• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.9-15
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• 2015

The study aims to examine the knowledge and awareness of care workers on oral health knowledge at the geriatric care facilities in order to improve and develop oral health services. For the research method, the study carried out a questionnaire survey to 163 care workers working at the geriatric care facilities (10) in D Metropolitan City from May 1~31, 2015 and then the collected data were statistically analyzed. As a result, the oral health knowledge of care workers was 20.09 points out of total 26 points (77.2%). The highest knowledge was 'proper toothbrushing method' with 93.0% and the lowest one was 'knowledge on the use of oral supplementary goods' with 58.1%. Those with experience of oral health education had higher demand on oral health education (P<0.001), and those with higher experience of oral health education had significantly higher oral health knowledge (P<0.001), demand (P<0.01) and awareness (P<0.05). As for factors influencing care workers' oral health awareness, if they had higher oral health knowledge points (P<0.01), oral health education demand (P<0.01), they had higher oral health awareness level. Accordingly, it is required to provide efficient, sustainable and practical oral health education of care workers considering oral characteristics of the long-term hospitalized patients at the care hospital. And, the role of dental hygienist as the person in charge of oral health education is necessary. Therefore, institutional support from the government is required to assign professional personnel.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.836-847
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between utilization of home care services under the national long-term care insurance system and family caregiver distress. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted in this study using data collected in 2011 and 2012 from the Korean version of International Resident Assessment Instrument (interRAI) Home Care assessment system. The study sample included 228 clients receiving community based home care and their family caregivers in Korea. Descriptive statistics, $x^2$ test, t-test, and Heckman selection model analysis were conducted using SAS 9.3. Results: Presence of family caregiver distress was significantly associated with days of nurse visits (${\beta}$=-.89, p=<.001) and home helper visits (${\beta}$=-.53, p=.014). Level of caregiver distress was also significantly associated with days of nurse visits (${\beta}$=-.66, p=.028). Other factors which were significantly associated with caregiver distress were depression, cognitive function, inadequate pain control, social support for older adult, and caregiver relationship to the older adult. Conclusion: The results of this study show that visiting nurse service and appropriate support programs for Older Adults and family caregivers experiencing caregiver distress should be developed and provided to families based on the health care needs of older adults and their family caregivers for effective and sustainable home care.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine interventions and supporting systems by dementia stage, take a look at dementia insurance policies in Korea and the United States, and present Korean private insurance programs for dementia patients. According to the study, our suggestions of a design of private insurance products for Korean dementia patients are as follows. First, the products should support people aged 80 and older. Second, new products should include the mild stage dementia in the insurance coverage. Third, non-pharmacological treatments, such as the cognitive stimulation, the cognitive training, and exercises need to be covered through the new private insurance. Fourth, the private insurance should be contained home health care services in its coverage. These suggestions can reduce the dependence of the public insurance, help people choose appropriate treatments for themselves, and give people a good opportunity to improve the effect of dementia treatment and to increase the satisfaction of patients and their families.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.79-88
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• 2011

In order to improve the quality of life and support the successful living of the elderly people in rural community, the Senior Well-being Villages Project has been carried out by Rural Development Administration since 2005 in Korea. This timely project, however, produces good results with 582 villages so far, we must endeavor to upgrade it more effectively. This study is to find complementary way of improving the project, and the results of the study are summarized as follows. First of all, the sustainable and practical strategies of the health care for the rural elderly must be adopted. The elderly people's mutual care system can be a good option for improving the existing project. Secondly, the cooperative heath care system must combine with this project. In this regards, health cooperative federation system can be also a challenging option. The beneficially activity of rural elderly people, which is a component of this project, must be linked with rural social enterprise or community venture. The local experts or capable men of various fields including family, the aged problem, social welfare, and regional development, must be appointed, and the support system enables them to do their jobs actively in the Senior Well-being Villages Project as well as other community works.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2013

