• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.27-35
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• 2018

This study investigated the public use of Myeon Location in Jeollanam - do where the population is at risk of declining. And discussed the rational provision and coordination of public facilities as a guarantee of fundamental rights. As a result of the study, the rational supply and adjustment directions of public facilities are as follows. First, there are problems such as high availability of management, finance, shopping, and health facilities, lack of culture, leisure, community facilities, and weakening of center function. Therefore, in the continuing declining population situation, face management, safety and health facilities should be upgraded to multifunctional facilities, and utilization efficiency and integration should be promoted. In addition, town center rehabilitation should be centered on multifunctional facilities. In addition, elementary schools will have to utilize and preserve them to take advantage of local cultural values as nostalgia storing place that provide incentives for young people and elementary school children in the future. Second, in order to cope with population decline, public facilities need to strengthen public services through complexity and multifunctionality, wide-area operation with neighboring areas, and user-centered operation management.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.18-40
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• 2008

Measurements of health related quality of life can be used to compare patients with specific conditions to average individuals in the general population in a similar age and gender group. However there are few data available regarding health related quality of life for the general population of Korea. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the validity of the Korean version of EQ-5D and to measure the health related quality of life of the general adult population in a metropolitan city. The survey was cross-sectional and employed a stratified and multistage sampling design through 100 examination sites in 5 districts of UIsan. A total of 12,644 individuals from 4,112 households participated in the survey. Of these, we analyzed data from 8,068 adults who were over 19 years old and completed the EQ-5D. To examine the validity of the questionnaire, the differences in 5 dimensions and the $EQ-5D_{index}$ were analyzed with regard to demographic and socioeconomic factors such as sex, age, income, and education. In addition, visual analogue scales (VAS) were used to evaluate the overall health related quality of life issues of the respondents. The level of health related quality of life of the general adult population was then compared with the results from the third Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and other countries. There were a small number of people with problems related tomobility, self-care, and usual activity. In addition, many people complained ofpain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The complaint rate in each dimension, VAS, and $EQ-5D_{index}$ indicated relatively better states for males, the younger group, the higher income group, and the higher education group. In addition, the level of health related quality of life of the general population of Ulsan was relatively higher than that of Koreans nationwide as well as the populations of other countries. EQ-SD provided a valid measure of the health-related quality of life of the general adult population. In addition, the results of a survey of Ulsan revealed that the quality of life of its population is better than that of the overall population of Korea and of the populations of other countries.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2009

By the rural area health care special law in 1980, Primary health care posts were established in rural areas as fundamental elements of the national health system. Nurses have been deployed to the posts after taking an education course mandated by the special law. However, health care posts have confronted environmental changes over the past 30 years such as an aging and decreasing rural population and advanced traffic systems, which make it necessary to reshape their form and role. Therefore, some guidelines are suggested for future role enlargement of health care posts by analyzing their current management and duties. The guidelines are as follows: 1) enlarging the portion of prevention and management of chronic degenerative diseases, 2) development and practice of diverse health promotion programs, 3) extension of primary health care for the increasing older population, 4) development of health programs for married immigrants, 5) practice of timely maternal child health programs, 6) development of adequate health care posts for low-income people in rapidly urbanizing rural areas and in poor areas in big cities, and 7) revision of laws and institutional arrangements for the role enlargement of health care posts to match social changes and customer needs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.267-271
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• 2017

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI) which has contributed to improving public health and accessibility. This article aims to show the trends of main indicators during the last 40 years. NHI has achieved rapid expansion of target population (1977-1989). The percentage of population covered increased from 8.8% in 1977 to 94% in 1990. The average number of visit days per person was 0.75 in 1977 but significantly increased to 31.11 in 2015. In 2015, NHI revenues were 52.4 trillion won and expenditures were 48.2 trillion won which is 9.5 times and 9.6 times higher than in 1995. NHI achieved universal coverage in short period of time and has contributed to improving the healthcare status. However, there still remain problems including low-benefit coverage and high out of pocket money. Therefore, the effort to reform these problems is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.155-182
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• 1997

Objectives : This study was designed to compare North Korea and South Korea in measures of the quality of life (physical quality of life index and human development index) and to investigate the impact of selected medical and socioeconomic factors on PQL variables. Data and Methods : The World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and Population Reference Bureau were the principal sources of statistical data of 121 countries. Variables included infant mortality, life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, secondary school enrollment (male and female), GNP per capita, population per doctor, daily calorie supply per capita, and a composite PQL index. The Ordinary Least Square model was employed for cross-countries analysis. Findings : Both countries under quite different political and economic systems saw big improvememts in the quality of life, reducing mortality and prolonging life expectancy during the past three decades. In recent decad, however, North Korea has experienced abrupt exacerbation in the quality of life. Significant improvements in infant mortality of the population wer attributable mainly to GNP per capita and the secondary school enrollemt of female. The principal predictors of life expectancy at birth were population per doctor, infant mortality, and literacy rate. The secondary school enrollment of female and population per doctor were significantly associated with improvements in the physical quality of life index (PQLI). Conclusion : The results of this study confirmed a point illustrated by other studies : The association between quality of life as a measure of health status and socioeconomic factors was strong and positive. The important contribution of educational attainment in general, female education level in particular to improvements in the quality of life deserves good news for building an integrated health care system in the reunified Korea, taking into account the high level of education two koreas are enjoying. Meanwhile, when a sharp drop in the quality of life has been observed in North Korea under serious economic difficulties and food shortage in recent decade, the significant contribution of economic development to improvements in the quality of life poses bad nows for reunifying Korean health care in economic terms.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.80-83
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• 2017

