• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine how dental-care institutions responded to discontented customers and how much they provided grievance service and tried not to displease customers. After a survey was conducted on dental-care institutions from January 20 through February 20, 2007, the answer sheets from 206 respondents were analyzed with SPSS WIN 12.0 program, except four incomplete ones. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. 32.5 percent of the respondents were aware of grievance service, and 64.6 percent actually provided no grievance service. 94.7 percent had ever met customers who made a complaint. 2. The most common grievance of medical consumers was that it took long time to receive treatment and to wait for it. The second most dominant complaint was that the treatment they received was beyond the coverage of health-care insurance(30.6%). An insufficient medical explanation was the third most common grievance(6.3%), followed by excessive medical bills(5.8%). The most dominant number of monthly grievance case was one to ten(91.3%). As for how customers voiced their complaints, the largest number of customers talked employees about that in person(88.2%), and dental hygienists were mainly identified as a person who handled their grievance(56.8%). Concerning how the dental-care institutions responded to complaining customers, the largest number of the institutions took an immediate action(34.5%), and the second largest group took a measure after investigating the disposition of discontented patients(30.0%). The third greatest group just made an excuse(11.1%), and the fourth greatest group directed active efforts into taking care of complaining customers by offering grievance service (7.0%). 3. The dental-care institutions got a mean of 3.02 in grievance handling. The institutions that dental hygienists were in charge of grievance handling statistically significantly better responded to discontented customers than the others that receptionists were in charge of that(p < .01). The institutions that had no monthly grievance cases took care of discontented customers statistically significantly better than the institutions that faced one to ten grievance cases or 11 or more cases (p < .05). 4. The dental-care institutions got a mean of 2.59 in providing service of preventing customers from being dissatisfied. The institutions located in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi province provided statistically significantly better service of that kind than the others located in the other regions(p < .01). And the dental-care institutions that dental hygienists were in charge of grievance handling offered statistically significantly better service of that kind than the dental-care institutions that receptionists were in charge of it(p < .05).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.17-23
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• 2004

Not all individuals respond identically, or at times in the same direction, to dietary interventions. These inconsistencies likely arise because of diet and genomic interactions (nutrigenomics effects). A host of factors may influence the response to bioactive food components including specific polymorphisms (nutrigenetic effect), DNA methylation patterns and other epigenomic factors (nutritional epigenomic effects), capacity to induce anuo. suppress specific mRNA expression and patterns (nutritional transcriptomics), the occurrence and activity of proteins (proteomic effects), and/or the dose and temporal changes in cellular small molecular weight compounds will not only provide clues about specificity in response to food components, but assist in the identification of surrogate tissues and biomarkers that can predict a response. While this 'discovery' phase is critical for defining mechanisms and targets, and thus those who will benefit most from intervention, its true usefulness depends on moving this understanding into 'development' (interventions for better prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment) and a 'delivery' phase where information is provided to those most in need. It is incumbent on those involved with food and nutrition to embrace the 'omics' that relate to nutrition when considering not only the nutritional value of foods and their food components, but also when addressing acceptability and safety. The future of 'Nutrigenomics and Health Promotion' depends on the ability of the scientific community to identity appropriate biomarkers and susceptibility variants, effective communications about the merits of such undertakings with the health care community and with consumers, and doing all of this within a responsible bioethical framework.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.345-351
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• 2020

The study investigates how marketing mix factors are mediated by health consciousness and service quality in creating fresh fruit buying decisions of customers in Vietnam. This study employs samples of customers in Vietnam via the survey questionnaire. The authors have used a total of 256 responses that acquired the valid criteria. The compound of data analysis comprises reliability test, validity test, exploratory factor analysis, group analysis and multiple regression analysis to structure the hypothesized model. Respectively, the structural equation model (SEM) is applied to conduct the multiple multivariate equations. By the assumption of causal-effect relationship between independent variables such as marketing mixed factors, and mediator as health consciousness and service quality, which potentially impact on purchase decision; the SEM method is deployed. The results reveal that consumers have paid no attention to the marketing mix factors, but they care much about service quality and health consciousness. Thus, health consciousness and service quality are effective mediators. These findings are new and contribute to the consumer behavior and retail marketing literature. The findings of this study can provide assistance to managers in the given field to understand more easily the consumer behavior about fresh fruits, then improve their own performance.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.230-242
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• 2000

Background : The measuring instruments for customer satisfaction in hospitals are often composed of some dimensions reflecting the conceptive complexity of them. Then, overall satisfaction would be expected to be equal the 'weighted' sum of scores by dimensions because the importance rated by customers may be different across the dimensions. But the issue of how to weight the dimensions with importance is not yet solved. We examined 3 sets of weighting methods as to make effect on predictive power against overall satisfaction. Methods : We conducted a survey included 483 subjects who had visited or admitted to a university hospital, using the short form questionnaire being developed by The Korean Society of Quality Assurance in Health Care for out-patient and in-patient. By using a multiple linear regression model, we compared among changes of explanatory powers against overall satisfaction as dependent variable after weighting 4 dimensions of the survey questionnaire as independent variables with importance scores of dimensions perceived by consumers. And we compared the feasibility of each weighting, methods by checking missing cases. Results : There were no weighting methods increasing the explanatory power after applying them. The method of absolute scoring was found higher explanatory-power than others, but this finding had no statistical significance. Regarding the number of missing value, method of absolutely scoring had the least cases. Conclusion : Our findings suggested that weighting the dimensions with importance might have little significance in the cases of scales having items highly correlated, such as consumers' satisfaction. Though asking with items to be answered absolutely, customers might be rating relatively in some degree and this method produced least missing cases. Considering these points, in the cases when weighting the dimensions with importance would be required, we suggest that weighting method by absolute scoring might be better than others.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.323-340
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• 2010

