survivors based on the 2018 WCRF/AICR SCORE. Higher household income and younger age were associated with better health behavior scores, with those under 60 and earning over 3 million won being more likely to have higher scores. Conclusion: Based on these results, this study requires comprehensive data collection considering the missing variables, suggesting that high household income and young age can positively affect healthy behavior. In addition, we conclude that education for cancer survivors and development of strategies to bridge the health gap for low-income and elderly populations are necessary.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.135-150
• /
• 2016

Research Methods: This research analyzed the data on those aged 20 and older from the Report on Korean Medicine Usage Research, which was conducted in 2011. The definitions of toxicity were defined by the presence of toxicity listed in the survey. The questions used in analysis were sex, age, household income, health insurance, medical fees, satisfaction rates on treatments, as well as the types of diseases and the presence of toxicity from treatments. The analysis was done through frequency analysis using SAS 9.2 and Fisher's Exact Test. Results: Toxicity occurred in 2.1% patients out of the 3518 studied. The types of toxicity were skin problems, such as hives and pruritus (34.7%), gastrointestinal problems (20.8%), neurological diseases (4.2%), liver(1.4%), kidney toxicity(1.4%), and others (22.2%). There were no differences in toxicity by sex, age, household income and the types of health insurances. However, toxicity were positively correlated with the increase in standard of education (p=0.0124). In addition, as treatment costs increased (p<0.0001) and satisfaction rates decreased, toxicity increased (p<0.0001). Toxicity increased in patients with low back pain (p=0.0429), hwabyung (p=0.0392), lumbar sprain (p=0.0004), correction body type (p=0.0118), growth (p=0.0045), and from motor accidents (p=0.0448). In logistic regression analysis, Toxicity were positively correlated with medical fees, and cancer treatment and negatively correlated with satisfaction rate on treatments. Conclusion: The toxicity that occurred in outpatients who used Korean medical clinics mostly happened in skin, digestive organs, nerves, livers, and kidneys toxicity. The occurrences differed by the Educational lengths, expensive costs of treatments, low satisfaction rates of the treatments, and cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.267-274
• /
• 2013

The impact of income and education level on the clinical and pathologic characteristics, implementation of clinical breast examination (CBE), and treatment patterns of a small population of Chinese female breast cancer patients was studeied in order to provide a theoretical basis and statistical reference for further nationwide research. We included 484 pathologically confirmed female primary breast cancer inpatients of the First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Xi'an Jiaotong University from February 2003 to January 2004. All cases were reviewed and relevant information was collected using a designed case report form (CRF). Chisquare tests, rank-sum tests, and Fisher's exact tests were used in the analysis. Our analysis showed that: (1) women in different occupation groups had significant differences in tumor size, pre-operative mammography, surgical options, post-operative estrogen receptor (ER), progestin receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) status, and post-operative radiotherapy and chemotherapy (P < 0.05); and (2) women with different education levels had statistically significant differences in tumor size, post-operative ER, PR and Her2 status, and post-operative chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine therapy (P < 0.05). In Xi'an, China, women in low-income occupations or with low education levels are more likely to have advanced tumor stages at presentation, lower implementation rate of clinical breast examination, and less treatment.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.92-108
• /
• 2009

This study suggests a model for continuing and comprehensive management of hypertension or Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Korea. Moreover, this paper computed the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM management using the healthcare medical cost, which could have occurred from stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that were successfully prevented from the effective hypertension or T2DM management. Additionally, these costs were compared with the cost of implementing the hypertension or T2DM management model suggested in this study. This study used the medical fee summary of the health insurance claims submitted to National Health Insurance Corporation by medical facilities for services provided during the period from January 1st 1999 to December 31st 2006. The prevalence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients submitted their medical claims at least once during the period, along with an accordant diagnosis. The incidence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients who never submitted claims for the accordant disease during the five years from 1999 to 2003 submitted claims for the accordant disease in 2004 and 2005. The relative risk of the occurrence of stroke, MI and ESRD was 11.0, 13.6, and 30.3, respectively. The attributable risk of hypertension or T2DM for stroke was 0.730, and that for MI and ESRD were 0.773 and 0.888, respectively. Based on these, the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM is estimated to be 986.3 billion Korean Won(KRW) for stroke patients, 330.5 billion KRW for MI patients, and 561.7 billion KRW for ESRD patients as in 2005. Hence, the total contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM to stroke, MI, and ESRD is 1.878 trillion KRW. The estimate for operational costs included an annual expenditure of 50,000 KRW per each recipient and an annual subsidy of 0.22 million KRW per person for the 1.6 million low.income individuals with hypertension or T2DM to cover their out.of.pocket medical expenses. Under this assumption, it took approximately 0.6 trillion KRW to manage 5 million high.risk patients in the low. and mid.income range, coverings up to 50% of costs. In conclusion, considering the potential benefits of preventing stroke, MI, and ESRD, the costs seems to be reasonable.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 2003