The proportion of people who reported unmet healthcare needs is an important indicator to measure the access problem in healthcare service. To examine current status and trends of unmet needs in Korea, we used data from four sources: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES, '2007-2015); the Community Health Survey (CHS '2008-2015); the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP '2011-2013); the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS '2006-2015). The proportion of individual reporting unmet healthcare needs as of 2015 was 12.6% (KNHNES), 11.7% (CHS), and 16.3% (KHP, as of 2013). Annual percent change which characterizes trend for follow-up period was -9.4%, -3.4%, and 7.6%, respectively. The proportion of individual reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost was 2.8% (KNHNES), 1.7% (CHS), and 4.6% (KHP). The proportion of household reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost was 1.2% (KOWEPS). Annual percent change was -9.0%, -14.9%, 9.4%, and -18.2%, respectively. Low income population reported about 5 times more unmet needs than high income population. Therefore for decreasing the unmet healthcare needs, strategies focusing on low income population were needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.215-225
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• 1996

Decentralization to local governments and amending of Health Center Law are to promote the efforts of health planning at the level of local agencies. In the health facility planning, it is important to take into account that what to be built, where to be located, how far should be service area and so forth, because health facilities are immovable, and require capital as well as personnel and consumable supplies. The aim of our study, answering to the question of 'where to be located?', is to determine the best location of urban health sub-center. At the local level, planning is the matter of finding the best location of specific facilitiy, in relation to population needs. We confine the accessibility, which is basic to location planning, to geographic one. Location-Allocation Model is used to solve the problem where the location is to maximize geographic accessibility. To minimize the weighted travel distance, objective function, $R_k=\sum{\sum}a_{ij}w_{i}d_{ij}$ is used. Distances are measured indirectly by map measure-meter with 1:25,000 Suwon map, and each potential sites, 10 administrative Dongs in Kwonson Gu, Suwon, are weighted by each number of households, total population, maternal age group, child age group, old age group, Relief for the livelihood, and population/primary health clinics. We find that Kuwoon-Dong, Seodun-Dong, Seryu3-Dong, according the descending orders, are best sites which can minimize the weighted distance, and conclude that it is reasonable to determine the location of urban health sub-center among those sites.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.266-275
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate achievements of a community health center for vulnerable population in urban areas and to find out its strength and weakness. Method: This evaluative study employed system theories and analytic techniques. Results: The purpose of improving vulnerable population's health-related self-care abilities adequately met the operation of programs. This center maintained close connection to a nursing college as a information resource. The subjects' satisfaction was high because team members who visited them were faithful and there were face-to-face contact, sufficient time set, closeness and resourcefulness. There were needs for regular meetings to discuss overall matters in organizing the program and to improve management skills. The mean score of health promotion lifestyle was 2.23 on a 4 point scale. This score indicates what in higher than vulnerable people in other communities. Conclusions: Community-based nursing centers for vulnerable population in urban areas should be developed as support organizations and community network.

• 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.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2014

Background: Safety of drugs has become a major issue in public healthcare. Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reaction (ADR) is the cornerstone in management of drug safety. We aimed to investigate the awareness and knowledge of spontaneous ADR reporting in general public of Korea. Methods: A total of 1,500 study subjects aged 19-69 years were interviewed with a questionnaire for their awareness and knowledge related to spontaneous ADR reporting. Computer assisted telephone interview was performed from 27th February 2013 to 4th March 2013. Target population was selected with quota sampling, using age, sex, and residence area. Healthcare professionals such as physicians, pharmacists, and nurses were excluded. The survey questions included awareness of spontaneous ADR reporting, opinions on ways to activate ADR reporting, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Overall awareness of spontaneous ADR reporting system was 8.3% (${\pm}2.53%$) among general population of Korea. Major source from which people got the information regarding ADR reporting was television/radio (69.9%), followed by internet (19.3%), and poster/brochure (6.1%). Awareness level differed between age groups (p<0.0001) and education levels (p<0.0001). Upon learning about the ADR reporting system, 88.5% of study subjects agreed on the necessity of ADR reporting system, while 46.6% thought promotion through internet and mass media as an effective way to activate ADR reporting. Conclusion: The overall awareness of spontaneous ADR reporting should be enhanced in order to establish a firm national system for drug safety. Adequate promotions should be performed targeting lower awareness groups, as well as various publicity activities via effective channels for the general population.