Many social and environmental changes have emerged due to the increasing size of the aging generation. This study explored the current status of the information leisure activity of the aging generation (computer use activity, internet service participation, social community participation and blogging, UCC, etc.) and the need for serious games among elderly consumers. It analyzed the current status of serious game and information leisure span as determined by experts on elderly care at the aging welfare institute. The research methods involved applying content analysis and focus group interviews. The results were as follows: The elderly are willing to enjoy the internet and economics networks. In particular, economic investment, economic news, health, meetings, and communication are the main internet search categories. The results for serious games are less interesting than those for IT participation. The components of usefulness in terms of serious games, as identified by care experts, are simplicity, a user-friendly interface, efficacy, and certainty in using the game device. Care experts recognize that serious games represent a supplementary device to traditional physical and emotional therapy.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.317-326
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• 2021

This study examines factors influencing the corporate identity (CI) of pharmacy retail stores (PRSs) in Thailand as a means to construct a unique corporate identity to represent their strengths and image abroad. An exploratory sequential design was applied. A pilot study involving interviews with four pharmacists was conducted to obtain the variables, and then a questionnaire was designed and administered to 392 respondents. The collected data was analyzed to examine correlations via descriptive analysis, Pearson's correlation, and multiple linear regression (MLR). The results show that wisdom and pharmaceutical care explain 44% of the variance in defining Thai PRSs identity. There is a 61% chance that Thai PRSs should consider wisdom as the most important factor. These findings provide useful insights for pharmacists, pharmaceutical entrepreneurs, and owners of PRSs to enhance competitiveness by devising strategies to create their corporate identity. For the qualitative analysis, Thai PRSs should encourage pharmacists to gain real working experience to develop their wisdom, experience, and skills. Besides, PRSs that build identities as knowledgeable, sincere, and compassionate health providers can successfully expand their operations to other ASEAN countries, as end-consumers will be confident in the reliability of their services.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.105-110
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• 2017

It is natural that the medical advertisement should be guaranteed as part of the basic commercial activities of medical institutions. However, the general public are non-specialist and they have less informed about medical care than medical specialists, and it is not easy to judge and select medical information. Also, if someone damaged by illegal medical advertising, it cannot be recovered to the original. In this regard, medical advertising has been legislated so that medical organizations can pre - screen the medical laws. However, In December 2015, after the Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional preliminary censorship, it became virtually impossible to pre-screen. In recent years, illegal medical advertisement have been on the rise, and false and exaggerated medical advertising are increasing the damage to medical consumers. Therefore it is urgent to take countermeasures about this. Thus, this paper try to analyzes the characteristics of general commercial and other medical advertisements and looks for alternatives that can minimize the damage caused by illegal medical advertisements and institutional weaknesses by analyzing the regulatory trends in medical advertising.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.622-632
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare the nurse licensure examination system in Korea with that of the United States (US). Methods: Focus interviews with the administrative staff of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) were held. two areas were explored in the interviews: the item development process and the general administrative operating procedures. Results: NCLEX-RN items are designed for entry-level practice. The items are subjected to a series of 12 steps including a item writing panel, a content and editorial review, a sensitivity panel, a pre-test, a Differential item functioning panel and a committee review. NCSBN is responsible for the test for registered nurses and one for practical nurses. In contrast the Korean National Health Personnel Licensing Board (KNHPLB) is responsible for nursing is and 21 other health related licensure. Another difference is that in Korea there is no consistent and specialized staff to develop question items. Items are developed by educators who are not active nurses (this last statemtne is not a finding but a point of view usually not given in findings.). Conclusion: Korean nurses form the largest group of health related job categories and the most direct to health care consumers. Therefore, the nursing licensure exam should be acknowledged as the most influential licensure exam in health care services. We recommend a nursing specialized licensing institution to be established with active nurse' participation in item development process to reflect clinical practice into licensure exam.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contamination level of micro plastics in Korean mackerel and to investigate the detection method of micro plastics in fish. This study analyzed the detection and composition of micro plastics using natural mackerel and wild mackerel. 30% hydrogen peroxide and surfactant were added to GF/C filter paper in order to detect micro plastics in the sea. If micro plastics are exposed to the ocean for a long time, accumulation of heavy metals in the water will make pollutant bioaccumulation more serious. Microscopic consequences The risk to human health of plastics has already been studied by many researchers and the risks to human health already caused by marine microorganisms and zooplankton are becoming clear. The conclusion of this study is that there is a difference between the length and height of the mackerel when it is cooked from the standpoint of food in terms of practical implications. The conclusion of this study is that the probability of micro-plastic-contaminated mackerel to reach and be consumed by end-consumers is low in academic implications. Residual contaminants adsorbed on micro plastics are absorbed by digestive organs and cause disruption, and further research on micro plastics is needed in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2006

Today, consumers need more information of well-being related food with an increase of interests in health. Thus it is important to understand and provide well-being food related information to consumers. This study was performed to investigate consumer needs for well-being food related information. The needs scores (5-point Likert scale) to well-being food related information were high over all. The highest score was observed in 'disease care and diet therapy' (4.05 point). 'Functionality of well-being food' and 'safety and hazard of food' were followed having high scores (individually 4.00, 3.99 point). Female subjects had higher information needs than male subjects for well-being food related information such as 'balance of diet', 'nutrients' and 'recipe of well-being food'. The needs for well-being food related information increased by age, although subjects who were over 50 had a decrease in information needs. There was a significant positive correlation between the majority of well-being food related information and educational level. Information needs were not significantly different by income. Conclusively, well-being food related information should be provided to consumers according to the individual needs and ultimately consumers will improve their efficiency and satisfaction in using well-being food related information.