• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2020

Background: Unmet healthcare needs have many advantages for measuring inequalities in healthcare use. However, the existing indicator is difficult to capture the reality of unmet healthcare needs sufficiently and is not quite appropriate in comparing regional inequality. The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the utilization of the unmet healthcare need indicator for regional healthcare inequalities research. Methods: We used the level of healthcare accessibility and healthcare need to categorize the regions that are known to cause differences in healthcare utilization between regions and verified how existing unmet healthcare need indicator is distributed at the regional level. Results: Four types of regions were classified according to the high and low levels of healthcare needs and accessibility. The hypothesis about the regional type expected to have the highest unmet healthcare need was not proved. The hypothesis about the lowest expected regional type was proved, but the difference in the average rate of unmet healthcare needs among regional types was not significant. The standard deviation of the rate of unmet healthcare needs among regions within the same type was also higher than the overall regional variation, which also disproved the whole frame of hypothesis. Conclusion: Failure to prove the hypothesis means the gap between the supposed meaning of the indicator and the reality. In order to understand the current state of healthcare utilization of people in various regions of Korea and to resolve inequality, fundamental research on the in-depth structure and mechanisms of healthcare utilization is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.303-313
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• 2013

During last 65 years, Korea has achieved very rapid economic growth and social reformation including healthcare system. Many foreigners have praised that Korea healthcare system is very good in the respect of ease accessibility to healthcare under the lowest cost among the industrialized countries. Whole population are covered by the National Health Insurance. Also utilizations of healthcare among different income classes are even. However Korea healthcare system faced with several challenges, in terms of the an aging population and a rise in chronic disease problem, new threats of communicable disease due to globalization, the rapid increase of healthcare expenditure and high financial burden of patients even though they are insured. To cope with these challenges, we need reconsider the healthcare system as followings; to set up ideology of healthcare as normative public goods, to rebuild paradigm of healthcare for 21 century, to reform public health for strengthening health promotion, to develop new method for healthcare management including quality improvement and consumer responsiveness, to build new governance for health and to view new perspective on healthcare as a kind of industry.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.5-18
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• 2018

Purpose: We present improvements to the Korean home visiting healthcare service based on analysis of Korean home visiting healthcare services considering recent sociodemographic changes and demands for healthcare services. Methods: This is a review study in which the results are derived through a literature review and data analysis. We collected data through a search of electronic databases, Google Scholar, and governmental websites. Results: Changes in Korean home visiting healthcare services are classified into four stages: 'introduction (1990-2000)', 'pilot project (2003-2006)', 'nationwide expansion (2007-2012)', 'various types (2013-2018)'. Korean home visiting healthcare service based on public health centers has achieved outcomes such as improved health behavior and health management, increased health management ability, and establishment of comprehensive healthcare infrastructure. Conclusion: In the future, the demand for home visiting healthcare service will increase steadily because of deepening social polarization, rapid aging of the population, and increases in chronic diseases. To improve health management and health equity, we suggest that Korean home visiting healthcare service will expand to all the people as a core public health service. It is necessary to establish a management team for various types of home visiting healthcare service in the public health center.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2020

Purposes: Family living with dementia patients have the burden for caring and suffer from health problems. Therefore, proper supports for their health disorders are required. The purpose of this study with regard to this is to subdivide unmet healthcare needs of family living with dementia patients into affordability, accommodation, and accessibility and figure out the relevant factors. Methodology: The 2017 Community Health Survey was used, and 2,331 families living with dementia patients was included. To figure out the factors with regard to the types of unmet healthcare needs, multinominal logistic regression analysis was conducted. Findings: According to the analysis result, sex, age, monthly household income, economic activity, self-rated health, self-rated stress and perception of depressive symptoms turned out to be the factors related to unmet healthcare needs. Regarding affordability, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was female, over 65, highly educated, and monthly household income were high. On the other hand, unmet healthcare needs was high when self-rated health was bad, self-rated stress was high, and had depression. With regard to accommodation, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was over 65. Unmet healthcare needs were high when the object was female, economically active and had depression, and self-rated health was high. Regarding accessibility, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was high school graduate, but it was high when self-rated health was bad. Practical Implication: This study confirmed that the family with dementia patients had a high proportion of unmet healthcare needs due to affordability and accommodation. The existing main discussion was that the experience of unmet healthcare needs normally occurred due to economic reasons, but a consideration on various cases and factors is required to ultimately achieve the policy goal to reduce the unmet healthcare needs of the family living with dementia.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.95-114
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• 2023

