• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2021

To develop policies regarding fertility and pregnancy that will be effective in preventing further declines in fertility rates in the context present-day Korea, current policies in Japan were analyzed and compared with those now being implemented in Korea. This study was structured to involve (a) comparison of maternal health projects in Korea and Japan, and (b) comparison of infertility support policies based in regional cities in Korea and Japan. Korea's Health Plan 2030 emphasizes strengthening healthcare for high-risk pregnant women, expanding investments to benefit vulnerable groups, and establishing a support system for infertile couples. In Japan, government programs involving treatment targeting infertility specifically were implemented nationwide in 2006. Wide dissemination of accurate knowledge related to pregnancy is emphasized. Also, counseling centers specializing in infertility were established by 67 local governments. We have confirmed that Korean policies include decentralization, while Japan is implementing the central government's infertility policy uniformly in all regions. Japan also adjusted its policy out of concern that problems related to infertility and childbirth will worsen due to the social disaster of COVID-19. The results indicate that providing additional support for psychological counseling may be preferable to increasing the number of in-vitro fertilization procedures. The physical burden on women may be minimized by benchmarking policies in Japan. Step-by-step application of these procedures should be systematically supported to achieve the best results.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.137-144
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine consumers' perceptions of domestic infertility support policies based on infertility-related keywords and the trends of their changes. To this end, Momsholic, a mom cafe which has the most active infertility-related bulletin boards on Naver, was selected as the analysis target, and 'infertility' was selected as a keyword for data search. The data was collected for three months. In addition, network analysis and visualization were performed using R for data collection and analysis, and cross-validation was attempted using the NetDraw function of 'textom 1.0' and the UCINET6 program. As a result of the analysis, the main keywords were cost, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, freezing, harvest, ovulation, and how much. Next, looking at the central value of the degree of connection, it was found that the degree of connection between the words cost, cost, how much, problem, public health center, and artificial insemination was high. According to the results of this study, women who visit mom cafes due to infertility in Korea are more interested in the cost. It is believed to be closely related to infertility treatment as well as in vitro fertilization and egg freezing. Therefore, by examining keywords related toinfertility, it has academic significance in that it is possible to identify major factors that end users are interested in. Furthermore, it is possible to redefine the guidelines for domestic infertility support policies by presenting infertility support policies that reflect the factors of interest of end consumers.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.2 s.66
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• pp.44-56
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• 2006

Objectives : This study was to analyze the status of patients with infertility in the department of oriental gynecology in an oriental medical hospital and propose infertility treatment in oriental medicine. Methods : This study was presented with 2,153 cases of infertile women who had visited the department of oriental gynecology in one oriental hospital in Seoul from 2002 to 2004. Results : The total number infertile patients has decreased year by year. The age range of patients was getting higher and the age group between 30 and 35 took up about one half of the total patients. The duration of infertility for less than 3 years held about 50-60% of the total patients, and the mean duration of infertility was $39.18{\pm}29.57$ months (2004). The most common occupations of females were professionals or administrative managers. The secondary infertility was increasing and unexplained infertility increased from 38.2% (in 2002) to 54.4% (in 2004). However the duration of treatment was shorter. This shows that the age range of the patients having oriental-medicine treatment is gradually getting higher and the number of the patients having oriental-medicine treatment and compliance is decreasing. Conclusions : More studies about objectification of oriental medicine need to precede any other studies. Then, it is thought to be necessary to rebuild cooperative relationships between oriental & western medicine through systematic research and political supports and to establish firm foundations of oriental medicine.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2021

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the enactment of local municipalities' ordinance for supporting Korean Medicine infertility treatment in the metropolitan area. Methods : For Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, data on the enactment of Korean Medicine infertility treatment and socio-demographic data of the local municipalities were collected through the Enhanced Local laws and regulations Information System and on-line statistical database. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the factors affecting the enactment of the ordinance, The enactment of the ordinance was dependent variable, and the budgeting of local municipalities, the number of population, the number of births, the number of Korean Medicine doctors, and the total fertility rate were used as independent variables. Results : Up to 2000, the ordinances for supporting Korean Medicine infertility treatment were enacted in 16 local municipalities and the budget for that was supported by 18 local municipalities. Regarding the effect on the enactment of the ordinances, it was found that budgeting of Korean Medicine infertility treatment had a positive (+) effect, and the metropolitan government's budgeting and the total fertility rate had a negative (-) effect. Conclusions : This study suggests that the ordinance for Korean Medicine infertility treatment is a policy tool derived based on the problem of low fertility faced by each local municipality rather than the political influence of health provider's groups.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.75-84
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• 2009

Recently, low birthrate has been recognized as a social problem, which is expressed as catastrophy of population. There are several reasons why low birth rate has occurred directly and indirectly, generating total economic and social burden for our society. That is, low birthrate should not be simply regarded as reduction of population. The present study identified the reasons of low birthrate and the current status of infertility, and examined practical and theoretical issues in terms of low birthrate. It is our contention that low birthrate and infertility is one of the most important governmental issue to enhance quality of life of the public. Thus, integrated and systematic policy must be developed and implemented to effectively meet the issues.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.193-194
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• 1995

