• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.27 no.spc
• /
• pp.625-634
• /
• 2016

This study aims to verify the effect of the rural community living home use through an analysis of depression among the elderly women who live alone in the rural community living home. A survey was conducted from July to September 2015 through direct interviews with 236 elderly people who live alone in community living homes at 52 locations across the country. The main results of this study are as follows. First, social support from family/relatives and neighbors/friends was found not to affect depression in the elderly living in community living homes. Second, satisfaction with health status, economic status and life appeared to affect their depression. This indicates the need for various measures to increase the subjective satisfaction of health. Third, when the demographic characteristics, social support and personal satisfaction were controlled, the period of use, satisfaction with use and operational service/no service were proven to have an impact on depression in the elderly living alone in community living homes. In other words, since the level of satisfaction with community living homes is very high and this has a positive impact on the elderly living in community living homes, it is desirable to have an ongoing policy for the homes to be utilized as important welfare resources. Based on these findings, this study proposes improvements in the user experience and programs and services offered for rural community living home business programs.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.228-237
• /
• 2017

Objective: We conducted a survey to understand the current state of pharmacy services and pharmacists' thoughts in the future of the community pharmacy setting. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to 229 pharmacists and gathered from 95 respondents. Results: We asked to pharmacists about what the ideal pharmacy duty should be in the next 10 years at the community pharmacy setting in Korea. For this question, the respondents said drug counselling (19.4%), dispensing (13.8%), long-term care of chronic disease and healthcare education (12.8%), and OTC counselling (11.5%). When asked about how much time they were spending doing certain tasks in the pharmacy, the main tasks were dispensing (23.5%), counselling (17.1%), prescription review (10.1%), and OTC counselling (5.5%). When asked about what the most important duty of a pharmacist was, medication counselling (45.4%) was the most important task that they identified and the reasons for not being able to fulfill this role properly was time shortage (78.9%) followed by the lack of counselling spaces, up-to-date knowledges, and focus on financial gains over patient counselling. Conclusion: Korean pharmacists are mainly focusing on dispensing in their daily work. Their basic responsibilities can be easily mechanized over the next few years, but the social expectations of disease-prevention and public health promotion both in current and future can not be replaced by such mechanical measures. Therefore, pharmaceutical services in Korea should be developed in more diverse and professional ways.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.45-55
• /
• 2019

