• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.18-48
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• 2004

Health policies in many countries have come under critical scrutiny in recent years. This is because of increasing national health expenditures. Also many persons in health sector have been the perception that resources allocated to health services are not always deployed in an optimal fashion. And they believe that the scope of resources in health services is limited, there is need to search for ways of using existing resources more efficiently. A further concern has been the desire to ensure access to healthcare of various groups on an equitable basis. In some European countries this has been linked to a wish to enhance patient choice and to make service providers more responsive to consumers, while Korea integrated health insurance funds into single fund in 2000. Many European countries are under considerable pressure to review and restructure their health care systems. There are several reasons of pressure to reform. There are demographic changes, pattern of disease change, advances in medical sciences will also give rise to new demands within the health services, public expectations of health services are rising as those who use services demand higher standards of care. These circumstances require the change of health care delivery system based on hierarchical regionalism, which was basis of health care delivery since 1920s. Korea is also under similarly pressure to restructure our own health care systems. We will have good learning from OECD experiences. In this paper we reviewed and compared among OECD countries' various experiences.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.767-776
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the influencing factors on awareness toward oral health education in elementary school teachers. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 250 elementary school teachers in Jeollado and Chungcheongdo from October 6 to November 28, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of the general characteristics of the subjects, oral health knowledge, oral health beliefs, and oral health education awareness measured by Likert 5 point scale. Cronbach alpha was 0.699 in the oral health knowledge and 0.957 in the oral health beliefs. Results: Those who were more interested in the oral health education had the awareness toward the necessity of oral health education. Those who had a longer career of education tended to have the strong beliefs in oral health education. Conclusions: The elementary school teachers are the most important persons in the lifelong oral health education facilitator to the students. It is very important to provide the continuing oral health education program development for the elementary school teachers.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.213-229
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to examine the heath status and health behavior of middle-aged Korean men and women. Even though there has been increased concern about extremely high mortality rate of Korean middle-aged men and mental health problems of middle aged women, there is a dearth of empirical studies which examine the health status and health behavior of middle-aged men and women in Korea. This study attempts to fill these gaps. Data gathered from 1,667 men and women aged between 30-59 are analyzed to examine the level of physical health, mental health, perceived health and health behavior and to explore the gender and age group differences in these aspects. The results show that there exist gender difference and age group difference in health status: Women are less healthy than men and as age increased health status declined. Women at their 50s are least healthy and most unhappy suggesting age and gender interaction in health status. There exist a gender difference in health behavior: Men have regular check-ups more frequently than women and exercise more. These results are discussed in terms of the gender differences in the experiences, social roles and life styles over the life course.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2001

This study was administered to analyze important needs for the health education among Chinese, Korean-Chinese adolescents in Gilin, China and Korean adolescents in Seoul, Korea. The data were collected from 400 chinese and 200 Korean-Chinese boys and girls of 3 high schools in Gilin, China and 396 boys and girls of 3 high schools in Seoul, Korea. The results were as follow: 1. The prevalence of smoking and drinking in Korean students was quite high among three groups. More than one third of Korean students had behaviors of smoking and drinking. Forty two point five percent of Korean students were sick during the past 4 weeks, but only 10.8% of Korean-Chinese students and 11.5% of Chinese students were sick during the past 4 weeks. More than 70% of Chinese and Korean-Chinese students had health concern, but only 22.7% of Korean students were interested in health status and education. 2. Korean-Chinese and Chinese students had higher health education needs than the Korean students. They were not interested in sex education. On the other hand, Korean students were interested in mental health and health habits. 3. Korean-Chinese students had more health education needs than Chinese or Korean adolescents and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). 4. For the Chinese and Korean-Chinese students, the higher prevalence of drinking behavior, the higher needs of health education, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). 5. The Chinese students tended to need health education after their illness experience, but the Korean students, the higher the self- rating health status, the higher health education need scores were(p<0.05).

