• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.5077-5081
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• 2014

To clarify whether gastric cancer patients can benefit from laparoscopy-assisted surgery completed by junior surgeons under supervision of expert surgeons, data of 232 patients with gastric cancer underwent operation performed by inexperienced junior surgeons were reviewed. Of the 232 patients, 137 underwent laparoscopy-assisted resection and in 118 cases this approach was successful. All of these 118 patients were assigned to laparoscopic group in this study, 19 patients who were switched to open resection were excluded. All laparoscopic operations were performed under the supervision of expert laparoscopic surgeons. Some 95 patients receiving open resection were assigned to the open group. All open operations were completed independently by the same surgeons. Short-term outcomes including oncologic outcomes, operative time intra-operative blood loss, time to first flatus, time to first defecation, postoperative hospital stay and perioperative complication were compared between the two groups. The numbers of lymph nodes harvested in the laparoscopic and open groups were $21.1{\pm}9.6$ and $18.2{\pm}9.7$ (p=0.029). There was no significant difference in the length of margins. The mean operative time was $215.9{\pm}32.2$ min in laparoscopic group and $220.1{\pm}34.6min$ in the open group (p=0.866), and the mean blood loss in laparoscopic group was obviously less than that in open group ($200.9{\pm}197.0ml$ vs $291.1{\pm}191.4ml$; p=0.001). Time to first flatus in laparoscopic and open groups was $4.0{\pm}1.0$ days and $4.3{\pm}1.2$ days respectively and the difference was not significant (p=0.135). Similarly no statically significant difference was noted for time to first defecation ($4.7{\pm}1.6$ vs $4.8{\pm}1.6$, p=0.586). Eleven patients in the laparoscopic group and 19 in the open group suffered from peri-operative complications and the difference between the two groups was significant (9.3% vs 20.0%, p=0.026). The conversion rate for laparoscopic surgery was 13.9%. Patients with gastric cancer can benefit from laparoscopy-assisted operations completed by inexperienced junior surgeons under supervision of expert laparoscopic surgeons.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.314-323
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the status of medical service use of foreigners living in Korea by their nationality and types of national health insurance. As of 2018, 1,058,886 people were extracted from the qualification DB, excluding people whose insurance premium is missing. The data analysis showed that nearly 78% of foreigners with national health insurance used medical services and the countries with the largest number of users were China, Vietnam, and the United States. The total cost of treatment per capita was highest in the United States regardless of hospitalization and outpatient. The number of medical treatments per person, and the medical expenses of outpatients & inpatients services were highest among the regionally-insured and the length of stay per person was highest among the workers' dependents. Lastly, it was found that Chinese and regionally-insured received much more benefits than other groups compared to the premium they pay. After July 2019, foreign nationals residing in Korea for six months or longer are obligated to enroll in the national health insurance program. Since the latest data was in 2018, the result did not properly reflect the current situation, but it is meaningful that it made basic data for future comparative analysis.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.99-106
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate incidence rates of complications in response to the introduction of quality evaluation of the DRG(diagnosis related group) payments, focusing on an increasing number of patients with lens surgery as the population aging increases.Fourthly, there were three dependent variables ('vitreous prolapse', 'IOP elevations', and 'other complications') in this study, and therefore multivariate logistic regression was performed. The result of the analysis indicates that as the number of hospitalized days increased, vitreous prolapse decreased to 0.27 times(95% CI 0.08~1.00) and IOP elevation decreased by 0.14 times(95% CI 0.03~1.59), compared to other complications, and this was statistically significant. From the above results, this study is meaningful in that it has compared the evaluation results of the appropriateness of DRG payment and the medical quality for lens surgery complications patients, in response to the introduction of quality evaluation by DRG payment.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.135-149
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• 2019