Purpose: Health is one of the most important interests in current and future human society. Various efforts, which to maintain and promote their good health conditions, continue to be tried in future urban and architectural environment. The purpose of this study is to establish an integrated framework of research approaches for healthy urban and architectural environment that continuously promotes health according to people's entire life course. Methods: This was done by literature reviews, which is related to interdisciplinary researches for the determinants of health and healthy environment. Results: As a result of this study, an integrated research model, as a methodology, was proposed. This explains the concept of integrated research approaches for urban and architectural environment in the respect of people's health. Integrated health concept includes not only the area of health care environment to have recovery and treatment but also the daily living environment for people who have potential of being ill, and finally the city environment for entire people as health supporting elements including safety and primary prevention. Implications: Under the basis of this model, according to the life course, various researches on sustainable healthy urban and architectural environment should be followed from now on. The model should also be continuously complemented and developed into a standard of healthy environment.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.7
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• pp.969-975
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a healthcare service based on standard protocol and information communication technology for mother's sustainable postpartum care. The developed service was consisted of a client area where mothers measure, manage and transmit their vital signs using their own smartphone and personal health devices, and a server area that manages and shares with the received mother's vital signs and the results of examination results and personal health records. The client area collects vital signs through the IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device (PHD) using the m-health application of the previous study and Continua Health alliance certified personal health devices and transfers to Health Level Seven (HL7) V2.4, Continuity of Care Record (CCR) and Continuity of Care Document (CCD). The server area consists of a mobile web that manages and shares the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-compliant personal health records to ensure interoperability of examination results, and a mobile web where the postpartum caregiver enters and manages the results of the mother's examination results and provides it to the mother. In this way, the healthcare service of this study securing continued exchanges between the mother and postpartum caregiver improves the quality of life of the mother not only to satisfy the needs of the mother who was discharged but also through self-management and postpartum. In the future, we will conduct a study applying mothers and postpartum caregiver after approval of a clinical trail at a university hospital to evaluate developed healthcare services.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.254-267
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed at identifying the factors affecting the service satisfaction of urban elderly, focusing on the outreach community health service in Seoul, and suggesting policy directions for the successful implementation of community care. Method: Individuals aged 65 and 70 who used the outreach community health service from July 2017 to June 2019 were eligible for the survey. A total of 2,028 people were sampled using a proportional allocation method for each autonomous district in the survey which covered 25 districts. A multi-level logistic regression analysis was conducted, taking into account the individual's socioeconomic level, health status, type of service provided, and the healthcare-related environment and service provision period of the autonomous district. Result: The results revealed that the health status of the urban elderly, the type of services provided (health screening, linkage to community health center and clinic/hospital, medical checkup results counseling, frailty evaluation), and personal experience of the service were the major factors associated with the satisfaction with the outreach health services. Conclusion: The development of customized health services based on the close relationship between visiting nurses and the elderly may be considered to promote a sustainable community health care model.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3593-3599
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• 2014

Background: Efficacy of childhood cancer treatment in low-income countries may be impacted by parents' and health-care providers' perspectives on chemotherapy-related side-effects. This study explores prevalence and severity of side-effects in childhood cancer, and compares health beliefs about side-effects between parents and health-care providers, and between nurses and doctors in Indonesia. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured questionnaires were filled in by 40 parents and 207 health-care providers in an academic hospital. Results: Parents exporessed a desire to receive more information about side-effects (98%) and worried about this aspect of treatment (90%), although side-effects were less severe than expected (66%). The most frequent was behavior alteration (98%) and the most severe was hair loss. Only 26% of parents consulted doctors about side-effects. More parents, compared to health-care providers, believed that medicines work better when side-effects are more severe (p<0.001), and accepted severe side-effects (p=0.021). More health-care providers, compared to parents, believed that chemotherapy can be stopped or the dosage altered when there are side-effects (p=0.011). More nurses, compared to doctors, stated that side-effects were unbearable (p=0.004) and made them doubt efficacy of treatment (p<0.001). Conclusions: Behavior alteration is the most frequent and hair loss the most severe side-effect. Apparent discrepancies in health beliefs about side-effects exist between parents and health-care providers. A sustainable parental education program about side-effects is recommended. Health-care providers need to update and improve their knowledge and communication skills in order to give appropriate information. Suchmeasures may improve outcome of childhood cancer treatment in low-income countries, where adherence to therapy is a major issue.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.326-342
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• 2013

Background: Engaging and Involving stakeholders who have different interests in changing health care policies are difficult task. As the literature on the governance in Korean health care field is rare, this study aims to provide empirical evidence of 'governing health policy'-the ways health care policy is made, implemented, and evaluated from a political perspective. Methods: The authors of this study conducted interviews with elites in policy and clinical areas, which was considered to be the most effective approach to gather in-depth information about the background of changing payment policy as well as the barriers or contributors for making the policy sustainable. A total of 14 experts (3 government officials, 2 representatives from medical profession, 3 professors form academic field, and 6 healthcare providers from New DRG pilot program hospitals) participated in 2 hour long interviews. Results: There was a perception gap of the feasibility and substantiality of new payment system among elites. The score was higher in government officers than those in scholars or clinical experts. Next, the interviewees indicated that Korean New DRG might not sustain without significant efforts to improving democratic aspects of the governance. It is also notable that all interviewees except healthcare providers provided negative expectation of the contribution of new payment system to increase administration efficiency. For clinical efficiency, every stakeholders perceived there was no increased efficiency after introduction of New DRG payment. Like general perception, there was a wide gap between the perception of stakeholders in quality change after implementing the new payment system. Finally, interview participants negatively assumed about the likelihood of New DRG to remain a case of successful reforms. Conclusion: This study implied the importance of social consensus and the governance of health policy.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.