• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.205-215
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• 2022

Background: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors infecting the medical care utilization from a new perspective by newly classifying the categories of administrative districts using the urban decline index and medical vulnerability index as indicators. Methods: This study targeted 150,940 people who used medical services using the 2015 cohort database (DB), 2010-2015 urban regeneration analysis index DB, and 2014-2015 public health and medical statistics DB. The decline of the region was classified using the urban decline index typed using k-means clustering and the medical vulnerability index typed using the quantile score calculation. Regression analysis was performed 3 times with medical expenditure, length of stay, and the number of outpatient visits as dependent variables. Results: There were 37 stable region (47.4%), 29 health vulnerable region (37.2%), and 12 decline region (15.4%). The health vulnerable region had lower medical expenditure, fewer outpatient visits, and a higher length of stay than the stable region. The decline region was all higher than the stable region but had no significant effect. Conclusion: The factors that cause the health disparity between regions are not only factors related to individual health behavior but also environmental factors of the local community. Therefore, there is a need for a systematic alternative that properly considers the resources within the community and reflects the characteristics of the population.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.7-15
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• 2018

Purpose - This study surveys factors such as lifestyles, nutritional status, physical indicators, and physical fitness levels that affect the health of seniors over the age of 65 and based on the collected data attempts to create a senior health index model that provides health service information, help support seniors' successful aging, and improve their quality of life. Research design, data, and methodology - This paper conducted the development for senior health index model and the cross validity verification to examine the status of senior health level, and aimed at setting the health status evaluation criteria. Seniors 384 usable data were analyzed. Results - As an attempt to segment the senior health service market, I divided the results of this study based on measurability, accessibility, disparity between groups, and the size of the potential client base. I divided the senior market into five subgroups: very healthy, healthy, normal, weak, and very weak. Conclusions - The findings of this study may prove useful in preparing for the forthcoming super-aged society through segmentation of the senior market, understanding differences between groups with different health conditions, and discovering effective marketing strategies that meet the demands of different senior groups.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.229-242
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• 2023

Purpose: The electronic frailty index (eFI), which is derived from electronic health records, has been recommended as screening tool for frailty due to its accessibility and ease of use. The objective of this systematic review was to identify the prevalence of frailty assessed by the eFI and its influence on health outcomes in older adults with chronic diseases. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, SCOPUS, Cochrane, Google search, and nursing journals in Korean from January 2016 to December 2022. Results: Twelve studies were analyzed. The eFI score, based on routine clinical data, was associated with adverse health outcomes. The most frequent outcome studied was mortality, and the eFI was associated with increased mortality in nine studies. Other outcomes studied included hospitalization, length of stay, readmission, and institutionalization in relation to hospital care usage, and cardiovascular events, stroke, GI bleeding, falls, and instrumental activities of daily life as health conditions. Conclusion: Early identification of frailty in older adults with chronic diseases can decrease the burden of disease and adverse health outcomes. The eFI has a good discriminative capacity to identify frail older adults with chronic diseases.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.81-101
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyze characteristics of welfare level for the persons with disabilities in Korean local governments. The study adopted multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Based on prior studies and comparative importance research, three indicators were extracted from the welfare circumstance index for the disabled. They are the ratio of the registered disabled population, the ratio of the disabled household in poor households, the ratio of dependence on public finance. Also, nine dimensions and twenty seven indicators were extracted from the welfare level index. The dimensions are as follows : Education, income & economic activities support, welfare services infra-structure, health & welfare service support, movement convenience & safety, rights protection, culture, leisure & information accessibility, welfare administration & budget for the disabled. The findings from the welfare circumstance index show that local governments are divided into three groups and all indicators are statistically significant. On the other hand, the findings from the welfare level index, show that local governments are divided into four groups and five indicators are statistically significant. Based on these findings, the study proposes improvement in the disabled welfare level, and balanced development of local governments.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.91-108
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• 2022

Keen attention has been directed at "smart tourism cities" due to its role of solving urban problems arising from modern tourism development. However, some local governments are making huge investments in developing uniform tourism apps without specific directions or guidelines for the transformation of smart tourism cities. Accordingly, this study aims to develop a standardized and objective smart tourism competitiveness index and evaluate the competitiveness rankings of various cities around the world. The index comprises the five subindices of attractiveness, accessibility, digitalization readiness, sustainability, and co-partnership. The analysis results have shown that Singapore is the most competitive smart tourism city, followed by Amsterdam, New York City, Seoul and Barcelona, with Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok being relegated to the bottom of competitiveness rankings. We expect that this index can be employed as a global standard for continuously and systematically monitoring smart tourism city-related projects in the future.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.sup1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2016

