• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.6-14
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was done to investigate the need to develop health promotion programs for adult women and to compare lifestyle, health status and quality of life in adult women in urban and rural areas. Method: The participants were women over 20 years old, 451 living in 3 cities and 436 living in 1 rural areas. Data collection was conducted from April 6 to August 30, 2004. Results: For lifestyle, the percentage of women having regular medical examinations, cholesterol tests, regular exercise, and high alcohol intake were significantly higher for urban women compared to the rural women. For health status, the percentage of women with health problems such as arthritic pain, urinary incontinence, pregnancy and postpartum complications, and the experience of violence were significantly higher for rural women compared to urban women. Rural women had significantly lower scores for health perception compared to urban women. For quality of life, rural women had significantly higher scores for quality of life, especially for the psychological wellbeing and stability subscales. Conclusion: The above findings indicate that it is necessary to develope a health promotion program which reinforces healthy lifestyle and health status for rural women, and quality of life, for urban women.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare health promotion behavior and influencing factors between aged women of rural areas and urban areas, to investigate factors affecting their behavior, and to provide the primary data for developing heath enhancing program that is appropriate for the population. Method: A survey was conducted on 221 aged women 100 from urban areas and 121 from rural area. The data were collected through a questionnaire and interview. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and multiple stepwise regression were found by using SPSS PC Win. Package. Result: There were significant difference of factors relating health promotion behavior in Pender model between the aged women in urban areas and rural areas, urban women showed higher scores in factors such as previous heath relating behavior, perceived confidence, self-efficacy, social support, satisfaction with marriage, situational influence, and behavioral plan involvement, while rural women showed higher scores in the factors of fixed idea regarding gender role, perceived disabled feeling, and activity related emotions. At the subscale of HPLP, interpersonal relation, nutrition, health responsibility, stress management, spiritual growth of rural group was lower than urban group. With the multiple stepwise regression analysis, commitment to a plan of action, social support, activity related affect, self efficacy were proved to be significant to urban group, while commitment to a plan of action. activity related affect, social support, sex-role stereotype were proved to be significant to rural group statistically. Conclusion: There were differences of health promotion behavior and influencing factors between aged women in urban areas and rural areas and women in rural areas were found to have more weakness than women in urban areas. With the results, it is concluded that health promotion programs for aged woman should be designed differently between urban and rural area regarding the factors affecting health promotion behaviors.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 1991

Korea has made a rapid economic development since the last three decades. This has helped Korea narrow the gap in health service differences in resource availability and in quality of care. However urban and rural differentials are still remarkable. This study has maintained that health status of rural residents is inferior to that of urban dwellers. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop policy measures for improving health services in rural areas. In order to achieve the objective of this study the authors collaborated closely and made field visits, interviews and conducted an extensive literature review regarding rural health services. The following policy options are recommended as a summary ; First, the quality of rural health personnel is a single most important factor influencing the level of rural health services. An innovative program for public health doctors to the internship and/or residency training program such as specialty board program of family medicine. Second, dissatisfaction regarding employment of public health doctors is problematic. More rational employment and deployment programs are needed to meet their personal desire. One way to do this is to make it wide open and competitive. Third this study shows how to increase physician productivity in the rural public health sector. Incentive system needs to be elaborated for the career development of rural health workers. University linked job opportunity as clinical professor is an example. Fourth, without straightening the function of health centers and subcenters, the future of rural health services is doomed to failure. Straightening primary health care is one way to enrich the program of public health facilities and reactivating the operation of health center/hospital is another. A close linkage of public facilities with private hospitals is a minimum requirement for the operation of health delivery system within a health district. Fifth, some measures are urgently required to enhance hospital services in medically underserved areas. Financial subsidy, tax exemption, long-term public loans and higher priority of health manpower deployment are some of them. Sixth, new health programs should be in tiated to meet changing needs of peoples in rural areas. Home health care program, hospice program, nursing home, residential program for the elderly are recommended.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 1991

