• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify levels of quality of health-related life (EQ-5D) and its related factors among vulnerable elders receiving home visiting health care services in some rural areas. Methods: The subjects of this study were vulnerable elders aged 65 or higher receiving visiting health care benefits by a public health center in a county. Results: Levels of health-related EQ-5D were high when the subjects were males, their ADL and IADL were high. The EQ-5D of the vulnerable elders and social supports had a positive correlation, while their IADL and depression had a negative correlation with the EQ-5D. We can see that the EQ-5D related factors are variables that have significance influence on gender, subjective health status, BMI, IADL, depression levels, and social support. Conclusion: To improve the EQ-5D of the vulnerable elderly, it needs maintenance of independent IADL levels, social supporting systems using small meeting of the elderly in community. It is necessary to maintain independent IADL levels, enhance social supporting systems including small group gatherings for elders living alone by means of places like community halls, and develop specific intervention programs for the prevention and management of depressive elders.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.372-384
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• 2022

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the educational status and needs of premature birth prevention, and to identify factors associated with preconception health behaviors. Methods: The study design was a crosssectional descriptive study. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey, and the subjects were 192 women of childbearing age in Korea. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. Results: The proportion of subjects who received education on premature birth prevention was 8.9%, and 75.5% of subjects answered that they needed education on premature birth prevention. They demanded education through online media, small groups, cases, cartoons (webtoon) with stories, pictures, and videos. A related factor of preconception health behavior was self-efficacy for high-risk pregnancy health care (β=.20, p=.012), which accounted for 8.2% of the total variance related to preconception health behavior. Conclusion: There was a need for more development of education programs to prevent premature birth for women of childbearing age. Its education programs should be applied with online, small group activities using various educational media. It is also required to promote preconception health behavior through self-efficacy for high-risk pregnancy health care.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2010

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the effects of home visiting care program provided by public health center in control of blood sugar for patients with diabetes mellitus who were cared for at home. Method: The subjects were 50 randomly selected diabetics registered at S-Gu Public Health Center. The program comprised in-person education and home visitations; and telephone contact to educate, monitor diet, exercise, blood sugar, and provide consultation. The control group was provided home visitation by only home calls nurses. The program ran from July 7. 2008 to September 12. 2008. Result: After the program, glycated hemoglobin was decreased in the experimental and control groups; the difference in those receiving home care was not statistically significant. Changes on blood cholesterol in experimental group and control groups were not statistically different. Self-efficacy and self-care performance were increased in those receiving home care. Conclusion: While not statistically significant in this small-scale study, home care for diabetes mellitus patients may promote an increased patient responsibility for self-care that is important in their long-term health.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2004

Background : It has been well known that bronchiectasis (BE) is a predisposing condition for pulmonary NTM infection, whereas there are some suggestions that BE, especially nodular BE, may be a result of NTM pulmonary infection. This retrospective study was done to investigate the prevalence of NTM pulmonary infection in the patients with BE. Methods : Eight hundred sixty-six patients, who underwent chest CT and sputum AFB examination and had BE detected by chest CT at Asan Medical Center in 2002, were included in this study. They were divided into Group I (bilateral BE, especially in RML, lingular or both lower lobes; 134), Group II (BE accompanied with fibrocavitary lesions commonly found in tuberculosis, usually both upper lobes; 233) and Group III (except Group I, II; 499) according to the radiological findings. Group I was subdivided into Group I+ (62) or Group I- (72) according to the presence or absence of centrilobular nodules, respectively. The sputum AFB examination, clinical and radiological findings were analyzed and compared between groups. Results : The number of patients who had at least one positive NTM culture was significantly higher in Group I+ compared with others (p<0.05); 24.2% in Group I+, 6.9% in Group I-, 9.9% in Group II, 6.0% in Group III and 4.1% in control. The number of patients who had true NTM infection defined by ATS guideline was higher in Group I+ (5, 8.1%) compared with others (p<0.05). In all groups, M. avium-intracellulare comlex was the most common isolates. Conclusion : Even though true NTM pulmonary disease was more prevalent in the patients with nodular BE, especially located in RML, left linguar, or both lower lobes, only a small population of the patients with nodular BE met the ATS diagnostic criteria for NTM pulmonary disease. The other patients in nodular BE group may have subclinical stage of NTM infection or completely different diseases from NTM infection. Long-term clinical studies are needed to clarify this issue.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.97-110
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• 1973