Background: This study uses the relevance index to understand the condition of regional medical service use for cardiovascular surgery and to identify the medical service use imbalance between regions. Methods: This study calculated the relevance index of 16 metropolitan cities and provinces using resident registration address data from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the 2010-2014 health insurance, medical care assistance, and medical benefits claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. We identified developments over the 5-year time period and analyzed the level of regional imbalance regarding cardiovascular surgery through the relative comparison of relevance indexes between cardiovascular and other types of surgery. Results: The relevance index was high in large cities such as Seoul, Daegu, and Gwangju, but low in regions that were geographically far from the capital area, such as the Gangwon and Jeju areas. Relevance indexes also fell as the years passed. Cardiovascular surgery has a relatively low relevance index compared to key types of surgery of other fields, such as neurosurgery and colorectal surgery. Conclusion: This study identified medical service use imbalance between regions for cardiovascular surgery. Results of this study demonstrate the need for political intervention to enhance the accessibility of necessary special treatment, such as cardiovascular surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.23-34
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• 2012

As the quality of life grows, the role of cultural facilities in urban areas is becoming more important. However, due to various reasons, the location of these facilities shows the geographical imbalance between urban regions. Even though provision of road network can improve this kind of urban problem, in many countries, the provision of urban infrastructure plays a role which is magnifies the cultural gap between regions and socio-economic classes. The findings of this study are as follows. First of all, the inequality of accessibility to cultural facilities is shown over the period. Cross-sectional data shows that the higher the income of a region, the higher the accessibility index(AI) of the zone to cultural facilities at any time. Next, the provision of road network contributes the improvement of AI of high income region. Finally the provision of new facilities has a tendency that these kind of facilities are located to make AI of high income zone better. It means that the decision making by city government intensifies the geographical inequality. This result would be very useful in the decision making process for determining the number and the location of cultural facilities and other similar urban infrastructure as well. Also it will be helpful for the selection of optimal location which considered not only physical distances but also social equalities.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.47-58
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• 2012

This study, targeting the students of "K" university in Busan City area, was performed to draw the groups by food-related lifestyle types and to identify the correlation between each group's attributes of selecting places to eat out and obesity index. The purpose of the study was achieved by means of the PASW Statistic 18.0(Predictive Analytics Software) which conducted frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, ${\chi}^2$-test, non-hierarchical cluster analysis and ANOVA. It turned out that the male university students were 175.59 cm tall and weigh 69.53 kg on average. And the female university students showed their average height of 162.81 cm and weight of 53.42 kg. When examined by the body mass index(BMI), male students were composed of 1.7% of underweight, 64.6% of normal weight, 19.7% of overweight and 14.0% of obese. As for the female students, 22.9% were classified as underweight, 62.7% as normal weight, 8.5% as overweight and 5.9% as obese. The food-related lifestyle categories were divided into five factors; health seeking type, safety seeking type, mood seeking type, taste seeking type, and western food seeking type. The four attributes of selecting places to eat out included quality of food and service, price reasonableness, accessibility and atmosphere, and experience to have eaten. With regard to food-related lifestyle, the groups were named by cluster 1 [careless diet group], Cluster 2 [health oriented group], and cluster3 [careless healthcare group]. In terms of the correlation between the clusters by food-related lifestyle and their attributes of selecting places to eat out, Cluster 1 had a high mean value in experience to have eaten, Cluster 2 quality of food and service, Cluster 3 accessibility and atmosphere.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.491-507
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• 2021

Background: This study aims to measure regional healthcare differences in Korea, and define relatively underserved areas. Methods: We employed position value for relative comparison index (PARC) to measure the healthcare status of 250 areas using 137 indicators in five following domains: healthcare demand, supply, accessibility, service utilization, and outcome. We performed a sensitivity analysis using t-SNE (t-distributed stochastic neighboring embedding). Results: Based on PARC values, 83 areas were defined as relatively underserved areas, 49 of which were categorized as moderate and 34 as severe. The provincial regions with the most underserved areas were Gyeongbuk (16 areas), Gangwon (13), Jeonnam (13), and Gyeongnam (12). Conclusion: This study suggests a relative comparison approach to define relatively underserved areas in healthcare. Further studies incorporating various perspectives and methods are required for policy implications.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.169-189
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to elicit the priority of the index of the operation evaluation of the school library, and to present measures for improvement of the evaluation index that reflects the project sites. To this end, the school library evaluation index was analyzed by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) analysis method to teacher librarians who are the representative personnel of the school library. According to the research, the priority of the upper tier evaluation areas was human resources, library services, information resources, library management, facilities and environment, and the priority of the lower tier evaluation items was human resource allocation, human resources expertise, reading education, information literacy education, efforts to activate education, book composition snowflake, the latest book, budget, facility access, book status, appropriateness of facilities and facilities, management plan, proximity accessibility, PR and marketing, school library steering committee, cooperation, use of materials current status. The conclusions drawn from this study could be used as basic data in the application of fieldworked school library assessment indicators.