• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze medical expenses by decedents in their last year of life and compare them with those by survivors during the year 2008. This study is conducted firstly in Korea, except some studies focusing on medical cost of decedents from specific diseases. To study this, national health insurance(NHI) claims data was used with medicaid claims data. The study group(decedents) was selected from the insurance entitlement file who were dropped out from January to December of 2008. The control group(survivors) was selected from the entitlement file by stratified sampling with keeping age-sex composition of the study group. The medical expenses of decedents during one year before death were measured and compared with those of survivors by sex and age. And the medical expenses were analyzed by causes of death, and also the expenses were examined by each item of medical services. On average, the medical expense amounted to 11 million Korean Won per decedent during their last year of life in 2008. The medical expense per decedent was 9.3 higher than that of survivor. The death-related expense of under the age 35 was about 16 million Won, compared with 4 million Won in the case of over the age 95, in average. The death-related expense is higher in younger ages. This means that more medical resources are put in to save life in younger ages. Total death-related expenditure took 8.3 percent in total NHI expenditures. Of the death-related medical expenses, the largest one was injection-related cost which shares twenty five percent, and the second largest one was hospitalization charges, and then the third one was surgery cost. The results of this study suggested that we should pay attention to the medical expenses in the last of year of life when we study health care expenditure in Korea. In addition, we have to deliberate health care policy to cope with medical expenditures before death in more efficient way.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.159-165
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• 2015

Objective: Polypharmacy is one of the main causes of inappropriate medication use, adverse drug-related events and cost. It aimed to investigate the status of polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication (PIM), the factors affecting polypharmacy and cost in elderly outpatients. Method: A pharmacy claim data were retrospectively analyzed with elderly patients prescriptions at a pharmacy located near a top tier general hospital. The numbers of medications per person, prevalence of polypharmacy and PIM according to the 2012 Beers criteria and Korea PIM list, medication cost and the factors affecting polypharmacy were investigated. Results: Forty-six percentages of the elderly outpatients received polypharmacy and over 21% of them had medications listed in Beers or Korean PIM. In multiregressional analysis, we found that age, gender and insurance types were affective factors of polypharmacy. (p < 0.001, 0.047, 0.009, respectively). The cost of polypharmacy with PIM in elderly outpatients was increased with age. Various approaches of interventions would be further required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1115-1119
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• 2013

Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a serious complication following chemotherapy and is associated with significant mortality and financial expenditure. The aim of this study was to evaluate risk factors for longer length of stay (LOS) and mortality and cost of treatment among hospitalized adults with cancer who developed febrile neutropenia in Thailand. Materials and Methods: Information on illness of inpatients and casualties came from hospitals nationwide and from hospital withdrawals from the 3 health insurance schemes in fiscal 2010. The data covered 96% of the population and were analyzed by age groups, hospital level, and insurance year schemes in patients with febrile neutropenia. Results: A total of 5,809 patients were identified in the study. The mortality rate was 14%. The median LOS was 8.67 days and 69% of patients stayed for longer than 5 days. On bivariate analysis, age, cancer type, and infectious complications (bacteremia/sepsis, hypotension, fungal infections, and pneumonia) were significantly associated with longer LOS and death. On multivariate analysis, acute leukemia and infectious complications were linked with longer LOS and death significantly. The median cost of hospitalized FN was THB 33,686 (USD 1,122) with the highest cost observed in acute leukemia patients. Conclusions: FN in adult patients results in significant mortality in hospitalized Thai patients. Factors associated with increased mortality include older age (>70), acute leukemia, comorbidity, and infectious complications.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.319-329
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• 2015

Objectives: Parental socioeconomic status (SES) exerts a substantial influence on children's health. The purpose of this study was to examine factors determining children's private health insurance (PHI) enrolment and children's healthcare utilization according to PHI coverage. Methods: Korea Health Panel data from 2011 (n=3085) was used to explore the factors determining PHI enrolment in children younger than 15 years of age. A logit model contained health status and SES variables for both children and parents. A fixed effects model identified factors influencing healthcare utilization in children aged 10 years or younger, using 2008 to 2011 panel data (n=9084). Results: The factors determining children's PHI enrolment included children's age and sex and parents' educational status, employment status, and household income quintile. PHI exerted a significant effect on outpatient cost, inpatient cost, and number of admissions. Number of outpatient visits and total length of stay were not affected by PHI status. The interaction between PHI and age group increased outpatient cost significantly. Conclusions: Children's PHI enrolment was influenced by parents' SES, while healthcare utilization was affected by health and disability status. Therefore, the results of this study suggest disparities in healthcare utilization according to PHI enrollment.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 2000