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2024

Objectives: This study is aimed to survey public's experience of medical use for developing Korean medicine clinical practice guideline of female infertility. Methods: The study engaged women who had experienced infertility despite regular conjugal relations, selected from an online survey company's national panel. Participants were surveyed from November 3 to 8, 2021. The questionnaire, developed from prior studies on Korean medicine, was emailed to 29,465 adults; 550 responses were analyzed after exclusions. The study received an IRB exemption from Pusan National University Korean Medicine Hospital and utilized Microsoft Excel for statistical analysis. Results: Among 550 respondents, 32.2% had experienced infertility, predominantly due to unexplained causes (52%). About half had received medical treatment (49.3%), primarily at hospitals and general hospitals (54.2%) and obstetrics and gynecology clinics (49.4%), with Korean medicine facilities also utilized (24.7% for clinics, 14.4% for hospitals). The most common treatments included herbal medicine in Korean medicine and ovulation induction in Western medicine, with most treatments lasting less than six months (71.4%) and costing between 1 to 5 million won (50.5%). Efforts to conceive included lifestyle adjustments such as maintaining a warm lower abdomen, supplement intake, and avoiding alcohol and tobacco. Conclusions: It is necessary that the guidelines be revised to address female infertility and to integrate recommendations for combining Korean medical treatments and Western medical treatments, which will enhance patient care in managing female infertility.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.69-87
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• 2014

Objectives: We analyzed retrospective clinical data of Korean medical institutes for infertility care and investigated current status and outcome of the Korean medical treatment of infertility as a part of foundational research for verifying validity of constructing national support system and developing appropriate policy on Korean medical treatment of infertility. Methods: We investigated data uploaded on the homepage of The Society of Korean Medicine for Subfertility (http://www.okinfertility.org) by Korean medical institutes for infertility care to get informations such as patients' age, body height, weight, methods of Korean medical treatment, cost and duration of treatment, success or failure of pregnancy and result of treatment. Results: The average age of patients was $33.1{\pm}3.8$ and the average body height was $161.2{\pm}5.3cm$ and the average body weight was $55.2{\pm}8.5kg$. The method of Korean medical treatment was Herbal medicine (97.5%), acupuncture (80.4%), moxibustion (57.7%), cupping (32.7%). The average cost of treatment was $1,160,625{\pm}882,499$ won, and the average medical cost per visit was $357,845{\pm}241,602$ won. The average duration of treatment was $11.26{\pm}10.58$ weeks, and the average number of visits per patient was $4.78{\pm}6.10$ times. The average duration of treatment was the longest in the group of infertile patients with the highest average medical cost per visit. The average pregnancy success rate was 30.9% overall, and that of the group of infertile patients was 25.8%. Conclusions: When we develop the standard project model with expectation for about 25% success rate of pregnancy and delivery in the group of patients who have idiopathic and ovulatory factors, it is desirable to perform acupuncture and moxibustion treatment 1-2 times a week with herbal medicine. The treatment period is set to at least 12 weeks. Average treatment fee maybe calculated by converting the averaged treatment cost of clinic's one month worth of daily treatment fee and medical hospital's ten day treatment fee into weekly treatment cost.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2007

Objective: A quality management system of international standardization organization (ISO) 9001:2000 has been proposed to properly evaluate and improve the quality of productions and services. The purpose of this article was to describe on successful introduction and application of the ISO system to human assisted reproductive technology (ART) center. Methods: Center for reproductive medicine and infertility of Cheil General Hospital started the action for ISO 9001:2000 certification at January-2004. The ISO system of our center was monitored by measuring the customer satisfaction index and periodical internal and external audit. Reports of non-conformity described corrective and preventive actions for problems and occurrences that were not consistent with the standard process and operation of our center. Continuous management and improvement were performed on the project of customer dissatisfaction. Results: Our center has got the certification of ISO 9001:2000 for "Research and development of IVF-ET program for infertility treatment" from Korean Foundation for Quality at June-2004. The policy of ISO was "To establish the best center of reproductive medicine and infertility" and "To establish the best quality management system". We found 140 cases and 7 cases of non-conformity in internal and external audit for three years, respectively, and performed corrective action. Conclusion: Improvement of customer satisfaction, systemic documentation and transparency and efficacy of working procedure were achieved by application and operation of the ISO system to our center. This ISO system could be used as a basic institutional management system for the national guideline to the human ART center.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.171-183
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of infertile women on the use of the national support program that provides medical expense aid to infertile couples. Methods: Thirty Korean infertile women participated in five focus groups. Data were collected from January to August 2014. After obtaining permission from the participants, each session of the focus group was audio-taped and transcribed. The responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The main themes identified from the sessions with the participants were "feeling thankful for the reliable support program," "feeling happy or unhappy," "enduring inconveniences," and "hoping for a more comprehensive support service." Although most of the participants perceived the benefits of the national support service positively, they stated that the service was not comprehensive because it did not cover all the medical expenses for tests and other medical treatments. Conclusion: The benefits given to infertile couples by the program should be increased by covering all the medical expenses, expanding its criteria to include more eligible candidates, and by including special leave benefits for working women. Furthermore, it is essential to take measures for infertility prevention at the individual and national policy levels.