• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.315-346
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• 2012

The legal relationship between patient and physician is legally equal relationship. But, in times past, patients be compelled to sign an unequal contract, substantially. Because of the imbalance between supply and demand in the health care market. Today, the law of supply and demand in the health care market is running well. And as the cognition of citizens' rights grows, the relationship between patient and physician can also get a lot of changes. Patients have the right to know the information about medical care, and to decide whether or not to get treatment including invasions against their own bodies. In other words, Doctors have an obligation to explain to their patients. If doctors did not provide patients sufficient explanation or information, it violates the right of patients. This is a tort, or a breach of contract. To improve the remedy for violation of patient's right, patient is able to be protected by status as consumer. If patient is a kind of consumer in terms of medical consumption, he/she as consumer can enjoy supplementally the consumer's right. The patient as a consumer can exercise now a consumer's right as a constitutional right. In addition, with respect to consumer's rights, Framework Act on Consumers was enacted. This Act is based on constitutional provisions of Article 124 and the Act can be seen as a law that embodies consumer right because the provision of the constitutional law delegates specific contents. In the health care field, patients need to win recognition the statue of the consumer to hold the sovereignty of the consumer. In particular, if patients are consumers, they may be able to make good use of the quickly and efficiently collective dispute resolution and association lawsuit to rescue their damage, the Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) of Framework Act on Consumers.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.167-177
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• 2019

Innovation of genomics technology has recently been extended to Direct To Consumer Genetic Test (DTC-GT) which consumers purchase without requesting the service on medical institutes. In 2016, Korea has introduced the DTC-GT but the market size is small comparing to global market. This study analyzes consumers' purchase intentions and purposes and their influential factors based on 2018 consumer survey. According to the results of binominal and multinominal logistic regression, knowledge after purchase, attitude on medical care benefit, health status are statistically significant on purchase intentions. Purchase purposes are different on age group and related on medical care rather than health care. These results imply that DTC-GT is needed to improve consumer satisfaction, re-purchase and effective care service. This paper is expected to contribute on strategic directions for the new DTC-GT product development.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.165-184
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• 2005

Japan has remained a welfare laggard among advanced industrial democracies. Therefore, the introduction of the public long-term care insurance(koteki kaigo hoken in Japanese) in April of 2000 looks very unique in terms of the Japanese social security tradition, because it can be interpreted as the expansion of social security system and the weakening of the market power over the livelihood of the ordinary people. In the era of globalization, in which even the highly developed welfare states are forced to shrink their social security systems, Japan, a welfare laggard, looks like being headed to the opposite direction. This article aims to define the character of the public long-term care insurance, and thereby, to evaluate the recent social policy of the Japanese government. This study follows the social democratic model in the study of the welfare state development, which assumes that, under the condition of a weak social democratic party and a fragmented labor movement, the introduction of the long-term care insurance is not equal to the improvement of the Japanese social security system. The main argument of this article is that the long-term care insurance, notwithstanding its appearance as an expansion of public sphere, is part of market-oriented neo-liberal social reforms, which have remained the main feature of the Japanese social policies since the mid-1970's. For this, this study will do a longitudinal analysis on the social consequences of the long-term care insurance incurred to the Japanese social security system for the long-term care, focusing on the income redistribution, the marketization of long-term care sector and the changes in the financial burden of the government, social insurers and general citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.97-111
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• 2000

The purpose of this study were to segment the hair care cosmetics market according to the benefits sought, to categorize the information sources on the hair care cosmetics, and to characterize the profiles of the segmentized groups of university students. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 457 university students in Chonbuk province from Jul. 10 to Jul. 21, 1999. Frequencies and percentages were calculated, and factor analysis, cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA, and $\chi$$^2$-test were used. The results were: 1. University student's benefit variables on hair care cosmetics were classified into special function, fashion, practicality, brand, fragrance, styling, nutritional reinforcement, and economy. And they were segmentized into the feeling pursuit, the multi-benefit pursuit, the practicality pursuit, the benefit unconscious, and the function pursuit. The information sources were classified into marketer-dominated sources, neutral sources and consumer -dominated sources. 2. The feeling pursuit strongly sought for fashion, brand and fragrance pursuit, but considered economy less, chiefly used the marketer-dominated and neutral information sources, and showed much interests in hair care cosmetics, and were consisted of women dominantly. The multi-benefits pursuit sought for various kinds of benefits from hair care cosmetics, depended heavily on various kinds of information sources, were well aware of their hair types and instructions on the hair care cosmetics label, and were consisted of women dominantly. The practicality pursuit highly sought for practicality, but low on the fashion, were not aware of their hair style, haler care, hair health status and hair type, and almost half of them are men. The benefit unconscious showed low concern about, all kinds of benefits and hair care cosmetics, and were consisted of more men than women. The function pursuit highly sought for special function and nutritional reinforcement, mainly depended on the consumer-dominated sources. and showed low concern about their hair style and hair care.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.9
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• pp.97-109
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• 2007

This study is to examine the relation between self-consciousness and appearance management behavior; to grasp the appearance management behavior depending on self-consciousness which older women feel personally; to understand their needs more deeply; and to give support in planning and conducting marketing strategies effectively in the beauty and fashion market. The subjects of this study were aged women ranging 55 to 69 in age, living in Daegu and Geongsangbukdo. 500 questionnaires were distributed and 397 questionnaires out of 440 returned were used in the data analysis. The results through statistic analyses are following: 1. Among older women, the higher social self-consciousness group appeared to pursue six types of appearance management behavior(i.e., weight body-shape care, skin care, cosmetic behavior, hair care, cosmetic surgery, and clothing behavior) much more than the lower social self-consciousness group. 2. Compared with the lower private self-consciousness group, the higher private self-consciousness group appeared to care for not only weight body-shape care but also skin care, cosmetic care, and cosmetic surgery, clothing behavior with more interest in ordinary times. In terms of hair care, though, there was no significant difference between the higher private self-consciousness group and the lower private self-consciousness group. 3. There was no statistically significant difference between the higher social anxiety group and the lower social anxiety group in weight body-shape care, skin care, cosmetic behavior, hair care, cosmetic surgery, and clothing behavior.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.266-280
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• 2013