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1057-1068
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the differences of health patterns; health-related characteristics, health behaviors, health problems, and self-care levels of elderly, living alone in an urban area according to age roup. Method: The study design was a descriptive survey and the subjects were 1,800 elderly consisting of 937 young old, 704 middle old, and 159 old old. Data was collected from May to July 2003 using the structured questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics, $\chi$$^2$-test, Fisher's exact probability test, ANOVA and Scheffe test using SPSS/PC. Result: The health related characteristics which involved body mass index, mental status, use of assistant devices, perceived health, concern of health, and social support were different among the groups and more aggravated by aging. Health behaviors and health problems were also significantly aggravated in the old old group. The self-care levels measured by ADL, physical activity, and self-care ability scores were also significantly decreased in the old old group. Conclusion: For the level of health status, health behaviors and self-care ability were significantly decreased by aging, health care services for the elderly should be planned considering the difference in the health pattern by age group.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.330-340
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the factors influencing health behavior. Method: Data used in this study was drawn from a 2001 National Health survey done by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. Number of samples were 5,085 people between age 20 years and 69 years in whole country. In this study, we modified Green and Kreuter's Precede-Proceed model to analyse influence of factors in health behavior, Hierarchical regression were used in the analysis. Result: 1) Factors that had statistically significant positive relation with overall health behavior were age, educational level, income level, disease in the family, medical examination, subjective weight, and concern about health, 2) Factors that had statistically significant negative relation with overall health behavior were sex, subjective health, stress, and degree of physical activity. Conclusion: 1) It would be necessary to set the target group for the health promotion in advance. 2) It was very important to adopt easy and efficient methods to change the health behavior of target group, for example, ability to control stress.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2014

Comparatively, the construction industry has, on average, a higher rate of fatal and major injuries, work induced ill-health and damage to properties than other industrial sectors; and this is a source of concern to industry stakeholders. The study showed that although subcontracting could be contributory to an increase in workplace accidents in the construction industry, contractual aspects of subcontracting arrangements (such as the power imbalance that exist along the client-customer interface) also present opportunities for improvements in health and safety management (HSM) practices in organisations. This conclusion was reached after an analysis of a questionnaire survey (with a 27% response rate) that assessed the attitudes and perception to health and safety issues.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.299-302
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• 2005

Vehicle occupant exposure to air pollutants has been a subject of concern in recent years because of higher levels of air pollutants inside gasoline or diesel-using vehicle, comparing to the surrounding atmosphere. This study evaluated the potential exposure to respirable suspended particulate (RSP), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), comparing weekday (Monday and Thursday) and weekend (Saturday). Indoor mean concentrations of RSP inside vehicle were 51.2 $ug/m^3$ and 75.52 $ug/m^3$ in weekday and weekend, respectively. Measured indoor NO$_2$ concentrations were 14,8 ppb and 20.8 ppb, respectively. Benzene and toluene mean concentrations inside vehicle were 5.4${\pm}$2.4 ppb and 23.8${\pm}$33.8 ppb, respectively.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2020

There has been a growing concern and subsequent interest surrounding numerous reproductive toxic agents found in various working and non-working environments. Meanwhile, there have been many efforts in medical fields such as toxicology and epidemiology applying experimental studies to elucidate reproductive toxic agents' characterization and health effects. However, there remains insufficient research data and inadequate evidence in humans. Adverse reproductive outcomes vary from transient, moderate health effects to severely detrimental consequences, such as permanent infertility or childhood cancer of one's offspring. Furthermore, upon exposure to toxic agents, the latent period before reproductive health effects are observed is relatively short compared to other occupational diseases (e.g., occupational cancer); instant action is required once exposure to reproductive toxic agents is detected. Therefore, it is very important for workers and healthcare professionals to know about the reproductive toxic agents they are likely to be exposed to. In this review, we discuss the general epidemiology of reproductive health in Korea, and the information regarding these reproductive toxic agents.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.294.2-295
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• 2002

Methylmercury (MeHg: CH3HgCl) is a ubiquitous environmental toxicant that readily bioaccumulates in aquatic foodchains. This toxicant is most highly exposed to humans through the ingestion of contaminated food. and thus is an ongoing health concern. Thus far. MeHg has been suggested to exert its toxicity through its high reactivity to thiols of bioactive proteins. elevation in intracellular Ca2＋ concentration. and generation of reactive oxygen species. but its mechanism remains poorly understood. (omitted)