The goal of modern nursing is to provide comprehensive nursing care to patients. If comprehensive nursing care to children (within the hospital setting) is to be provided, consideration of the stage of growth and development of the child is especially important. From clinical observation, it appeared that nurses often disregarded individual requirements of children in giving nursing care. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to show that comprehensive nursing care which is based on an understanding of the growth and development of the child contributes to both the child and the mother's adaptability to the child's hospitalization. Method: Sixty children, three to three year of age, hospitalized at the Yonsei University Pediatric Ward ware studied. From April 1, 1973 to May 5, 1973, children admitted to the hospital were assigned to either an experimental or a compare groups. There were 30 children in each group. The sex and age of the children in each group was similar. In both groups were more male than female children. In the experimental group, each mother stayed with hot child continuously during his hospitalization. In the compare groups, the mother or some other member of the family stayed with the child. Each day on the child's admission the investigator visited the ward from 1-2 P.M. to 9-10 P.M., in order to provide comprehensive care for the experimental -group. The assistance given the nurses by the investigator was in the form of conferences regarding care and in giving direct care to the child and his mother. The compare group of children received nursing care as usually provided by the hospital. The instruments used to obtain the data for analysis were as follows: 1. The fear and anxiety reaction of the child was recorded by observation of the investigator for four areas: 1) separation from parent and relatives 2) reaction to Doctor and Nurse with white gowns 3) reaction to nursing care 4) reaction to injection and tests, etc. 2. Regression in area of eating, sleeping, and elimination were recorded by the investigator by questioning the mother and by observation. 3. Adaptability to the hospitalization was recorded by direct questioning of the children for areas of emotional and social adjustment. For children older than 3 years of age or children not seriously ill, using the simple I. Q. test this was possible for only 35 of the total 60 children. Result: 1. 55 percents of the total 60 children had been prepared by their parents for hospitalization. The children who had received prior preparation accepted hospitalization more readily than those who had received no preparation. (χ²=4.6 Ρ<0.05) 2. On admission 31.7 percent of the children expressed verbal fear of their discase or treatment. 25 percent felt that the disease was due to their mistake. 3. There was a significant difference in the reaction of the child to separation from the parent or relatives between the two groups. The experimental groups showed less anxiety due to separation than the compare group. (χ²=4.34 Ρ<0.05) In both groups there was less anxiety due to separation among school age (6-12 years) children than among preschool age (3-5 years) children. (χ²=9.22 Ρ<0.05) 4. More than half of the children in both groups reacted with fear and avoidance to doctor and/or nurses wearing white gowns. (χ²=0.06 Ρ<0.05) 5. The experimental group reacted more favorably to nursing in general than the compare group. (χ²=4.8 Ρ<0.05) 6. There was no difference in the fear and refused reaction to special tests and/or such as X-rays and injections, etc. between the groups. (χ²=3.77 Ρ<0.05) 7. More children in the compare group showed regressive tendencies in eating, sleeping, and elimination habits than in experimental groups. (χ²=2.3 Ρ<0.05 χ²=3.88 Ρ<0.05 χ²=4.9 Ρ<0.05) 8. There was a significant difference in the adaptability to hospitalization between the two groups. The experimental groups adapted more readily. (χ²=2.02 Ρ<0.05) 9. For children who had higher I.Q. s the adaptability to hospitalization was better regardless of the group. (χ²=5.03 Ρ<0.05) However, because of the small number of cases (60), this finding cannot be extrapolated without further verification. The date demonstrates that there was a greater adaptability to hospitalization by the child when comprehensive nursing care was given. By planning care and applying knowledge of growth and development to meet, nurses are in a position to prevent some of the psychological trauma associated with hospitalization.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.233-258
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• 2017

Although listening to music is the most basic musical experience that is ahead of all the other musical activities, it tends to be neglected due to lack of awareness and difficult teaching methods. This study is to compose integrative music appreciation by reflecting thoughts of children, draw children's attention to listening to music, and let them to discover and create musical concept and structures by themselves, accompanied by related activities through which children can express their thoughts and feelings with children's poem. Considering the peculiarities of three-four year-olds, it may be difficult for them to create poems individually, so we let them to write poems through small group discussion in which they can share their opinions and observe their peers' reaction. We provided a teaching method to teachers who find activities of listening to music and writing poems difficult, then we analyzed the effect. When children finished writing poems in small groups through integrative music appreciation reflecting their thoughts, they placed greater weight on preparing to listen to music at first, but going through the program, they discovered musical concepts and became active in music appreciation. In the related activity, writing poems inspired them to think creatively, listening to their peer's stories. Even children who were not interested in children's poem showed higher participation. Teachers found children's creative words to be interesting, discovering the joy of creation.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2007

An abundant emotional experience in childhood can be a basis of success of their life. In this research, I set up a hypothesis as follows to see if a group plastic activities are effective for the improvement of children's emotional intelligence and self-emotion awareness ability, self-emotion management ability, self-motivation ability, other's emotion awareness ability and personal relationship skill ability. The research subjects were 40 children of 5 years old(experimental Group: 20, controlled group: 20) in Y kindergarten located in Ulsan. In pretest, we confirmed homogeneity between experiment and control group using child emotional checklist and then applied small group plastic artistic activities to the experiment group. Data analysis was performed with population, percentage, t-test and Cronbach a. The findings of this study were: First, the group plastic artistic activities was effective for the emotional intelligence of children. Second, the small group plastic activities was effective for the self-emotion awareness, self-emotion control and self motivation ability of children. Third, the small group plastic activities was effective for the awareness ability about other's emotion and personal relationship skill ability. The result of this study implies that the small group plastic artistic activities are effective children's emotion and we need to develop the various activity program and practice for children's emotion development.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.93-112
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• 2006