Recently, there has been an increasing need for long-term care and comprehensive health care services in community settings. The Ministry of Health and Welfare introduced the Hospital-Based Home Nursing Care Program in 2000. Before this initiative, there was a Home Nursing Demonstration Center, affiliated with the Seoul Nurse Association, had offered home nursing services with the financial support from the local government. since 1993, the Center's nursing staff has been engaged in a general hospital in an effort to provide home nursing care services within Korea's health care system. The purpose of this study was to analyze and identify characteristics of community-based home nursing care supplied by a community-based home nursing team engaged in a general hospital. Also. visit nursing care services provided by public health centers were evaluated in terms of accessibility and supply versus demand, to enhance the accessibility of low-income patients living in Seoul to home nursing care services. Data were collected from home nursing insurance reimbursement claims submitted by the community-based home nursing care team from March 1 to October 30 in 2001 and a questionnaire survey on home-visit nursing services of 25 public health centers in Seoul. The subjects consisted of 197 patients and 12 public health centers. The result were as follows. First, medical institution's community-based home nursing care program was better in technical quality than health-center-based home-visit nursing care. In addition. the pattern of the subject patients was similar to that of hospital-based home nursing care program. Second, there was a high demand for community-based home nursing care while only a small number of home-visiting nurses served at public health centers in Seoul. As a result, many patients could not receive adequate care. Finally, we suggest that community-based home nursing care program should be introduced in the national health system to meet the at-home care needs of severely ill low-income patients. Furthermore, to better utilize home nursing and visit-nursing care resources and offer continued care for patients in community settings, an efficient referral network should be built among related institutions. This would require improvement of reimbursement system and amendment of the law related to health insurance system and community-based home nursing care services.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.70-107
• /
• 1992

This study was intended to assess the need of home nursing care and analyze the effect of home nursing care, and find out the problems during the performance of home nursing care for the chronic patients among the low-income people in urban area. Data collection by interview was carried out from Nov. 1991 to Jul. 1992. The main results were as follows; 1) Total subjects for the need assessment of home nursing care were 123 households wi th 488 persons in a urban poor area. Over half of households $(57.7\%)$ was teenage family. The overall living conditions were poor and the average monthly income was 580 thousands won. $74.8\%$ of subjects was covered by medical care insurance and only $4.7\%$ was covered by public assistance. The morbidity rate was $8.2\%$ among 488 subjects and $27.5\%$ of them was not treated at all, $30\%$ was treated in utilizing pharmacies or local clinics. 2) The subjects of home nursing care were 46 with Hypertension or DM who agreeded the participation of study among registered patients at a public health center in Incheon. Home visiting was performed at intervals per one month for one year. Most of them were the elder(mean age=61 years) and long term patients(7.8 years continued). Home nursing care was effective. That is, blood pressure(including systolic and diastolic pressure) was significantly reduced (t(n=22)=2.31, P=.031, t(n=24)=4.16, P=.000 respectively) and knowledge of disease(t(N=46)=-7.63, P=.000), attitude of disease (t(N =46) = -4.92, P=.000), and self-care(t(N =46) = -4.89, P= .000) were significantly improved through home nursing care. But there was no difference in blood sugar for diabetics between the beginning and the end of visits. At the beginning of visit for home nursing care, sex$(\beta=-0414,\;t=-3.012)$ and nursing need({3=.310, t=2.164) were influencing self-care, and duration of disease$(\beta=.297,\;t=2.106)$ and nursing need $(\beta=.385, t=20417)$ were influencing blood pressure, blood sugar level. Namely, the subjects who were male and had higher nursing need showed better self-care and the longer duration of disease and the higher nursing need were relationship with the better blood pressure and blood sugar level. At the end of visit for home nursing care after one year, the blood pressure and blood sugar level was influenced by age $(\beta.320,\;t= 2.242)$, duration of disease ($(\beta.352,\;t= 2.395)$ and nursing need $(\beta=.350,\;t=2.623)$ and self-care had no influencing factor. The higher age and the longer duration of disease and the higher nursing need were relationship with the better blood pressure and blood sugar level. 3) The problems that were found out during the performance of home nursing care were the absent of useful protocols for services and the clear evaluation base, and the difficulty of teaching elders who were the major part of our subjects.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.751-758
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the Quality of Life (QOL) and related factors in the patients with dizziness. Methods: The data were collected between March and June 2008 for 200 individuals who agreed to participate in the study. Uncertainty (Uncertainty in illness scale), anxiety, depression (Hospital anxiety & depression scale) and Vestibular disability activities of daily living (Vestibular disability-activities of daily living [ADL] scale) as well as QOL (Dizziness Handicap Inventory) were measured. Results: The mean QOL score was 37.5 (${\pm}23.0$). Monthly income, etiology of, frequency of, and total duration of dizziness were the significant factors related to QOL in these patients. Having had a fall, anxiety, depression, uncertainty and vestibular disability in daily living were also significant factors influencing QOL. In multiple regression analysis, anxiety, vestibular disability-ADL, falls, total duration of symptoms, uncertainty, and etiology of dizziness explained 41% of variance of QOL. Conclusion: The level of QOL in our patients was moderate as compared to those in previous studies. Anxiety and vestibular disability were the most important factors predicting low QOL. Use of nursing intervention programs designed to relieve these factors should also result in improving the QOL in the patients with dizziness.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.125-133
• /
• 2007

Purpose: To identify the compliance level with therapeutic regimen among patients with hypertension residing in rural communities. Method: A descriptive-retrospective research design was employed. One hundred patients with hypertension using 8 Primary Health Care Posts under W Public Health Center were randomly recruited on the basis of being over 35 years of age. After obtaining written consent, the patients underwent direct interviews with a structured questionnaire carried out by 8 public health practitioners. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were utilized. Results: In a binary logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and occupation, those who were receiving medication (OR=5.34), were undergoing a weight control program (OR=4.45), restricted alcohol (OR=9.93), or smoking cessation (OR=25.59) as recommended by medical or health professionals were more compliant (p<.05) while those under a low salt diet, exercise, and stress management were not significant statistically (p>.05). Conclusions: Further research should be conducted to validate these findings so as to facilitate the development of nursing intervention strategies for improving the compliance of hypertensive patients in respect to medication and life style modification.