• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 2000

This study was conducted to examine utilization patterns and determinants of oriental medical services. Data were collected from 545 residents in Taegu city The results of this study are summarized as follows 1) 37.8% of subjects used oriental medical services in the past year. Especially, the female, the ages of 50 and 60 over, the single. low-educated. high-income class, white-collar class, medical insured tended to use more oriental medical services than another groups. 2) 46.7% of users of oriental medical services reported that number of visits in the past year was 2 - 5 times 37 1% of them was 1 times, and 4.5% over 10 times. 3) According to the reasons to choose the oriental medical facilities, most was 'on their own judgement'(48.8%) and 'by the advice of relatives and friends'(42.0%) Regarding to the objectives of using oriental medicine, 68.3% was 'treatment', 31.7% 'health counselling and promotion'. And among diseases of users, diseases of musculo-skeletal system was the highest(54.5%). 4) 57.9% of oriental medical services users had experience of utilizing western medicine on the same diseases. Among peoples with experiencing western medicine on the same diseases. 54.4% received oriental medical services 'in addition to western medicine', 45.6%'in place of western medicine 'And 41.2% of using both services reported that they had difficulty in deciding to choose the type of services -oriental medical services or western medicine-for their diseases. 37.3% of them answered that 'providing relevant information' was the most desirable measure to solve this problem, 27.3% 'establishment of effective referral system between oriental and western medical facilities '23.6% 'cooperative medical treatment systems in the same facilities', 11.8%'integration of oriental medicine into western medicine 5) According to the satisfaction level with each items of oriental medical services, the respondents had positive views on efficacy, kindness, and side-effects. They, however, had negative view on the cost of oriental medical services. 6) In regarding to the priority of improvement of oriental medical system,'expansion of insurance benefit package 'ranked first. 'expansion of insurance benefit Package 'ranked second, 'improvement of scientific methods and diagnostic technique 'third, and 'safety of herbal medicine' fourth in order. 7) The significant factors influencing the utilization of oriental medical services were kindness of oriental medical practitioners, efficacy , travel time, age To be brief, utilization rate of oriental medical services in urban area generally tends to be high. There, however, have been various barriers to limit oriental medical services, such as incomplete benefit package of oriental medical insurance and lack of coordination and referral system between oriental and western medical services, lack of scientific diagnostic procedures, high price etc . For the development of oriental medical services, Much attention to remove these limiting factors should be placed. In addition, kindness of oriental medical practitioners , which is expected to be more important factor in the consumer - focused health care environment than ever, should be kept high consistently. Since this study was conducted for specific residents of an urban city. further research including more sampling in different urban areas should be required to generalize the results of the study.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.195-206
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• 2004

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the patterns of medical utilization and factors affecting medical utilization of population living in islands of province of ChungCheongNam-Do. Methods: Demographic and socioeconomic state, medical utilization of 447 persons were surveyed from Sept. 9th to Sept. 18th, 2002. Results: In elder age group and lower educational group, the rate of medical utilization was high. As subjective health states get lower, the group used medical institution more(p<0.05). The group having more number of chronic diseases showed more medical utilization. And the group who needs 2 to 3 hours to reach to the medical institution showed high medical utilization(p<0.05). The factors having negative effect on using medical institution were economic concern and lack of proper clinic in the neighborhood. Conclusions: The lower economic level and the insufficiency of medical facilities on islands affect the utilization rate negatively. More accessible and effective medical systems for these population are expected.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.50-67
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• 2000

This study aims to estimate the consumption of antibiotics in Korea and to suggest the further studies. To measure the amount of antibiotics consumption, we referred to the statistic of NFHI(National Federation of Health Insurance) and a private institute of pharmaceutical information(Korea Intercontinental Medical Statistics; IMS Korea). There were 1,563 antibiotics produced in Korea in 1997. The total amount of antibiotics production was 1,197 billion won in 1997. Antibiotics accounted for 17.6% of the total pharmaceutical productions in 1997. Cephalosporins have taken the largest part of antibiotics production since 1992. The estimation using NFHI data showed that the total expenditure of antibiotics used in health facilities was 268 billion won, 608 billion won, 911 billion won in 1990, 1994, 1997 respectively. Tertiary hospitals spent 246 billion won, general hospitals 287 billion won, hospitals 78 billion won, clinics 300 billion won in 1997. The amount of expenditure and the intensity of antibiotics consumption in hospitals have increased more steeply than any other health facilities. The total expenditure of antibiotics consumption in health facilities and pharmacies was 778 billion won when estimated using the data from IMS Korea, and 999 billion won from NFHI. Cephalosporins was the fast growing antibiotics group in all of the market- hospitals, clinics, pharmacies since 1991. To measure the amount and patterns of antibiotics consumption more precisely, a pharmaceutical monitoring or surveillance system is needed.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.102-113
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• 2009