This study reviewed published studies on interventions used by hospitals, health insurance programs, or governments to improve use of medicines in foreign countries. Interventions to improve use of medicines are classified into two categories: 1) information strategies-dissemination of educational materials, group education, one-to-one educational outreach, drug utilization review, and feedback; 2) managerial strategies- formularies, prior authorization, and financial incentives. Dissemination of educational materials, which is a common intervention, was unsuccessful in changing physicians' prescribing behaviors. Problem-based small group education was more likely to change behaviors than didactic large group education. One-to-one educational outreach(academic detailing) was among the most effective strategies used to change prescribing behaviors. Prospective drug utilization review (DUR) program was more successful in improving use of medicines than retrospective DUR program. Feedback intervention has been reported to be ineffective to change behaviors. Formularies are frequently used to control medication use by most health insurance programs. Financial incentives provide physicians economic incentives according to appropriateness of prescribing. However, few published studies have assessed the efficacy of formularies or financial incentives. Prior authorization requires physicians to get authorization from health insurers before prescribing a certain group of drugs which is usually of high costs or risk. There is no magic bullet for quality use of medicines. Multifaceted interventions that help to predispose, enable, and reinforce desired behaviors are more likely to be successful.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.100-129
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• 1993

This study is designed to find out some intra-clinic factors affecting the content of practice provided by primary care physicians in Korea, and proposed factors in this study are characteristcs of each private clinc --- physician-related variables(age, sex, specialty), bfed-related variables for inpatient care, laboratory-related variables for precise diagnosis. We have tried to estimate the difference of disease entities cared by each primary care physician according to above factors by analyzin gdisease data claimed during one month(April, 1992) to National Federation of Medical Insurance. The diagnosis codes by ICD-9 in the research disease data were reclassified to 'diagnosis clusters' by virtue of clinical similarities for effective analyses. We have converted frequent-tsing ICD-9 codes to 86 diagnosis clusters, which incorporated 97.4 percents of all ambulatory visits to private clinics. This result means proposed diagnosis-cluster method is effective tool for analysis of the content of ambulatory medical care carried out by primary care physicians. Comparisons and analyses of multiple diagnosis-clusters made on the basis of presented factors were done and the results were as follows; - Major factors affecting the difference between diagnosis-cluster pattern by each variables were phyusician's age, sex, specialty and bed counts of each private clinic for inpatient care and the size of laboratories of each clinic. - Middle aged(30th to 40th) group physicians are providing more comprehensive care than 20th or above 50th aged groups. Male physicians are more adequate for comprehensive care than female physicians, because woman-doctors are providing narrow-spectrum care. The content of practice of obstetricians and gynecologists shows much difference from primary medical practice, and they cannot be included in primary care physician, this study suggested. Pediatricians are also providing short-spectum acre, and nearly all visits to pediatricians were incorporated only 2-3 diagnosis-clusters. General surgeons' practices are very similar to general practioners' or family physicians' practices, the means they are providing primary care rather than special surgical care. And small number of beds(under 5 beds) and only basic(2-3 sorts of)diagnostic apparatuses are sufficient for primary physicians' clinic to carry out primary care. In conclusion, to reinforce primary care department in Korea, there must be support with health policy to expand office-based primary care practice-- with small number of beds for inpatient care and only basic laboratories-- provided by general practitioner of family physician.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.40-50
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• 2012

Increase in the number of older people due to demographic changes poses great challenges to the social healthcare systems both in the Western and as well as in the Eastern countries. Support for older people by formal care givers leads to enormous temporal and personal efforts. Therefore, one of the most important goals is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of today's care. This can be achieved by the use of assistive technologies. These technologies are able to increase the safety of patients or to reduce the time needed for tasks that do not relate to direct interaction between the care giver and the patient. Motivated by this goal, this contribution focuses on applications of acoustic technologies to support users and care givers in ambient assisted living (AAL) scenarios. Acoustic sensors are small, unobtrusive and can be added to already existing care or living environments easily. The information gathered by the acoustic sensors can be analyzed to calculate the position of the user by localization and the context by detection and classification of acoustic events in the captured acoustic signal. By doing this, possibly dangerous situations like falls, screams or an increased amount of coughs can be detected and appropriate actions can be initialized by an intelligent autonomous system for the acoustic monitoring of older persons. The proposed system is able to reduce the false alarm rate compared to other existing and commercially available approaches that basically rely only on the acoustic level. This is due to the fact that it explicitly distinguishes between the various acoustic events and provides information on the type of emergency that has taken place. Furthermore, the position of the acoustic event can be determined as contextual information by the system that uses only the acoustic signal. By this, the position of the user is known even if she or he does not wear a localization device such as a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.