Background: Although the importance of pharmaceutical care service has been growing to meet the needs of customers with the improvement of clinical and humanistic outcomes, there was not a systematic strategy to promote research in Korea. The aim of this study was to suggest the core agendas for pharmaceutical care services research and development (R&D) considering priorities. Methods: Based on desk researches, we developed R&D agendas for the needs of improving pharmaceutical care services in the area of institution, community, and public health. To determine the priority of agendas in developing pharmaceutical care service, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis was performed by the 14 experts. Criteria and subcriteria were assessed for significance by pairwise comparisons. Then, agendas were evaluated for importance according to each subcriteria, and rank ordered considering the weight calculated by multiplying the importance scores of the criteria and the subcriteria. Results: We derived 25 agendas including 13 for institutional pharmaceutical care service, 8 for community pharmaceutical care service, and 4 for public-health related pharmaceutical care service. AHP model was constructed based on 4 criteria and 8 subcriteria by a hierarchical structure. From the AHP survey, the 'Development of pharmaceutical care service for metabolic and chronic disease' agenda accounted for the highest priority. Conclusion: We have developed the R&D agendas of the pharmaceutical care service which should be promoted. The results should be utilized by the government to nationally support the development of the standards and relevant regulations related to pharmaceutical care services in Korea.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.1173-1182
• /
• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the factors related to the dental caries and periodontal diseases of Korean elderly people in terms of demographic characteristics, oral health promotion behavior and systemic diseases in an effort to provide information on national policy setting and policy evaluation about the prevention of tooth loss resulting from severe oral diseases and the promotion of elderly people's oral health. Methods : The first-, second- and third-year raw data of the 4th National Health and Nutrition Survey were utilized, and the data of 3,882 elderly people who got a dental checkup were analyzed. The statistical package SPSS WIN 19.0 was employed to make a logistic regression analysis. Results : The senior citizens who did toothbrushing less frequently were more likely to have dental caries. As for periodontal diseases, the men were 1.34-fold more likely to have periodontal diseases than the women, and the respondents whose self-rated health state was worse were 1.40-fold more likely to have periodontal diseases than the others whose self-rated health state was better. The senior citizens who ever received treatment from unqualified people were 1.30-fold more likely to have peridontal diseases, and those who took neither vitamin compound nor minerals were 1.30-fold more likely to have periodontal diseases. Those who suffered from low High-density Lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL) were 1.35-fold more likely to have periodontal diseases than the others who didn't. Conclusions : Those whose self-rated health status is worse should especially be concerned about periodontal diseases. Specifically, it's needed to pay attention to the low-income classes, and the government should take measures to provide quality welfare services for elderly people not to receive treatment from unqualified people. Besides, research efforts should be made to determine the relationship between periodontal diseases and low HDL-cholesterolemia.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.325-337
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine the oral health state of the elderly in an effort to pave the way for dental health project planning for the elderly for the city of Jeonju and to help promote the oral health of the elderly population to which health care services weren't accessible a lot. The subjects in this study were 300 elderly people who were in their 60s and up and used 10 different welfare establishments for the elderly in Jeonju. A survey was conducted from May 3 through 13, 2005, by interviewing them in person, and the collected data were analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. In terms of the period of oral health examination, 44.1 percent of the 66-70 age group, 48.1 percent of the elementary school graduates and 39.4 percent of the house owners had their teeth examined whenever they had a toothache. So their cycle of oral health examination was statistically significantly different according to age(p<.05), education(p<0.001) and form of residence(p<0.001). 2. Regarding the necessity of prosthesis, prosthesis was needed by 52.1 percent of the age group from 71 to 80, 44.3 percent of the women, 48.9 percent of the men, 60.0 percent of the community college graduates and 55.9 percent who rent a house on a deposit or monthly basis. But there was no statistically significant gap among the groups. 3. As for the necessity of oral health education, the necessity of it was absolutely supported by 89.7 percent of the 66-70 age group, 76.0 percent of the women, 87.2 percent of the men, 95.3 percent of the middle school graduates and 87.7 percent of the house owners. Their age(p<.0.01), gender(p<0.05) education(p<0.05) and form of residence(p<0.01) made a statistically significant difference to that. 4. Concerning oral health education experience, 79.3 percent of the high school graduates and 79.8 percent of the house owners had never received oral health education, and that experience statistically significantly varied with education(p<0.001) and form of residence (p<0.001). 5. As to the biggest reason for oral health care, 50.0 percent found it necessary to take care of their teeth to ensure their own perpetual oral health, and 33.7 percent felt the need for that because they had a toothache. The above-mentioned findings indicated that the elderly people were definitely in want of oral health education. Dental hygienists in public dental clinics should serve as dental health educators to address their needs, and regular oral health care programs should be prepared to spread awareness about the importance of oral health among elderly locals.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.5-10
• /
• 2012

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the needs for wound care services in the elderly care institutions by analyzing hospital-based home care nursing in select facilities in Korea. Methods: A total of 92 staffs at the elderly care institutions, located throughout the country, completed self-report questionnaires between February 1 and November 31, 2009. SPSS ver. 17.0 was used for data analysis, regarding frequency and chi square. The 5% level of significance was the critical level for acceptance of the study's hypotheses. Results: Results were as follows; group A and group B were rated as 'high' and 'very high', respectively, in care of simple pressure ulcer, care of complicated pressure ulcer, stitch out, care of simple surgical wound, ostomy care, complicated ostomy care, simple dressing and complicated dressing. Conclusion: Political decisions intended to promote visits by hospital- based home care nurses to the elderly care institutions would be a prudent course.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.60 no.1
• /
• pp.69-86
• /
• 2022