The SARS virus began to appear and spread in North America and Southeast Asia in the early 2000' s, infecting and harming many people. In the process of examining the causes for the virus, studies on the airborne SARS virus and the way it spread were carried out mainly in the medical field. In the field of architecture, studies were done on the diffusion of air pollutants in buildings using gases such as $CO_2$, $N_2O$, or $SF_6$, but research on virus diffusion was limited. There were also explanations of only the diffusion process without accurate information and discussion on virus characteristics. The aim of this study is to analyze the physical characteristics of airborne virus, consider the possibility of using coupled analysis model and tracer gas for analyzing virus diffusion in building space and, based on reports of how the infection spread in a hospital where SARS patients were discovered, analyze infection risk using tracer gas density and also diffusion patterns according to the location, shape, and volume of supply diffusers and exhaust grilles. This paper can provide standards and logical principles for evaluating various alternatives for making decisions on vertical or horizontal ward placement, air supply and exhaust installation and air volumes in medium or high story medical facilities.

• 모자간호학회지
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.24-32
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• 1994

Using data from the Korean National Health Survey conducted in the years 1989 and 1992, child and maternal ambulatory care utilization patterns were compared. Data from 3,002 families from the 1989 survey and 1,523 families from the 1992 survey which have a child 0-4 years old and mother in the same family were selected and used for the analysis. The results indicate that child medical utilization is closely accociated with maternal medical utilization, as measured by the number of visits to medical facilities. Maternal use appears to be a more powerful predictor of child use than any other family and maternal variables. These results confirm the result of the previous localized studies and suggest that intervention directed at the mother may be effective in ensuring equitable and efficient use of ambulatory services by childeren.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.324-335
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• 1998

This study describes the extent of recognition of problems to the aged in a future society, the recognition and necessity of day care facilities, and the service contents and patterns preferred as a method of mediation for nursing the aged and increasing their quality of life. It also tries to certify the relations between those subjects. The result of the study is as follows: 1. Concerning problems of the aged of social significance the aged of the next generation consider the difficulties in nursing the aged to be the most important at 63.6%. 2. Concerning the nursing of parents, 49.4% of those answered 'children should take care of their parents and live together', while 46.7% answered that 'it is enough for children to provide an economic support, not necessarily living together. 3. Concerning information of day care facilities, 66.9% answered that they have no information. 4. Concerning the use of day care facilities, 54.6% answered that 'they would under certain circumstances', and 21.0% that 'they had better use them in the future'. 5. Concerning the feelings of the aged using day care facilities, 46.6% say 'they do not look poor', and 33.4% said that 'they look a little poor'. 6. Concerning the reasons for using day care facilities, 56.1% answered' because children do not proride care', and 48.5% answered 'because their economic ability is not sufficient'. 7. Concerning the programs potentially needed, food supply, medical services and physical therapy were ranked in that order. 8. Concerning social facilities necessary for the aged, centers that specialize in dementia, free day care facilities, home care services, and fee - based day care centers were ranked in that order. 9. Concerning institutions providing day care, welfare centers for the aged, those centers auxiliary to hospitals, asylums, and individuals were ranked in that order. 10. Concerning the responsibity running day care facilities, social workers, doctors/nursing assistants, nurses, and entrusted visitors were ranked in that order. Based on the results of this study, the study proposes that the study of applied cases of therapy in day care facilities for the aged continue.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2018

Tracking the location of patients in medical facilities is important to guarantee the patients' safety and to improve the service quality. Previous studies related to location tracking systems based on Bluetooth communication need numerous prerequisite information and multiple devices to improve the accuracy. In this paper, we propose a beacon-based space partition scheme that assigns different arrangement patterns of beacons to different spaces and composes groups with the similar value of RSSI to minimize prerequisite information and the number of beacons. The proposed scheme considers a pattern arrangement scheme to minimize intereference between neighbor patterns. We also verified the applicability of our scheme to monitor the patient location by using experimental results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3403-3406
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• 2015