Background: Information asymmetry between physicians and patients is one of the most unique characteristics of health care. But as consumerism spreads in health care sector, health care consumers are searching comparative information about quality and cost of providers from many information sources. Providing comparative information to health care consumers not only makes consumers choose hospital rationally, but also invigorates the health care market by providers' competition. However there are few studies regarding information searching behavior of health care consumers, then this study is carried out. Methods: The purpose of this study is to understand the information searching behavior of health care consumers based on their characteristics and the types of medical institutions. For this purpose, 313 spinal patients' data of 11 medical institutions (university hospital, spine specialized hospital, clinic) located in Seoul were collected by self-administered surveys. Results: The results of this study are as follows: 1) t-test/analysis of variance analysis showed that according to various characteristics of health care consumers and the types of medical institutions, the level of information searching of each source and the amount of information searching and searching outcomes are statistically different. 2) Regression analysis showed that influence on searching outcomes are statistically different according to the level of information searching of each source and searching content and the amount of information searching has positive effects on searching outcomes. Conclusion: The significance of this study is to provide empirical basis for establishment of health care policy reflecting information needs and preference of health care consumers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.19-29
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• 2020

The paper examines the impact of information about cash flow from operating activities of firms listed on Vietnam's stock market to the decision making of individual investors. Data were collected from interviews with 160 individual investors about their investment decisions based on information on profit growth and cash flow growth from operating activities. T-test was conducted to research on Vietnam's stock market - a market considered as information that is not really public, transparent and ineffective. The research results show that: (1) investors do not care about cash flow from operating activities when making investment decisions if the company's profits grow positively, (2) information about cash flow from operating activities only affects the decisions of individual investors once profit growth is negative, and (3) conflicting information between profit growth and cash flow growth from business activities significantly affects the confidence and comfort of investors in Vietnam's stock market when they make investment decisions. Then, the study points out the mistake of investors when making investment decisions, and offers recommendations to investors when making investment decisions, not only concerned with profit growth, but also paying special attention to cash flow growth, especially cash flow from the company's business operations.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.165-177
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• 2012

This study examined market size of private health insurance premium and individual characteristics associated with the market size change in Korea, using wave 1 (2008) and wave 2 (2009) of Korea Health Panel. The market size was 24.4 trillion Korean won in 2008 and 26.9 trillion in 2009. The increase rate of private health insurance premium among those who were the elderly, single, or the poor was higher than that among their counterpart respectively. Health status and utilization were insignificant in determining the increase rate of private health insurance premium. These findings were more obvious among the uninsured in 2008 than among the insured in 2008. The increase of private health insurance premium in Korea imply the increase of willingness-to-pay for health risk through private sector. The authors suggest policy intervention for accessability to health care for the underprivileged and weak through enlargement of Korean social health insurance benefit.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 2023

Purposes: The Specialty hospital designation policy had launched in 2011 and 110 designated specialty hospitals have been operating nationwide in 2022. This study was to estimate the market share of specialty hospitals for the specific diseases compared to other types of hospitals. Methodology: Data were derived from the National Health Insurance Claim data from 2018 to 2019. Subjects were all the inpatients with MDC(Major Disease Category) that specialty hospitals specialized in. A total of 34,231,387 claims were analyzed to estimate the market share. Findings: 90 specialty hospitals were responsible for 2.4 percent of inpatient care with specific diseases for specialty hospitals. There were regional variations in the market share of the specialty hospitals as the number of specialty hospitals in regions. Specialty hospitals' market shares were relatively high in burn(31.3%), ophthalmology(16.4%), obstetrics and gynecology(7.1%), alcohol(6.0%), joint(3.7%), spine(2.7%). After adjusting the number of inpatients per hospital, hospitals specialized in burn, alcohol, ophthalmology, breast, joint, obstetrics and gynecology, and hand replantation had treated more patients than tertiary hospitals. Practical Implications: Although specialty hospitals' market share was small, some types of specialty hospitals had an impact on the regional market as well as the national level market. To improve patients' accessibility to a specialty hospital, it is necessary to government supports non-specialized hospitals to change into specialty hospitals in certain fields and regions where the number of specialty hospitals is insufficient.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.81-94
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to identify the possibility of unemployed married women's economic activity by analysing their willingness to work and possible influencial factors on it. This study estimates the effects of independent variables on the dependent available by using Binomial Probit Model. sample are 592 two-parent households. The results of this study are as follows ; The percentage of unemployed married women's willingness to enter into the labor market is 25.2%. Among the variables which have affected their willingness are family variables(family size, the number of children and the existence of children under the age of 6), personal variables(the age, education level and the past working experience) and financial variables(non-wage income, Engel's coefficient, expenditure o leisure activities and the subject judgement of their financial status). It is hard to accept those women's low willingness as is since the most crucial statistically was especially the children of 6 or less among the family variables. That is to say, more favorable conditions of the labor market and inexpensive day-care centres available would certainly encourage married women to be more willing to participate in economic activities as employees.