This article analyzed economic effects of changes in spatial accessibility on regional touruism expenditure structure resulting from highway investments on Gangwon province, Korea. The Seemingly Unrelated Regress(SUR) model is applied to analyze the structure of change in tourism expenditure of Gangwon Province, and the competition and complementary relationship of tourist demand were analyzed among 18 counties in Gangwon by Dendrinos-Sonis method. The spatial accessibility has a significant effect on the increase in amount of tourist expenditure, but by 1% increase in the accessibility resulted in a reduction of length of stay -0.18% and travel costs -0.34% by respectively. The most powerful variable for improving the on-site economy is the tourist service establishment, which increases one unit, the amount of tourist expenditure increased by 3.6%. Moreover, the competition and supplemental relationship of tourism demands in Gangwon was decided by the conditions under which traffic flow with passing occurred, such as inland or ocean-typed travel attractions, adjacent or remote regions to the highway. The limitations of this study were not able to use raw data of tourism expenditures before and after the opening the highway due to the restriction of priority data, and further research on the appropriate level of spatial accessibility for the regional economy is needed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.35-65
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between health insurance and health by evaluating the impacts of health insurance coverage expansion on health care utilization and health status. To analyze the causal relationship between health insurance and health, this study employed a "difference-in-difference method" that could compare changes in health care utilization and health status across groups in health insurance coverage expansion in 2005. The researcher predicted that the expansion of health insurance coverage would be an exogenous source of variation in the prices of health service use. First, the difference-in-differences estimator between 'illness group' and 'non-illness group' revealed that the increase in coverage of inpatient care services would result from the increases in the stay of length of 'non-illness group' rather than that of 'illness group'. However, the difference-in-differences estimator between 'serious illness group' and 'chronic illness group' identified that the policy change that focuses on expansion of the coverage for 'serious illness' effects on the increases in health care utilization and promotion of health status. In summary, the changes of health insurance coverage focusing on serious illness and inpatient care have positive effects on health care utilization and health status of serious illness group. But, 'non-illness groups' with acute illness receive more benefits from the policy change than 'illness group' with chronic illness.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.48-67
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• 2006

The aim of the study was to examine levels of satisfaction with health care in North Korea and to identify factors associated with it using a convenience sample of North Korean refugees in China. Data from the 2004 Survey of Health Seeking Behavior of North Korean Households conducted by the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health were used. The study subjects were 273 North Korean refugees whose length of stay in China was less than 3 months. Factor analysis was used to extract factor dimensions from the 12 satisfaction items. Bivariate (t test and ANOVA) and multiple regression analyses were used in examining factors associated with satisfaction with health care use in North Korea Overall, satisfaction level was low ($2.36{\pm}0.36$, score range: 1-5). Of the three-factor dimensions, physician skills scored the highest $(2.93{\pm}0.36)$, followed by drug availability $(2.51{\pm}0.07)$ and general cleanliness $(1.66{\pm}0.55)$. In the multiple regression analysis, having a usual source of care was significantly associated with patient satisfaction. Respondents who identified primary care (section) doctors as their usual source of care tended to be less satisfied than those with the city or county hospital as their usual source of care. County residents tended to report a lower degree of satisfaction with general cleanliness than city residents. Among socioeconomic characteristics, the number of household assets positively predicted satisfaction with drug availability. North Korean residents appear to be dissatisfied with their medical care. It may reflect some inadequacies in the North's universal health care system to meet the healthcare needs of its people.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2013

