• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.288-302
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• 2019

Background: The one-person households (OPH) are rapidly increasing and vulnerable to socioeconomic and health problems. Because it is predicted to be inequitable to health care utilization, we would like to find out about the equity of health care utilization of the OPH by comparison with the multi-person households (MPH). Methods: This study followed the theoretical framework of Wagstaff and van Doorslaer (2000), O'Donnell and his colleagues (2008), where the horizontal inequity index is the difference between the concentration indices of actual health care utilization and health care needs. This study employed the 9th Korea Health Panel survey, and a total of 10,807 cases were analyzed. Health care needs were measured by age, sex, subjective health status, chronic disease count, Charlson's Comorbidity Index, limitation of activities, and disability. Results: Compared with the MPH, there were pro-poor inequities in hospitalization, emergency utilization, hospitalization out-of-pocket payments, and pro-rich inequities in outpatient out-of-pocket payments for the OPH. The decomposition of the concentration index revealed that chronic disease count made the largest contribution to socioeconomic inequality in outpatient utilization. Age, health insurance, economic activities, and subjective health status also proved more important contributors to inequality. The variables contributing to the hospitalization and emergency utilization inequity were age, education, Charlson's Comorbidity Index, marital status, and income. Conclusion: Because the OPH was more vulnerable to health problems than the MPH and there were pro-poor inequities in medical utilization, hospitalization, and emergency costs, it is necessary to develop a policy that can correct and improve the portion of high contribution to medical utilization of the OPH.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.195-202
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• 2015

Objectives: Receiving proper dental care plays a significant role in maintaining good oral health. We investigated the relationship between regional deprivation and dental care utilization. Methods: Multilevel logistic regression was used to identify the relationship between the regional deprivation level and dental care utilization purpose, adjusting for individual-level variables, in adults aged 19+ in the 2008 Korean Community Health Survey (n=220 258). Results: Among Korean adults, 12.8% used dental care to undergo examination and 21.0% visited a dentist for other reasons. In the final model, regional deprivation level was associated with significant variations in dental care utilization for examination (p<0.001). However, this relationship was not shown with dental care utilization for other reasons in the final model. Conclusions: This study's findings suggest that policy interventions should be considered to reduce regional variations in rates of dental care utilization for examination.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.52-64
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the utilization of health care of patients with lung cancer in Korea and identify determinants of these patients' health care utilization. Methods: This was a descriptive analytical study. The national medical fees claims data of patients with lung cancer were used. Using SPSS Statistics 20, the ${\chi}^2$-test and logistic regression were performed to determine the factors influencing health care utilization. Results: There were significant differences by sex, age, disease type, stage, comorbidity index, region of institutions, and type of institutions in the utilization of surgical procedures; by age, disease type, stage, comorbidity index, region of institutions, and type of institutions in the utilization of chemotherapy; and by age, stage, comorbidity index, region of institutions, and type of institutions in the utilization of radiotherapy. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that democratic and clinical characteristics of patients as well as institutional characteristics affect health care utilization of patients with lung cancer. Additional research is needed to determine the factors influencing health care utilization of patients with lung cancer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.7463-7473
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• 2015

This study aims to analyze the effect of long-term care utilization on health care utilization of the national health insurance elderly. This study is a secondary data analysis of the long-term care insurance data that comprised of total 21,213 long-term care insurance with the level 1 elders who received either service or non-service. This study evaluated the impact of long-term care service on the probability of health care utilization experience and costs of health care utilization. The total medical cost, geriatric hospital's medical cost, inpatient day and geriatric hospital's inpatient day by 2007-2009 were significant factor influencing the long-term care utilization. This study suggests long term care system should proper medical service linkage system. The current long-term care insurance system should more resource allocation on long-term care utilization to increase the efficiency of insurance system.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.840-849
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine dental care utilization and expenditures among children aged 0 to 19 years using Korea Health Panel Survey (KHPS) data in 2008 - 2013. Weighted estimates were nationally representative and statistical significances were analysed by $x^2$ test or adjusted Wald test using STATA 13 software. While dental care utilization increased steadily among children from 2008 through 2013, less than one-third the children received dental care in 2013. Compared with 2008, the proportion of restorative care, oral surgery, preventive care decreased and the proportion of orthodontic care, prosthetic care increased. While the proportion of amalgam markedly decreased, the proportion of resin increased. This study highlight socioeconomic disparities in dental utilization and expenditures among children. Especially the findings provide a baseline assessment for examining trends on dental care for children in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.6746-6755
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• 2014

