• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.15 no.4 s.65
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• pp.341-358
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• 2003

This paper proposed a general formulation of Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) models and LCC effective design system models of steel bridges suitable for practical implementation. An LCC model for the optimum design of steel bridges included initial cost and direct/indirect rehabilitation costs of a steel bridge as well as repair/replacement costs, loss of contents or fatality and injury losses, road user costs, and indirect socioeconomic losses. The new road user cost model and regional socioeconomic losses model were especially considered because of the traffic network. Illustrative design examples of an actual steel box girder and an orthotropic steel deck bridge were discussed to demonstrate the LCC effectiveness of the design of steel bridges. Based on the results of the numerical investigation, the LCC-effective optimum design of steel bridges based on the proposed LCC model was found to lead to a more rational, economical, and safer design compared with the initial cost-optimum design and the conventional code-based design.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2024

Background: The rise in national health care costs has emerged as a global problem given the ever-aging population and rapid development of medical technology. The utilization of interventional pain management has, similarly, shown a continued rise worldwide. This study evaluates the differences in the medical costs in the field of interventional pain treatment (IPT) between two countries: Korea and Japan. Methods: Korean medical insurance costs for 2019 related to pain management focused on IPT were compared to those of Japan. Purchasing power parity (PPP) was used to adjust the exchange rate differences and to compare prices in consideration of the respective societies' economic power. Results: The cost of trigger point injections in Japan was 1.06 times higher than that of Korea, whereas the perineural and intraarticular injection prices were lower in Japan. The cost of epidural blocks was higher in Japan compared to Korea in both cervical/thoracic and lumbar regions. As for blocks of peripheral branches of spinal nerves, the cost of scapular nerve blocks in Japan was lower than that in Korea, given a PPP ratio 0.09. For nerve blocks in which fluoroscopy guidance is mandatory, the costs of epidurography in Japan were greater than those in Korea, given a PPP ratio 1.04. Conclusions: This is the first comparative study focusing on the medical costs related to IPT between Korea and Japan, which reveals that the costs differed along various categories. Further comparisons reflecting more diverse countries and socio-economic aspects will be required.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2009

Objectives : The changing population age structure and rapidly increasing medical costs make providing high-quality, effective medical care for the elderly a challenge. This study assessed the satisfaction with medical care in terms of comprehensiveness, general satisfaction, and accessibility among community-dwelling Korean elders. Methods : Data were obtained from a nationwide representative sample of the older adults(aged 65 years old or older) living in the community, who participated in a 2006 telephone survey conducted using random digit dialing(n=881). General satisfaction, comprehensiveness and accessibility were measured using a 10-item satisfaction survey questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was used to assess the distribution of each of three components of subjective satisfaction. Analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) was used to examine the association of each of the three components with socioeconomic variables. Results : Comprehensiveness and general satisfaction were low among older people with a high socioeconomic status. Accessibility was evaluated as low among older people of low socioeconomic status, those living in rural areas and those who were medical aid beneficiaries. Conclusions : Urgent interventions should be considered in order to improve accessibility to medical care for elders of low socioeconomic status and those living in rural communities. Given the rapid aging of the population, we need to develop a monitoring system to improve the quality of geriatric care.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.75-76
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• 2000

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.241-246
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• 2018

Background: The "Tuberculosis Relief Belt Supporting Project (Tuberculosis Patient Management Project for Poverty Groups)" is a national program for socioeconomically vulnerable tuberculosis (TB) patients. We sought to evaluate the clinical and socioeconomic characteristics of poverty-stricken TB patients, and determined the need for relief. Methods: We examined in-patients with TB, who were supported by this project at the National Medical Center from 2014 to 2015. We retrospectively investigated the patients' socioeconomic status, clinical characteristics, and project expenditures. Results: Fifty-eight patients were enrolled. Among 55 patients with known income status, 24 (43.6%) had no income. Most patients (80%) lived alone. A total of 48 patients (82.8%) had more than one underlying disease. More than half of the enrolled patients (30 patients, 51.7%) had smear-positive TB. Cavitary disease was found in 38 patients (65.5%). Among the 38 patients with known resistance status, 19 (50%) had drug-resistant TB. In terms of disease severity, 96.6% of the cases had moderate-to-severe disease. A total of 14 patients (26.4%) died during treatment. Nursing expenses were supported for 12 patients (20.7%), with patient transportation costs reimbursed for 35 patients (60%). In terms of treatment expenses for 31 people (53.4%), 93.5% of them were supported by uninsured benefits. Conclusion: Underlying disease, infectivity, drug resistance, severity, and death occurred frequently in socioeconomically vulnerable patients with TB. Many uninsured treatment costs were not supported by the current government TB programs, and the "Tuberculosis Relief Belt Supporting Project" compensated for these limitations.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.651-657
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• 2024