Background: Skin biopsy is the method to assist clinicians to make definite dermatological diagnosis which further helps in holistic management. Skin cancers are relatively rare clinical diagnosis in developing countries like Nepal, but the prevalence is on rise. Objectives: To investigate the profile of skin biopsies and frequencies and pattern of skin cancers in a tertiary care centre of Western Nepal. Materials and Methods: The materials consisted of 434 biopsies (1.37%) out of 31,450 OPD visits performed in the Department of Dermatology, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal, during the period of Dec 2011-Nov 2014. Data were collected and analyzed using SPSS-16 with reference to incidence, age, sex, race and clinical and histopathological features. Results: The commonest disorders observed in biopsies were papulosquamous lesions, skin tuberculosis of different types, benign skin tumors, leprosy, collagen and fungal diseases. Viral diseases were rarely seen, probably due to straight forward clinical diagnosis. Dermatological malignancies accounted for 55/434 (12.67%) of biopsies. Skin disorders in general were commoner in females 280/434 (64%), including malignancies 32/55(58.2%). Mean age of patients with skin cancer was 54.5 years. Facilities for proper laboratory investigation of dermatological disorders will improve the quality of life. Conclusions: The most prevalent lesion in skin biopsies was papulosquamous disorders followed by skin tuberculosis of different types. Dermatological malignancy constituted 55/434 (12.67%) cases. The prevalence of skin malignancy is on rise in Nepalese society probably due to increase in life expectancy and better diagnostic services.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.16-25
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• 2019

Purpose:The healthcare system of South Korea is at the extreme of the dispersed system. Few regulations limit patients from directly visiting higher-level medical institutions for primary care sensitive conditions. As a result, similar to local clinics, general and tertiary teaching hospitals also provide diverse primary care services. Our study aimed to examine the general public's perceptions of their primary care performance. Methods: Face-to-face surveys were conducted with 1000 adults who were living in South Korea with the aid of a questionnaire that included the Korean Primary Care Assessment Tool (KPCAT). The KPCAT consists of five domains, which are the main indicators of primary care performance: first contact, comprehensiveness, coordination, personalized care, and family/community orientation. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc tests were used to compare the KPCAT scores across the three types of medical institutions. Results: Domain-wise analyses revealed two different patterns. With regard to first contact and its subdomains, the highest and lowest scores emerged for local clinics and tertiary teaching hospitals, respectively. However, the other four domain scores were significantly lower for local clinics than for the other two types of medical institutions. Conclusions: Local clinics were perceived to be medical institutions that are responsible for providing primary care. However, the general public perceived only one domain of their primary care to be superior to that of the other two types of medical institutions: first contact. National efforts should be taken to strengthen their other four domains of primary care by training their workforce and providing appropriate incentives.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.79-96
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• 2001

In order to ascertain the utilization patterns and Perception and attitudes of Primary Health Post(PHP) by rural residents in farm areas, a survey was conducted of 753 households(1,803 persons) in 24 PHPs in Sangju-si, Gyeongsangbuk- do, from December 10, 2000 to January 15, 2001. The morbidly rate of acute illnesses for last two weeks for all households was 29.6%, and the rate of use of medical facilities to treat acute illness was 98.3%. The morbidly rate was highest between the ages of 60 and 69, with a rate of 35.4%. The higher their ages and the lower their educational levels were, the higher the morbidly rate was. The morbidly rate of chronic illnesses for one year for all households was 19.2%, and the rate of use of medical facilities to treat chronic illness was 92.8%. The elderly over 70 years old had the highest morbidly rate of 37.2%. The higher their ages and the lower their educational levels were, the higher the chronic illnesses rate was. For the rate of use of medical facilities to treat acute diseases, the use of PHPs was 89.5%, accounting for the majority of the time. However, for chronic diseases, hospitals and clinics were used more often, with a rate of 48.9%, compared to the use of PHPs, 40.2%. Their previous experiences on the use of PHPs one year before the survey showed that 94.8% used PHPs, 72.2% just visited them, not for the purpose of getting any medical assistance, and 73.3% received health education from PHPs. 98.5% remembered the locations of PHPs, 98.6% thought that PHPs were helpful for their health management, and 84.3% said that PHPs were playing great roles in development of their communities. 97.4% said that they found PHPs necessary. They understood the main job of PHPs as in the order of disease treatment, vaccination and health counseling. The work that they mostly wanted PHPs to do was health counseling and health management, which 31.6% answered. 88.9% said the examination fee was not expensive, 98.4% said CHPs were kind, and 97.0% said they were satisfied with the services at PHPs. Complaints about PHPs included a lack of a variety of medications, said by 42.9%, and poor facilities, by 15.8%. According to the above results, it is concluded that local residents on survey were frequently using PHPs due to their geographical and economical conditions. Also, the residents appeared to be satisfied with the services at PHPs, and they had a high demand for public health service as well as disease treatment. Considering the complaints about medications and medical facilities and equipment, active supports are required to manage PHPs in a way it can provide desirable services to the residents in remote villages through the readjustment of PHPs' functions, reinforcement of facilities and equipment and enhancement of CHPs ' training.