In a recent paper Iskandar ＆ Sandoh (1999) studied an opportunity-based age replacement policy for a system which has a warranty period (0,S]. When the system fails at age x $\leq$ S a minimal repair is performed. If an opportunity occurs to the system at age x, S $\leq$ x $\leq$ T, we take the opportunity with probability p to preventively replace the system, while we conduct a corrective .replacement when its fails in (S,T). Finally, if its age reaches T, we perform a preventive replacement, Under this policy the design variable is T. For the case when opportunities occur according to a homogeneous Poisson process, the long-run average cost of this policy was formulated and studied analytically by Iskandar & Sandoh (1999). The same problem is here analysed by using a graphical technique based on scaled TTT-transforms. This technique gives, among other things, excellent possibilities for different types of sensitivity analysis. We also extend the discussion to the situation when we have to estimate T based on times to failure.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.1310-1319
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• 2010

This paper has shown that Linear Induction Motor(LIM) and Rack and pinion type are efficient in selecting railway routes and systems after considering time, geo-spatial characteristics and the floating population by benchmarking domestic and overseas mountain trains. The benefit-cost analysis through the use of modeling on user's willingness to pay is conducted as a means that provides access to tourism resources. this paper concludes that the benefit-cost varies in response to changes in the amount of user's willingness to pay by age. It is expected that this paper serves as a reference data in the introduction stage of the mountain train project implemented by central or local governments with tourism resources in mountainous areas as the mountain train has turned out to be economically efficient while various potential benefits that have not been included in the benefit-cost analysis need to be quantified and remain to be studied further.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2000

In many cases, it is more practical and economical to repair a system than to replace the whole system or to perform a complete overhaul when it fails. The age replacement policy with minimal repair at failure is considered. The system is replaced every time its age reaches at $T_0$. For each intervening failure only minimal repair is done. The minimal repair times in a renewal period are increasing in the sense that the minimal repair times constitute a strictly increasing geometric process. The long-run expected cost rate Is obtained and the properties of the existence and the uniqueness of the optimal policy minimizing the long-run expected cost rate are derived.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.125-145
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to understand the general consumer knowledge and adoption intention of nanotechnology products, one of the advanced scientific fields. We examined consumers' knowledge of innovation products based on nanotechnology, by gender and age group, which are divided into benefits, cost, and trust perception. As a result, the benefits were highly perceived in the order of perceived usefulness, perceived gains, and perceived ease of use. In general, it was found that men and older age group perceived the benefits of nanotechnology to be relatively higher than women and younger age groups did. In terms of cost, perceived risk was relatively higher than other variables and a high innovation resistance appeared in the younger 30s group. Finally, we found that trust for nano-related institution is relatively lower than trust for nano-related people and trust for nanotechnology itself.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.33
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• pp.87-92
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• 1995

This paper proposes age replacement policy in stepdown warranty policy. The replacement policy is considered in case of minimally repairable items. And renewal theory is used in analyzing warranty costs. The expected cost per unit time is presented in stepdown warranty policy, free replacement, prorata and hybrid policy. In this article it is assumed that item is replaced at the age of T but the any failure is minimally repaired before the age T. At this point the expected cost per unit time is shown in customer's view point. And numerical example is explored in weibull time-to-failure distribution.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.400-403
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: By the year 2050, thirty-eight percent of the Korean population will be over the age of 65. Health care costs for Koreans over age 65 reached 15.4 trillion Korean won in 2011, accounting for a third of the total health care costs for the population. Chronic degenerative diseases, including coronary heart disease (CHD), drive long-term health care costs at an alarming annual rate. In the elderly population, loss of independence is one of the main reasons for this increase in health care costs. Korean heath policies place a high priority on the prevention of CHD because it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This evidence-based study aims to the estimate potential health care cost savings resulting from the daily intake of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. Potential cost savings associated with a reduced risk of CHD and the medical costs potentially avoided through risk reduction, including hospitalizations and physician services, were estimated using a Congressional Budget Office cost accounting methodology. RESULTS: The estimate of the seven-year (2005-2011) net savings in medical costs resulting from a reduction in the incidence of CHD among the elderly population through the daily use of omega-3 fatty acids was approximately 210 billion Korean won. Approximately 92,997 hospitalizations due to CHD could be avoided over the seven years. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that omega-3 supplementation in older individuals may yield substantial cost-savings by reducing the risk of CHD. It should be noted that additional health and cost benefits need to be revisited and re-evaluated as more is known about possible data sources or as new data become available.