• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.445-453
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• 2019

Background: This study is to investigate the association between the distribution of multimorbidity and length of stay and medical expenses among inpatients in a municipal hospital to achieve an integrated care setting. Methods: We used the exploratory factor analysis and the generalized estimating equation model to analyze the data from patients living in the northeast region of Seoul, who were hospitalized from January 2017 to December 2017 in a municipal hospital. Results: As a result of the factor analysis, seven types of multiple chronic diseases were classified. Among the elderly patients admitted to municipal hospitals, the burden of medical expenses was mainly influenced by the length of stay (B=310,719, p-value <0.0001), not the type of disease (all not significant). Length of stay were mainly due to psychiatric illness (factor 1: B=4.323, p-value <0.0001) related to the brain and metabolic diseases (factor 2: B=2.364, p-value=0.003). Conclusion: This study showed that the medical expenses of the elderly patients were largely due to prolonged hospitalization, not multimorbidity. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an integrated care paradigm strategy cope with the multimorbidity of the elderly in the community and to alleviate the socio-economic burden.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.311-324
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• 2023

Background: Long-term care insurance for the elderly has been stably established along with the quantitative expansion of long-term care facilities. Indeed, the need for a paradigm about human rights-based service approach is being raised throughout society from a service perspective. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the association between elderly human rights awareness and quality of service by considering human rights education as a moderate variable. Methods: This study conducted surveys with 138 caregivers working in long-term care facilities located in Seoul and Gangwon. General characteristics, awareness of human rights, and the level of service quality were examined using descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and correlation analysis. And multi-variable linear regression with a hierarchical framework was employed. These analyses were performed using IBM SPSS ver. 25.0. Results: Of the 138 caregivers, 97.1% were female, 87.7% were more than 50 years old, and most of their education level was high-school graduates. Their length of employment ranged from more than 5 years to less than 10 years. The level of awareness regarding elderly human rights of the elderly was below normal (mean=2.21), but the quality of service was high (mean=4.21), and the need for human rights education was also high (mean=4.28). Among the general characteristics, the length of employment was significantly associated with awareness of elderly human rights. Moreover, political rights awareness, included as sub-domains of human rights, was positively associated with quality of service. However, the moderating variable, human rights education, was not significantly associated with the quality of service. Conclusion: In this study, human rights education, as a moderating variable, did not have a statistically significant effect on caregivers' human rights awareness in relation to service quality. This finding is inconsistent with previous research results. These results can be explained by the fact that the frequency of education in long-term care facilities was a significant factor in the practice of protecting the human rights of the elderly. Therefore ongoing encouragement for the frequency of current human rights education and improvements in the educational approach appear to be necessary. In addition, these findings reveal the need for strength of education policies and effective in-depth research about human rights and quality of service to respect the human rights of the elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.93-114
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• 2011

This study was conducted to identify college students' supportive attitude toward the elderly and their awareness of the socialization of care for the elderly, since they will have the responsibility for and the support of the aged society in the near future. This study was also conducted to analyze the factors which affect the socialization of elderly care, and to contribute to building a care system which promotes ahealthy and happy lifestyle for the elderly. After conducting a survey of 1,100 students from13 universities around the entire country, I have analyzed 1,089 data forms, and omitted 11 data entries which had errors or were not answered. 1. Those surveyed are 1,089 students from 13 universities around the entire country. Regional distributions are as follows : 263 students from 4 universities in Daegu and Kyongsangbuk Do(24.2%), 291 students from 3 universities in Busan and Kyongsangnam Do(26.7%), 272 students from 2 universities in Jeolla Do(25.0%), 263 students from 4 universities in Seoul and Gyeonggi Do. Males are 51.7% and females are 48.3% of these students. 2. Instrumental supportive sense level is high in men and emotional supportive sense level is higher in women. Also emotional supportive sense is higher in groups of those having more family members and coming from agricultural regions. 3. The sense of living with aged parents is higher in those living with grandparents than those living separate. The sense of living with sons and daughters after aging is stronger in the students from the Science and Engineering Departments than in the Social and Human Sciences Departments; also higher for men than women. 4. Recognition of elderly care socialization is higher in those from Social and Human Sciences Departments than from Science and Engineering Departments; higher in the case of upper classmenand aged groups, groups having fewer family members than more family members, and in the case of living separated from grandparents. 5. The factors affecting the sense of living with grandparents were family cohesion and instrumental supportive sense. The factors affecting the sense of elderly care socialization were family cohesion, instrumental supportive sense, and emotional supportive sense. From the results it is concluded that to insure a healthy and happy lifestyle for aged people, elderly care socialization offered by society and the country must provide desirable, appropriate care services based on the centralized support system of the family. In order to do this, we propose that elderly care needs inter-family and inter-generational fusion programs to improve family cohesion and care recognition. Also, elderly care is in urgent need to build a strong Family and Health Welfare System for care socialization.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.33-52
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• 2009

Health promotion policies have needed to assess in detailed and evidence-based work to set a policy goal and clear future directions of health promotion in Korea. To identify the major factors related with health promotion, we assessed the associations between public health outcome (potential years of life loss, PYLL) and national health determinants. For this purpose, we used a pooled cross sectional time-series regression analysis with corrected fixed effect models involving sixteen member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development during the period 1970 to 2001. The PYLL was positively associated with tobacco and alcohol consumption (model 1 and 2) and calories intake (model 2 and 3) while the PYLL was negatively associated with GDP, fruit and vegetable intake (model 2), number of doctors (model 3), coverage rates of health care security, and elderly population rates (model 4). In conclusion, health behaviors related with tobacco, alcohol, and nutrition were significant health determinants for health outcome. Overall analysis results of this study will provide a guidance toward improved macro- and micro-policy development for future health promotion policy in Korea.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2016