The medical insurance system has been adopted in rural areas in 1988. Since then, the utilization of medical care services has increased rapidly in rural areas. According to the various study on medical care utilization, the people in rural areas used more curative care services than urban areas. The purpose of this study was to analyze the utilization and expenses of medical care services in designated rural areas : Choonseong Gun, Kangwon Province ; and Soonchang Gun, Cheonbuk province in Korea. Medical care utilization of medical care beneficiaries showed slightly increase, while there was a decrease of 18% and more for the medicaid. Regarding selection of medical care institutions, medical care beneficiaries used more hospitals and clinics than health center networks, but the health center networks was used more by the medicaid. However, the hospitalized Soonchang health center was able to provide more curative care to the people than the other two health centers. More than 50% of the patients treated by hospitalized health center were residents of the place in which health center was located.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.554-566
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Urban-rural inequities in health and mortality exist in Korea, a highly centralized developed country. The potential impact of multiple health-related lifestyle behaviors on mortality and difference between urban and rural areas is not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the effect of high-risk health behaviors on all-cause mortality among residents living in urban and rural in Korea. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on 8,298 adults aged 40 yrs and older from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2015. High-risk behaviors were defined as having poor diet quality, current smoking, high-risk drinking, or insufficient physical activity. Mortality status was linked to the Cause of Death data followed up to December 31, 2019. The associations between all-cause mortality and high-risk behaviors were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and survey year. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated, and effect modification analysis was conducted. Participants were stratified by residential area (urban or rural). RESULTS: During the follow-up (median: 5.4 yrs), 313 deaths occurred. A higher proportion of rural residents than urban residents engaged in multiple high-risk behaviors (28.9% vs. 22.6%; P < 0.0001). As individual factors, a greater risk of mortality was associated with poor diet quality, current smoking, and inadequate physical activity, and these tendencies persisted in rural residents, especially for diet quality. Multiple high-risk behaviors were positively associated with a higher risk of mortality in Koreans living in urban and rural areas. PAF (95% confidence interval) was 18.5% (7.35-27.9%) and 29.8% (16.1-40.2%) in urban and rural residents, respectively. No additive or multiplicative effect of the region was observed. CONCLUSION: The higher prevalence of multiple high-risk lifestyle behaviors in rural residents may explain the higher mortality in rural areas compared to urban areas. Comprehensive public health policies to improve health-related behaviors in rural populations may be needed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify health promotion services in rural areas and factors influencing this service. Method: From March to April, 2007, a structured questionnaire on services in 2006 was used to collect data from community health practitioners in all of the Primary Health Care Posts (PHCP) in North Chungchong Province. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 Win program. Results: The most frequently offered programs were health gymnastics, walking exercise, bathing and vaccination service, and hypertension management. The main obstacles to these health services were lack of adequate space, insufficient budget, and overwork. The most frequently offered health education programs were education on hypertension, exercise, diabetes, volunteer work, and smoking cessation. The main obstacles to health education were lack of adequate space, insufficient education materials and equipment, and lack of cooperation from the citizens. Improvement and reinforcement of health promotion programs should include support of specialist, development of appropriate methods of service delivery, and education materials, and increase ease in using community resources. Conclusions: The research results show that a new model of health promotion must be developed for efficient health promotion programs in rural PHCP.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to describe a non-face-to-face dementia prevention and physical activity program in small rural villages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study used a case report provided by a primary healthcare post in Gyeonggi-do in 2020. Results: The program was "From head to toe, stay healthy", which was largely divided into dementia prevention ("Dementia Zero Zone") and physical activity ("The less fat, The healthier body"). Five elderly people aged 75 and over participated for preventing dementia, and 13 residents joined the health promoting programs over 80 times in total. This program was designed one-to-one customized and person-centered program, including counseling, education, and health services. The program participants responded that the amount of physical activities was increased even under strict social distancing and they felt less isolated and less depressed. Moreover, the number of screening for dementia was increased with this program. Conclusion: This case has shown the applicability of a new approach to sustain health promotion programs in the context of limited interaction with rural nurses. Under the challenging environment that requires adaptation to information and communication technologies (ICTs), it will be necessary to solve not only technical problems but also digital literacy issues of rural residents.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.15-30
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine how the rural elderly assess the multi-dimensions of health. This includes the physical, mental and social dimensions of health, correlations among them, and whether there are gender differences and age-group (60's, 70's, 80 and over) differences. For this purpose, survey data was gathered from 881 rural elderly who live in a village. The statistical methods used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and correlations. The major findings of this study are as follows: Physical health was measured by self-rated health, ADL, IADL, and farmer symptoms. The respondents classified as 80 and over and female perceived their physical health more negatively. Mental health was perceived somewhat positively in general but female participants perceived their mental health more negatively than males. Social health of the rural elderly was relatively positive in comparison to the other dimensions of health. The rural elderly engaged in many social activities, and the majority of them had many social support networks composed of more than 12 persons. Relationships among the physical, mental and social health dimensions were different. The correlation of physical and mental health and the correlation of social and psychological health were statistically significant. However, the correlation of physical and social health had no significant meanings.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.9-15
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• 2002

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 1990

During the last half a century the Korean rural society have experienced drastic changes : the retreat of Japan from the colonial interference and suppression in 1945, the Korean war and disorder in the 1950s, the implementation of the first and second five-year economic development plans in the 1960s, the ambitious implementation of the new village movement called Saemaul Undong to modernize the traditionally stagnant rural village in the 1970s, and socioeconomic and political turmoil in the 1980s. In this complex process of change the rural health care system in Korea was grdually reformed. This paper reviews the socioeconomic change and the basis of the changing structure of the health care system in rural Korea, on the basis of the existing literature and secondary data. Thus this is not a research paper but a review article in its nature. After reviewing the past and present situation, the directions and strategies for the reformation of the rural health care system are suggested.