The present study examined the effectiveness of repeated marriage checkups at intervals of six months in a Family Center in Seoul. To achieve this, the pilot study protocol (Park, 2019) was adapted, emphasizing strength-based, counseling-oriented approaches. Two couples and family therapists with master's degrees were trained and their practice was monitored to ensure program fidelity. The methods employed for the assessment of marriage checkup were an online survey, a video recording of couple problem-solving, and a clinical interview. A total of 14 couples participated in the 1st checkup, 10 of whom also completed the 2nd checkup. Couples with varying levels of marital satisfaction participated in the program. Descriptive statistics indicated gradual increases over 8-9 months in diverse indices such as marital satisfaction and relationship strength, while other indices fluctuated slightly but converged to higher levels over time. A non-parametric analysis appropriate for small samples demonstrated statistically significant increases over the 8-9 months in marital satisfaction among couples. The current study evidenced the effectiveness of repeated marriage checkups in the Family Center, which is the primary public institution for family policy and services in Korea. Repeated marriage checkups are therefore a promising way to enhance couples' relationship health and improve the family management system of the Family Center.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.59-84
• /
• 1996

It is generally believed that the medical profession in Korea is an well-paid field along with legal profession. In this vein, the nursing is regarded one of well-paid profession. The actual data, however, reveals that nurses belong to low income bracket. We carefully compare the nurse's earnings with those of other professions. We selected 58 professions, which are similar in vocational characteristics and education background to nurses and conduct a regression analysis to estimate earning functions. Using the estimated coefficients, we project an optimum salary level for nurse, and compare it with the actual salary level. The estimated results show that the nurses are underpaid : their actual salary is less than the optimum level. We provide several explanations for this phenomenon : a tradition based on Confucian value, wage discrimination for women, and wage inequality among hospitals. Undercompensation will result either ratard professional development, or block the motivation for high quality of nursing care. If the current underpaying situation is not improved, a shortage of nurses along with an noticeable decline in the quality of medical services are expected. Therefore an adequate compensation for nurses must be properly assessed and addresed not only be health care authorities but also by legislators. Further research is needed to explain why there is such as wide salary inequality among nurses, and to find what cause it.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1193-1196
• /
• 2012

Breast and cervical cancer are the most common causes of cancer mortality among women worldwide, but they are largely preventable. There are limited data on knowledge and practices on screening methods of breast and cervical cancers among female health care workers in Sri Lanka, in spite of having an organized screening programme islandwide. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 219 female health care workers including public health midwives (68.9%) selected from 6 districts in Sri Lanka using convenient sampling methods. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a pre-test in a capacity building training programme to collect the data. The mean (SD) duration of work experience of the respondents was 12 years and 52.5% were aged over 35 years. Most (76.7%) were married, and afamily history of cancer was reported by 24.2%. Over 98% knew about self breast examination. Even though 84.1% practiced it, only 47.9% practiced it on a monthly basis. Clinical breast examination and mammography were known by 94.1% and 64.3% respectively. Only 19.2% had undergone a clinical braest examination within one year and 3.6% had ever undergone a mamography. Only 76.3% knew that a Pap smear detects precancerous stage of cervical cancer. Among 169 married workers, 73.4% had never had a Pap smear and only 17.2% had got it done within the preceding 5 years. Among the reasons for not doing a pap smear within 5 years, 47.0% belived it as not nescessary, 17.3% due to fear/dislike, 23.2% as not having symptoms, 3% had not known about it and 3% not known about availability of services. The study findings suggest that the knowledge and practices on breast and cervical cancer screening methods among female health care workers need to be improved. Considering the role that health care workers play in communicating health behaviors to the general public, strengthening health education interventions for this group of females is essential.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.434-444
• /
• 2013

Background: Regional Cardiocerebrovascular Centers (RCC) were established for the prevention and treatment of cardiocerebrovascular disease and funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the measurement tool of public benefits in RCC. Methods: Through the intensive literature review, experts surveys and their repetitive feedback, we selected the 46 items about the public benefits in RCC. Development of measurement tool involved content validity test using Content Validity Index (CVI), construct validity test through factor analysis and reliability test. Results: Thirty-five items were selected by content validity test, which CVI was 0.08 or higher. Through the construct validity test, 32 items in 7 factors were derived. And Cronbach's alpha was 0.951. Finally, public benefits measurement tool is composed of 32 items in 7 factors which are comprehensiveness of health care services, market complement, emergency care, cost, governance, quality improvement, and government control. Conclusion: Though we developed the measurement tool of public benefits in RCC, it would be utilized to measure the public benefits of various health agencies.