Elderly consumers of these days have economic power because of economic growth and live longer because of medical science development. Therefore, they have become very important customers to companies. However, if companies want to understand elderly consumers and induce them to spend money, empirical studies should have done first of all. So, this study examines the relationship between psychological characteristics of elderly consumers and purchase intention of health functional food. The results are: First, three psychological characteristics of elderly consumer are statistically significant to purchase intention of health functional food. 'Innovation-Achievement' and 'Elderly-Awareness' are positively significant to purchase intention of health functional food. Second, 'Trend-Convenience' and 'Elderly-Awareness' are more statistically significant to purchase intention of health functional food. Third, 'Trend-Convenience' is negatively significant to purchase intention of health functional food.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2020

Objectives: The quality of life (QoL) of the elderly and elder abuse are growing public health concerns. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of abuse and the association between QoL and abuse in older adults. Methods: Multistage random cluster sampling, along with valid QoL (LEIPAD: LEIden, the Netherlands; PADua, Italy; Helsinki, Finland) and abuse questionnaires, were used to assess QoL and elder abuse. Path analysis was performed using Mplus. SPSS and AMOS were used for the other analyses. Results: A total of 386 elderly individuals with a mean age of 68.00±6.10 years were interviewed, of whom 200 (51.8%), 289 (74.9%), and 376 (97.4%) were women, educated, and married, respectively. Moreover, 167 (43.2%) had low-to-moderate QoL, and 108 (27.9%) had experienced a moderate level of abuse. QoL and abuse were inversely associated (r=-0.253), with men (β=-0.24) more affected than women (β=-0.21). Musculoskeletal disorders were also strong determinants of QoL in the elderly. QoL was strongly associated with emotional abuse, while abuse was highly related to the social component of QoL. Furthermore, emotional abuse was the type of abuse most significantly associated with the self-care, depression/anxiety, cognitive, and social components of QoL. Sexual abuse, violation of personal rights, and neglect were the main determinants of the physical functioning, life satisfaction, and sexual domains of QoL, respectively. Conclusions: Nearly half of the elderly individuals lacked a high QoL, and at least one-fourth had experienced some form of abuse. Elder abuse was correlated inversely with QoL. Therefore, preventive interventions are recommended to decrease elder abuse in the family, community, and other settings.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.104-122
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• 2010

Long-term care insurance has been introduced in Korea a year ago, and we are in a stage requiring to set principles regarding the generosity of coverage and how to gradually extend the coverage. This study empirically analyzes how the long-term care insurance in Korea is operated. Special attention is given to who is the main beneficiary of the long-term care insurance introduction, and what is the factors influencing the elderly's decision to apply for or use long-term care services. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance and long-term care insurance from administration data made it possible to control for health status, socioeconomic status including family type, housing tenure, income level. Logit models were employed to analyze the effects of various socioeconomic factors on the likelihood of applying and using long-term care services. Also, this study employed a survey questioning whether to ever willing to take other option as a alternative to residential care or home-care and the level of cash benefit for which they are willing to replace the formal care with informal care. The result indicated that although the poorest elderly population groups are in the greatest need for the long-term care service, they are in difficulty using the service due to economic burden. This implies the copayment amount needs to be adjusted in order for the poor elderly group to be able to get the benefit of the long-term care service.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.519-525
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to elaborate the factors and strategies to revitalize the policies of elderly-friendly care industry. The analysis was carried out using the method called DEMATEL. The analytical method is based on the DEMATEL technique. The purpose of this study is to clarify the complexity and unclear relationship between activation factors and factors that constitute the elderly friendly-care industry through the prioritization of policy strengthening. As the result of analysis, it was analyzed that the most intensive activation intensity was the highest total strength of meal service(22.095). Followed by health promotion facilities(19.97) and health care(17.726). The lowest factor is sport(15.896). Therefore, in order to improve and promote these factors, continuous policy measures should be sought that are closely related to facility care services, home care services, and preventive support services.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.134-140
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• 2020

The aim of this research was to analyze the differences for the oral health status of the elderly people living in the long-term care facilities and the non-resident elderly. The study was conducted on 469 elderly people of the same age, gender and basic living conditions. Elderly residing in long-term care facilities had higher dental caries prevalence(p=0.019), DT(p=0.001), and MT(p=0.047) than non-resident elderly, and had lower FT(p<0.001) than non-resident elderly. The elderly living in facilities were 1.93 times more likely to be caries than non-residents, and 0.73 times more likely to have a filled tooth. The probability of denture use was 0.15 times for the maxillary and 0.13 times for the mandibular. The probability of denture needs was 5.61 times for the maxillary and 5.65 times for the mandibular. All of these results showed significant differences. As a result of this, it can be used as basic data for establishing oral health policy for oral health promotion of the elderly living in Long-term care facilities.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.157-173
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to determine factors influencing the health satisfaction of the elderly. The study was conducted with 1,294 subjects during 3 months from 1st February to 30, April, 2008. The results were as follows. 1. The average score of their health satisfaction level is $2.76{\pm}1.81$ points on the basis of 5 point(54.2 points on the basis of 100 points). The health satisfaction level of the elderly was significantly associated with age, sex, marital status, monthly allowance, education level, occupation, the number of family members living together, family closeness, stress, and use of the social welfare centers. 2. As the variables affecting on the health satisfaction level, sex, age, marital status, monthly income, accupation, education level, the number of family members living together. stress levels. family closeness, ADL IADL and the use of the social welfare centers. were found, and the influence of these variables was 49.34%. The government, social service units, private health & medical organizations and experts need to pay more attention to factors influencing effective policy and health education programs for health promotion regarding the quality of life.