• 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.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.81-88
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• 2009

Purpose: This study examined the health status and physical therapy in elderly women in rural areas to provide basic data on the promotion of health and physical therapy management of elderly women in rural areas. Methods: The subjects were 110 elderly women. The data was collected through individual interviews, and the tool developed for this study was a structured questionnaire based on the literature. The reliability coefficient was 0.57 ~ 0.79(Chronbach' $\alpha$). Results: Village 1 made the most of an oriental medicine clinic and a neighborhood clinic, whereas village 2 mainly used a public health center. Arthritis/ neuralgia and high blood pressure/low blood pressure were the most common complaints in the two villages; a medical institution was used once a month by more than 50% of subjects. Most rural elderly women used physical therapy, and the prevalence of arthritis/neuralgia was high. The most common problem in the two villages was poor health. The improvement in mobility was higher in the more healthy women, who also had less need for treatment at a medical institution. Conclusion: Most rural elderly women were concerned about poor health and used physical therapy. Therefore, rural medical institutions need to pay attention to the medical service and preventive activity to reduce the incidence and severity of neuromuscular syndrome in rural elderly women.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 1992

The medical care insurance system has been adopted in rural areas in 1988, since then, the utilization of medical care services has increased rapidly in rural areas. The government has restructured the 15 health centers, which are located in remoted rural areas and these 15 health centers were strengthend to provide the curative care to the residents in order to meet the curative can demand of the residents. Besides the reorganization of the health centers, the government has implemented the oriental medical care demonstration project at the health center in a designated rural areas. This study was aimed to analyze the utilization and expenses of medical and oriental medical care services in a designated rural areas. Number of annual visits of residents to health centers in 1991 showed slightly decreased compared with that in 1989. However number of annual visits to the hospitalized health centers was an increase of 49.3%~64.5%. Regarding the coverage of curative care for the residents in rural areas, the hospitalized health centers are functioning more effective than that of health center. Expenses per case of medical care rendered by health center was lower than that of oriental medical care, while the expenses of the medical care was quit higher than that of oriental medical care in the hospitalized health centers. According to the above mentioned study results, the hospitalized health centers were more effective and suitable to provide a curative care to the residents than the health centers, and also the oriental medical care could be needed to be provided by public health network in the near future.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.221-228
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• 2018

Rumen cannulation is used for nutritional and microbiological research, clinical diagnosis, and rumen component transfaunation. However, the cannulation procedure can affect parameters such as complete blood count findings, serum chemistry, and rumen fluid pH. The objective of this study was to evaluate the health risks related to the rumen cannulation procedure over a 1-month period. We did not identify significant differences in red blood cell numbers or morphologies between pre- and postoperative timepoints. Moreover, no inflammation or infection was detected. Despite the absence of apparent clinical signs after surgery, serum chemistry results revealed changes in blood urea nitrogen levels and the activities of liver enzymes, including aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, and creatinine kinase, from postoperative days 1 to 14. Rumen fluid pH, as measured from samples collected via an orogastric tube, was slightly increased after a preoperative fasting period and on postoperative day 1 but decreased thereafter from postoperative day 4, indicating a minor influence of cannulation surgery on ruminal fluid pH. This is the first study to evaluate hematological parameters and rumen pH before and after rumen cannulation surgery in Hanwoo cattle. Further research is required to better elucidate the potential effects of rumen cannulation surgery on animal health.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of the physical health on health behaviors of the rural elderly. In this study, physical health is measured self-rated health and farmer symptoms. The specific questions addressed in this study are: What are the general tendencies of health behavior, self-rated health and farmer symptoms? What are the direct impacts and indirect impacts of respondents' characteristics, self-rated health and farmer symptoms on health behaviors of the rural elderly? 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, correlations, and path analysis with spsswin 12.0 program. The major findings of this study are as follows: The level of health behaviors and self-rated health is low and the level of farmer symptoms is high. In general, it can be said that respondents of this study have the low level of physical health and health behaviors. A path analysis shows the relation of variables, which influence on health behaviors. Economic status, education status and farmer symptoms play direct and positive effects on health behaviors. Especially, the effect of farmer symptoms is more important than the others. Sex and age are indirectly significant on health behavior. The results obtained from the study confirm that objective physical health, like as farmer symptoms, plays important roles in health behavior of the rural elderly. It means that the Korean rural elderly need many facilities and services to promote their physical health.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe health management experience in rural older women. Methods: Qualitative data were collected by focus group interviews with 25 participants from July to September, 2007. All the interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by the content analysis method. Results: Seven main categories were conceptualized, "health concept", "health status", "disease management", "activity for health management", "dependence on the primary health care post", "relationships with families and others", "hope for the rest of life". Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that for health promotion in older women in rural regions, it is important to consider the usefulness of an incorporated program that combines agricultural work with health activity. In addition, complex programs that combine welfare services with health services are needed.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2024