Smart healthcare, combining ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and medical technologies, has been rapidly emerging. Accordingly, its market has also increased as interest in disease prevention, management, and diagnosis grows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, using mobile devices to support medical activities, mobile healthcare has been attracting attention as a leading service in the smart healthcare market. However, the intention to use mobile healthcare apps may vary depending on individual beliefs and attitudes. Many studies on the intention to use mobile healthcare apps have used the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), but there is a lack of studies that have been verified from the perspective of users' health beliefs. This study aims to identify the factors that affect the intention to use mobile healthcare apps based on the HBM (Health Belief Model). Furthermore, it investigates how this influencing mechanism fluctuates based on the user's mHealth literacy, the ability to find and understand health information through mobile. This study contributes to the empirical examination of the intention to use mobile healthcare apps through the HBM. It also offers insights for app providers and public health officials to increase the use of mobile healthcare apps.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.169-182
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• 2003

The present study attempts to investigate the knowledge, belief, attitude and behavior of healthcare major students and non-healthcare counterparts concerning their oral hygiene. The purpose is to provide basic data for positive oral health activities to the students with non-healthcare major, who tend to have insufficient information on oral hygiene. A survey was conducted to 400 students in K college in Incheon from May 1-30, 2003. A total of 384 surveys were analyzed using the SPSS program Version 10.0. The result is as follows: 1. There was a statistically significant difference in the knowledge on oral hygiene between the healthcare(M=3.08) and non-healthcare(M=2.78) students(pE0.05). 2. As for the beliefs and attitudes toward oral health behaviors, 56.9% of the healthcare students and 60.6% of non-health care counterparts responded "moderate" to the question asking if they liked tooth-brushing. The reason they liked tooth-brushing were cleanliness(60.3% of healthcare and 71.9% of non-healthcare students). They didn't like brushing their teeth because they felt it was a nuisance(60.6% of healthcare and 54.5% of non-healthcare students). 90.6% of healthcare students and 90.1% of their non-healthcare counterparts said they wanted to keep their oral health intact. Most of the subjects seemed to acquire information on oral hygiene through mass media(62.2% of healthcare and 55.3% of non-healthcare students). The persons who give them oral health information are their friends or neighbors(26.8% of healthcare and 22.8% of non-healthcare students), and dental hygienists were the last in the list of the sources of information(3.4% of healthcare and 2.5% of non-healthcare students). 3. Their oral health behaviors were also considered, 64.4% of the healthcare students and 53.7% of the non-healthcare counterparts brush their teeth once or twice a day, 51.4% of the former brush their teeth for 2 minutes and 44.8% of the latter for 3 minutes. Some of them use oral health measures other than tooth-brushing(13.3% of healthcare and 14.3% of non-healthcare students). Not many of them used oral health products(6.6% of healthcare and 5.9% of non-healthcare), and the difference was statistically significant(pE0.05). The largest number of healthcare students brush their teeth right before going to bed(29.9%), while their counterparts do it after breakfast(25.8%)

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2022

Introduction: Previous studies on occupational health focussed predominately on the occurrence of occupational diseases. Relatively few studies have measured how employment is associated with the use of healthcare services. This study investigates the association between employment and the extent and range of healthcare use, such as medical expenditures, of women in South Korea. Methods: We analyze data of the Korean Health Panel, an ongoing longitudinal national representative survey, from 2008 to 2017, to identify the status of economic activity of women by year and age group. We estimate the association between female employment status and medical expenditures by using random effect panel Tobit models. Furthermore, we investigate the association between employment status and the range of healthcare services in biomedicine and traditional Korean medicine (KM) by conducting conditional fixed-effects logistic regression analyses. Results: For women aged between 25 and 65 in 2017, the majority of them were employed or self-employed. (The proportion of employment of self-employment equals 64.80%). In addition, working women spent 11.6% less on healthcare than nonworking women, and self-employment lowered the healthcare expenditure by 13.1%. Neither work nor the type of work is related to the types and range of healthcare service use. Being employed or self-employed is negatively associated with women's expenditure on healthcare. Conclusions: The findings show that employment is associated with less spending on healthcare. They imply that employment has a positive impact on women's health.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2022