Background: Diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) has recently been introduced in Korea as a demonstration project and it has aimed the improvement of accuracy in bundled payment instead of Diagnosis related group (DRG). The purpose of this study is to investigate that the model of end-stage liver disease (MELD) score as the severity classification of liver diseases is adequate for improving reimbursement of DPC. Methods: The subjects of this study were 329 patients of liver disease (Korean DRG ver. 3.2 H603) who had discharged from National Health Insurance Corporation Ilsan Hospital which is target hospital of DPC demonstration project, between January 1, 2007 and July 31, 2010. We tested the cost differences by severity classifications which were DRG severity classification and clinical severity classification-MELD score. We used a multiple regression model to find the impacts of severity on total medical cost controlling for demographic factor and characteristics of medical services. The within group homogeneity of cost were measured by calculating the coefficient of variation and extremal quotient. Results: This study investigates the relationship between medical costs and other variables especially severity classifications of liver disease. Length of stay has strong effect on medical costs and other characteristics of patients or episode also effect on medical costs. MELD score for severity classification explained the variation of costs more than DRG severity classification. Conclusion: The accuracy of DRG based payment might be improved by using various clinical data collected by clinical situations but it should have objectivity with considering availability. Adequate compensation for severity should be considered mainly in DRG based payment. Disease specific severity classification would be an alternative like MELD score for liver diseases.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.74-79
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• 2022

Background: The effect of underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during a pandemic is controversial. The purpose of this study was to examine the prognosis of COVID-19 according to the underlying COPD. Methods: COVID-19 patients were assessed using nationwide health insurance data. Comorbidities were evaluated using the modified Charlson Comorbidity Index (mCCI) which excluded COPD from conventional CCI scores. Baseline characteristics were assessed. Univariable and multiple logistic and linear regression analyses were performed to determine effects of variables on clinical outcomes. Ages, sex, mCCI, socioeconomic status, and underlying COPD were selected as variables. Results: COPD patients showed older age (71.3±11.6 years vs. 47.7±19.1 years, p<0.001), higher mCCI (2.6±1.9 vs. 0.8±1.3, p<0.001), and higher mortality (22.9% vs. 3.2%, p<0.001) than non-COPD patients. The intensive care unit admission rate and hospital length of stay were not significantly different between the two groups. All variables were associated with mortality in univariate analysis. However, underlying COPD was not associated with mortality unlike other variables in the adjusted analysis. Older age (odds ratio [OR], 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.14; p<0.001), male sex (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.67-3.12; p<0.001), higher mCCI (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.20-1.41; p<0.001), and medical aid insurance (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.03-2.32; p=0.035) were associated with mortality. Conclusion: Underlying COPD is not associated with a poor prognosis of COVID-19.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.405-411
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• 2016

Given the importance of ensuring continued residency and maintenance of the 1st Planned New Town, which is the first of more than 20 such projects, this study aims to identify the factors determining the residents' living intention. The results show that age, gender, length of stay, and occupancy type are significant factors influencing their living intention. Among the environmental factors, the educational environment and shopping environment are crucial. This means that in order to achieve the "Ageing in Place" concept, it is necessary to improve the educational environment, provide a variety of commercial facilities and expand the living facilities. While it has no direct influence on the pros and cons of building remodeling, the results showed that when the living intention is used as a parameter, the transportation, educational, and shopping environment have an indirect influence on the pros and cons of building remodeling.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.59-62
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• 2009

Background: Pleural drainage following video-assisted thoracic surgery has traditionally been achieved with largebore, semi-rigid chest tubes. Recent trends in thoracic surgery have been toward less invasive approaches for a variety of diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drainage by means of small, soft, and flexible 14Fr Blake drains. Material and Method: Between December 2007 and March 2008, 14Fr silastic Blake drains were used for drainage of the pleural cavity in 37 patients who underwent a variety of video-assisted thoracic surgical procedures at our institution. Result: The average postoperative length of hospital stay was 3.26 days (range, 2~12 days), Blake drains were left in the pleural space for an average of 3.15 days (range, 1~7 days), and the average amount of drainage was 43.8 ml/day. The maximal amount of blood removed daily by a Brake drain was as much as 290 mL. There were no drain-related complications. Blake drains seemed to cause less pain while in place, and particularly at the time of removal. Conclusion: The use of a Blake drain following minor thoracic surgery appeared to be safe and effective in drainage of fluid or air in the pleural space, and were associated with minimal discomfort.