This study comparatively analyzed the impact of childcare workforce cost on fertility rates across different countries. In the cases of Nordic countries, comprehensive childcare support policies and subsidies for childcare workforce costs were found to have a positive impact on fertility rates. In contrast, high childcare burden and economic pressures were identified as major factors contributing to declining fertility rates in East Asian countries. In developing countries, the effectiveness of childcare support policies varied depending on the socioeconomic context. This study suggests that the impact of childcare workforce cost on fertility rates manifests in diverse patterns across countries, and effective childcare support policies require tailored approaches that consider each country's specific circumstances. In the future, increased social investment in childcare and the spread of a culture that respects the value of care are necessary.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.195-200
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• 2021

In recent years, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been attributed to the growth of many well-managed industries within Southeast Asia. Among them is the civil construction industry. Construction projects typically take a long time to complete and require a huge budget. Many socio-economic variables and factors affect total construction project costs due to market fluctuations. In recent years, crucial socioeconomic development indicators of construction reached a fairly high growth rate. Also, most infrastructure and construction projects have a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. This makes it challenging to predict the accurate project price. These challenges raise the need to recognize significant factors that influence the construction price index of civil buildings in Vietnam, both micro and macro. Therefore, this paper presents critical factors that affect the construction price index using the fuzzy extent analysis process in an uncertain environment. This proposed quantitative model is expected to reflect the uncertainty in the process of evaluating and ranking the influencing factors of the construction price index in Vietnam. The research results would also allow project stakeholders to be more informed of the factors affecting the construction price index in the context of Vietnam's civil construction industry. They also enable construction contractors to estimate project costs and bid rates better, enhancing their project and risk management performance.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.146-155
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• 2006

A handful of previous studies have attempted to integrate socioeconomic data and remotely sensed data for urban quality of life assessment with their spatial dimension in a zonal unit. However, such a zone-based approach not only has the unrealistic assumption that all attributes of a zone are uniformly spatially distributed throughout the zone, but also has resulted in serious methodological difficulties such as the modifiable areal unit problem and the incompatibility problem with environmental data. An alternative to the zone-based approach can be a pixel-based approach which gets its spatial dimension through a pixel. This paper proposes a pixel-based approach to linking remotely sensed data with socioeconomic data in GIS for urban quality of life assessment. The pixel-based approach uses dasymetric mapping and spatial interpolation to spatially disaggregate socioeconomic data and integrates remotely sensed data with spatially disaggregated socioeconomic data for the quality of life assessment. This approach was implemented and compared with a zone-based approach using a case study of Fulton County, Georgia. Results indicate that the pixel-based approach allows for the calculation of a microscale indicator in the urban quality of life assessment and facilitates efficient data integration and visualization in the assessment although it costs an intermediate step with more processing time such as the disaggregation of zonal data. The results also demonstrate that the pixel-based approach opens up the potential for the development of new database and increased analytical capabilities in urban analysis.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.486-495
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• 2021

Background: Particulate matter (PM) is one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide. Previous studies in South Korea have applied a relative risk calculated from Western populations when estimating the disease burden attributable to PM. However, the relative risk of PM on health outcomes may not be the same across different countries or regions. Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the premature deaths and socioeconomic costs attributable to long-term exposure to PM in South Korea. We considered not only the difference in PM concentration between regions, but also the difference in relative risk. Methods: National monitoring data of PM concentrations was obtained, and missing values were imputed using the AERMOD model and linear regression model. As a surrogate for relative risk, hazard ratios (HRs) of PM for cardiovascular and respiratory mortality were estimated using the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort. The nation was divided into five areas (metropolitan, central, southern, south-eastern, and Gangwon-do Province regions). The number of PM attributable deaths in 2018 was calculated at the district level. The socioeconomic cost was derived by multiplying the number of deaths and the statistical value of life. Results: The average PM₁₀ concentration for 2014~2018 was 45.2 ㎍/m³. The association between long-term exposure to PM₁₀ and mortality was heterogeneous between areas. When applying area-specific HRs, 23,811 premature deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory disease in 2018 were attributable to PM₁₀ (reference level 20 ㎍/m³). The corresponding socioeconomic cost was about 31 trillion won. These estimated values were higher than that when applying nationwide HRs. Conclusions: This study is the first research to estimate the premature mortality caused by long-term exposure to PM using relative risks derived from the national population. This study will help precisely identify the national and regional health burden attributed to PM and establish the priorities of air quality policy.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.201-230
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• 2017

This paper studies the long-run behavior of relative price dispersion among cities in Korea with a special emphasis on heterogeneous transitional patterns of price level dynamics. Formal statistical tests indicate considerable evidence for rejecting the null of relative price level convergence among the majority of cities over the sample period of 1985-2015. The analysis of gravity model suggests that the effect of transportation costs on intercity price level differentials is limited, while other socioeconomic factors, such as income, input factor prices, demographic structure, and housing price growth, play key roles in accounting for persistent regional price level disparities. Individual price levels are found to be better explained by a multiple-component model, and the deviations from PPP may be attributed to distinct stochastic common trends that are characterized by income and demographic structure.