Needs for public healthcare have recently increased. This paper proposes education topics for competency development in public healthcare in line with the needs of the times. In Korea, various lifelong education providers have already provided public health-related education. For example, the Research Institute for Health Policy (RIHP) under the Korean Medical Association provided an "executive course for physicians' public health care competencies" in 2019 and 2020. At the end of the course, the RIHP published a comprehensive report, entitled "Curricular development and evaluation for doctors' public healthcare competencies." This article is based on a summary of that report. To develop a curriculum for public healthcare, the RIHP adopted the following methodologies for a needs analysis; reviewing already-existing education subjects, evaluating end-of-course reports, and conducting in-depth focused group interviews and questionnaire surveys with doctors at public healthcare-related institutions. The results from the needs analysis can be categorized into two domains of education topics for public healthcare. The first domain includes education subjects related to the theory and practice of public healthcare, as follows: a general overview, community or population health, organizational administration, planning and evaluation, budget and finance, responses to disasters such as infectious diseases, health policy, and the legal system. The second domain contained education topics related to general professional competencies: leadership, communication, cooperation, teamwork, and professionalism. In conclusion, the curricular content for public healthcare will be an appropriate combination of competencies specific to public healthcare and core competencies for health professionals.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.379-381
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• 2019

Korea's healthcare is in great danger of sustainability. In 2020, the baby boomer will begin to be older, and there is no promise that the total fertility rate of 1.0 or less will rebound, and Korea's economic growth rate is predicted to be less than 2%. Together with these phenomena, Plan for Benefit Expansion in Nation Health Insurance (Moon Jae-in Care) will seriously threaten the sustainability of health insurance finance. In addition, health care in Korea has many problems: excessive medical utilization, rapidly increasing elderly medical costs, concentrating patients into big hospitals, low healthcare personnel but many healthcare facilities and equipment, bad quality of primary and mental care, and fast-growing health expenditure. For sustainability, healthcare of Korea should be reformed. The direction of the reform is people-centered and integrated healthcare in the community which is composed of empowering and engaging people, strengthening governance and accountability, reorienting the model of care, coordinating services, and creating an enabling environment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.273-294
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• 2023

Background: Most developed countries are working to improve their universal health coverage systems. This study investigates regional disparities in unmet healthcare needs and their causes in South Korea. Additionally, it compares the unmet healthcare needs rate in South Korea with that of 33 European countries. Methods: The analysis incorporates information from 13,359 adults aged 19 or older, using data from the Korea Health Panel. The dependent variables encompass the experience of unmet healthcare needs and the three causes of occurrence: "burden of medical expenses," "time constraints," and "lack of care." The primary variable of interest is the region of residence, while control variables encompass 14 socio-demographic, health, and functional characteristics. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis, accounting for the sampling design, is conducted. Results: The rate of unmet healthcare needs in Korea is 11.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0%-13.3%), which is approximately 30 times higher than that of Austria (0.4%). The causes of unmet healthcare needs, ranked in descending order, are "lack of care," "time constraints," and "burden of medical expenses." Predictive probabilities for experiencing unmet healthcare needs and each cause differ significantly between regions. For instance, the probability of experiencing unmet healthcare needs due to "lack of care" is approximately 10 times higher in Gangwon-do (13.5%; 95% CI, 13.0%-14.1%) than in Busan (1.3%; 95% CI, 1.3%-1.4%). The probability due to "burden of medical expenses" is approximately 14 times higher in Seoul (4.1%; 95% CI, 3.6%-4.6%) compared to Jeollanam-do (0.3%; 95% CI, 0.2%-0.4%). Conclusion: Amid rapid sociodemographic transitions, South Korea must make significant efforts to alleviate unmet healthcare needs and the associated regional disparities. To effectively achieve this, it is recommended that South Korea involves the National Assembly in healthcare policy-making, while maintaining a centralized financing model and delegating healthcare planning and implementation to regional authorities for their local residents-similar to the approaches of the United Kingdom and France.