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the correlation between factors affecting health risk behaviors of rural residents according to regional scale. Methods: Restricted-access data from the 2016~2021 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the multivariate probit model were used. As for health risk behaviors, smoking, drinking, lack of aerobic exercise, low level of healthy eating index, unvaccination, and non-participation in health examination were considered. Results: Controlling for individuals' socio-demographic characteristics, in general, correlation coefficients between unobservable factors affecting health risk behaviors were significant. However, the magnitude and statistical significance of the correlation coefficients varied by regional scale (dong/eup/myeon). This suggests that rural residents engage in health risk behaviors due to their different characteristics compared with urban dwellers, which also varies by whether residents are located in eup or myeon area. Conclusion: It is necessary to differentiate health care services between urban and rural areas in terms of type of service and programs based on the relationship between unobservable factors affecting each type of health risk behaviors.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2023

Purpose: This study is to compare adolescents' health behaviors by city size and to propose regionally tailored health promotion. Methods: We analyzed the data from the 17th Youth Health Risk Behavior Online Survey, national widly performed in 2021. Multi-sample descriptive and linear regression analysis was performed by city size. Results: The frequency of fruit consumption in the last week was 2.88 in the rural area, which is lower than 2.98 and 3.05 in other cities (F=10.98, p<.001). The number of high-intensity physical activity days in the last week (7 days) was 2.90 days in the rural area, higher than 2.74 and 2.73 days in other cities (F=3.36, p=.038). The number of days smoking cigarettes in the last 30 days was 3.23 days in the rural area, higher than 3.08 and 3.02 days in other cities (F=3.41, p=.035). BMI was 22.01 in the rural area, which was higher than 21.57 and 21.61 in other cities (F=4.19, p=.015). Conclusion: School health offices in the rural area districts need to operate to manage lack of fruit intake, smoking, and weight management programs in association with local healthcare institutions.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.311-329
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• 1996

This study was designed to compare the level of medical utilization between the urban and rural areas of Korea and to explain the differences between the two regions. Data from the National Health Interview Survey performed by the Korean Institute of Health & Social Affairs in 1992 were used for this study utilizing a sample size of 21,841 people. The level of medical utilization such as the number of physician visits and the number of hospital admissions was compared between the regions with ANOVA. Various determinants for medical use were also compared by univariate analysis. Statistical models which included enabling factors, predisposing factors, need factors and region were constructed for bivariate analysis in order to further elucidate the level of medical utilization. The results were as follows: 1. There was greater medical use, both in terms of physician visits and inpatient care in the rural areas in spite of insufficient health resources. The particular reasons for higher medical utilization in rural areas were attributed to a higher number of initial physician visits as well as a longer the length of stay per hospital admission. Therefore, indicators representing the degree of met need (utilization/need) showed no significant difference between rural and urban areas in spite of the fact that the medical need is larger in rural areas. 2. Use of public health facilities received a significant portion of physician visits in the rural area. The government's effort to enhance primary health care through health centers, health subcenters and the nurse practitioner's post in rural areas has contributed to the increase of access to medical care in the rural areas. 3. There were some differences in the socio-demographic characteristics between two regions ; There were more elderly people over the age of 65: unstable marital status, less education and lower incomes also characterized the rural areas. Therefore, among rural people, there were more predisposing factors for medical use. Additionaly, need factors such as poor self-reported health status and high morbidity level were also high in the rural area. 4. In contrast it was learned that, the supply of health resources was mostly concentrated in the urban areas except for public health facilities. Therefore, geographical access to medical care was lower in the rural area both in terms travel time and travel cost. 5. The coefficient of the region variable was insignificant in the regression model which controlled the supply factor only. However, utilization was significantly higher in urban areas if the model included predisposing factors and need factors in addition to the supply factor. The results were interpreted as rural people have greater medical needs.