This study examined the effect of long-term care utilization on the health care utilization of Medicaid elderly. The subjects were 5,834 long-term care insurance with the level 1 Medicaid elders, who received either service or non-service. This study examined the impact of long-term care service on the probability of health care utilization and the costs of health care utilization. The total medical cost and inpatient day between 2009-2007 were significant factors affecting long-term care utilization (${\beta}=.29$, p< .001, ${\beta}=.33$, p< .001 ) and this variable explained 22.6% of the total medical cost and 22.4% of the inpatient day. The results showed that non-service in long-term care was associated with an increase in health care utilization. The current long-term care insurance system should place higher priority and more resource allocation on long-term care utilization to increase the efficiency of the insurance system.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.928-935
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• 2012

Purpose: The current study was done to identify individual- and group-level factors associated with health care service utilization among Korean medical aid beneficiaries by applying multilevel modeling. Methods: Secondary data analysis was performed using data on health care service reimbursement and medical aid case management progress from 15,948 beneficiaries, and data from 229 regions were included in the analysis. Results: Results of multilevel analysis showed an estimated intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 18.1%, indicating that the group level accounted for 18.1% of the total variance in health care service utilization, and that beneficiaries within the region are more likely to share common features with regard to health care service utilization. At the individual level, existence of disability and types of medical aid beneficiaries showed a significant association, while, at the group level, social deprivation index, and the number of beneficiaries and case managers within the region showed a significant association with health care service utilization. Conclusion: The significant influence of group level variables in health care service utilization found in this study indicate a need for group level approaches, such as policy change and/or promotion of community awareness.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.179-190
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• 2019

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of health promotion behaviors on the correlation between self-perceived health and medical care utilization among older adults. Methods: This study used data from a. Data were analyzed with frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression. Mediation analysis was performed according to the Sobel test. Results: The self-perceived health and some health promotion behaviors in older adults had a statistically significant effect on medical care utilization. Only the nutritional management of health promotion behaviors had a mediating effect on the relation between the self-perceived health and medical care utilization of older adults. Conclusions: The nutritional management of older adults was confirmed as an important factor to health promotion and prevention. This study was meaningful in that it identified the political directions for establishing health care policy for the older adults.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.228-241
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• 2014

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of health insurance coverage expansion for cancer patients on equity in health care utilization and catastrophic expenditure. Methods: To analyze the causal relationship between the policy to expand benefit coverage and the change in health care utilization and out-of-pocket payments of cancer patients, this study employed a difference-in-differences (DID) method. In the DID model, the change in health care utilization, such as health care expenditure, visit days and length of stay, of cancer patients was compared with that of liver disease patients, using Korea Health Panel Data in 2009 and 2010. Results: The policy of reducing cost sharing from 10% to 5% for cancer patients did not have significant effects on equity in health care utilization. The results of this study were different from those of the previous study that showed that the reduction of cost sharing from 20% to 10% significantly improved the equity in health care utilization of cancer patients. In addition, the result of catastrophic expenditures analysis showed the policy did not change the probability of catastrophic expenditures. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that payment for non-covered services account for high out-of-pocket payments, and the reduction in cost sharing for covered services alone may have a limited effect on total financial burden on patients.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.27-80
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• 1993

It is widely known that patients' utilization pattern for medical care facilities and the patientflow are influenced by multi-factors, such as demographic characteristics, structural characteristics of society, socio-psychological characteristics(value, attitude, norms, culture, health behavior, etc.), economic characteristics(income, medical price, relative price, physician induced demand, etc.), geographical accessibility, systematic characteristics(health care delivery system, payment methods for physician fees, form of health care security, etc.), and characteristics of medical facilities(reliability, quality of medical care, convenience, kindness, tec.). This study was conducted to research the mechanism of patient-flow according to changes of health care system(implementation of national health insurance, health care referral system and regionalization of health care utilization, etc.) and characteristics of medical facilities(ownership of hospital, characteristics of medical services, non-medical characteristics, etc.). In this study, the fact could be ascertained that the patient-flow had been influenced by changes of health care system and characteristics of medical facilities.