• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.163-193
• /
• 1997

Medical services are a fundamental and essential service in all urban areas. The location and accessibility of medical service facilities and institutions are critical to the diagnosis, control and prevention of illness and disease. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study on the location of medical facilities in Kwangju and the utilization of these facilities by the inhabitants. The following information is a summary of the findings: (1) Korea, like many countries, is now witnessing an increase in the age of its population as a result of higher living standards and better medical services. Korea is also experiencing a rapid increase in health care costs. To ensure easy access to medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment by individuals, the hierarchical efficient location of medical facilities, low medical costs, equalized medical services, preventive medical care is important. (2) In Korea, the quality of medical services has improved significantly as evident by the increased number of medical facilities and medical personnel. However, there is still a need for not only quantitative improvements but also for a more equitable distribution of and location of medical services. (3) There are 503 medical facilities in Kwangju each with a need to service 2,556 people. This is below the national average of 1,498 inhabitants per facility. The higher locational quotient and satisfactory population per medical facility showed at the civic center. On the other hand, problem regions such as the traditional residential area in Buk-Gu, Moo-deung mountain area and the outer areas of west Kwangju still maintain rural characteristics. (4) In the study area there are 86 general medicine clinics which provide basic medical services. i. e. one clinic per every 14,949 residents. As a basic service, its higher locational quotient showed in the residential area. The lower population concentration per clinic was found in the civic center and in the former town center, Songjeong-dong. In recently build residential areas and in the civic center, the lack of general medicine clinics is not a serious medical services issue because of the surplus of medical specialists in Korea. People are inclined to seek a consultation with a specialist in specific fields rather than consult a general practitioner. As a result of this phenomenon, there are 81 internal medicine facilities. Of these, 32.1% provide services to people who are not referred by a primary care physician but who self-diagnose then choose a medical facility specializing in what they believe to be their health problem. Areas in the city, called dongs, without any internal facilities make up 50% of the total 101 dongs. (5) There are 78 surgical facilities within the area, and there is little difference at the locational appearance from internal medicine facilities. There are also 71 pediatric health clinics for people under 15 years of age in this area, represents one clinic per 5,063 people. On the quantitative aspect, this is a positive situation. Accessibility is the most important facility choice factor, so it should be evenly located in proportion to demander distribution. However, 61% of 102 dongs have no pediatric clinics because of the uneven location. (6) There are 43 obstetrical and gynecological clinics in Kwangju, and the number of residents being served per clinic is 15,063. These services need to be given regularly so it should increase the numbers. There are 37 ENT clinics in the study area with the lower concentration in Dong-gu (32.4%) making no locational differences by dong. There are 23 dermatology clinics with the largest concentration in Dong-Gu. There are 17 ophthalmic clinics concentrated in the residential area because of the primary function of this type of specialization. (7) The use of general medicine clinics, internal medicine clinics, pediatric clinics, ENT clinics by the inhabitants indicate a trend toward primary or routine medical services. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics are used on a regular basis. In choosing a general medicine clinic, internal medicine clinic, pediatric clinic, and a ENT clinic, accessibility is the key factor while choice of a general hospital, surgery clinic, or an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, thes faith and trust in the medical practitioner is the priority consideration. (8) I considered the efficient use of medical facilities in the aspect of locational and management and suggest the following: First, primary care facilities should be evenly distributed in every area. In Kwangju, the number of medical facilities is the lowest among the six largest cities in Korea. Moreover, they are concentrated in Dong-gu and in newly developed areas. The desired number of medical facilities should be within 30 minutes of each person's home. For regional development there is a need to develop a plan to balance, for example, taxes and funds supporting personnel, equipment and facilities. Secondly, medical services should be co-ordinated to ensure consistent, appropriate, quality services. Primary medical facilities should take charge of out-patient activities, and every effort should be made to standardize and equalize equipment and facility resources and to ensure ongoing development and training in the primary services field. A few specialty medical facilities and general hospitals should establish a priority service for incurable and terminally ill patients. (9) The management scheme for the inhabitants' efficient use of medical service is as follows: The first task is to efficiently manage medical facilities and related services. Higher quality of medical services can be accomplished within the rapidly changing medical environment. A network of social, administrative and medical organizations within an area should be established to promote information gathering and sharing strategies to better assist the community. Statistics and trends on the rate or occurrence of diseases, births, deaths, medical and environment conditions of the poor or estranged people should be maintained and monitored. The second task is to increase resources in the area of disease prevention and health promotion. Currently the focus is on the treatment and care of individuals with illness or disease. A strong emphasis should also be placed on promoting prevention of illness and injury within the community through not only public health offices but also via medical service facilities. Home medical care should be established and medical testing centers should be located as an ordinary service level. Also, reduced medical costs for the physically handicapped, cardiac patients, and mentally ill or handicapped patients should be considered.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.407-432
• /
• 2012

This study is carried out to investigate the pubishing culture in Chonnam province during the latter half of Chosun Dynasty. The subjects, dates, and places of publication are analyzed from the books which have been found in the publication records and the catalog of woodblocks. Right after the war, Samryakjikhae and Sohakjipsul were published at Jukchunseodang, Bosung area. Anthologies were published dominantly through the whole period. Naju was the center of publication in 17 & the first half term 18 centuries and then moved to Jangwheung area. In this period, publication of genealogical records, biographies, anthologies, geography books had been increasing vastly. From the 19 century, most books were published by using the wooden type. The wooden type was used because the contents of books were for the limited number of publication. The most active publication happened at the end of 19th century. Significance of Confucian literature, collective anthologies, medical science, and confucious classics decreased in the latter half.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.13-23
• /
• 2015

This research is intended to inquire any discrepancy depending on the variables such as types, geography and size of hospitals of Korea in order to develop differentiated marketing strategy and to investigate how the aforementioned variables affect the management performance such as the increase in the number of foreign patients, their willingness to re-visit, the increase in profit and etc. The survey for this research was conducted for five weeks from July 10th 2014 to August 30th 2014 with 251 participants in charge of foreign patient attraction for 161 domestic hospitals. As the method of the research, a hypothesis was first established based on previous studies, followed by the incorporation of self-administered questionnaire to confirm the formulated hypothesis. Frequency analysis and ANOVA analysis were used to analyze the result of the survey. The outcome of the research and the implications are as follows. First, according to the demography of the persons-in-charge of foreign patient attraction, the proportion of female was superbly high by 76.5%. As for the age, those in their 30s were highest in proportion. Finally, for the education level, college graduates took up the largest portion by 46.5%. Second, in respect to the hypothesis assuming the difference in performance depending on the types of hospitals, national university-affiliated hospitals showed the highest level of the increase in foreign patients by the average of 3.25. Third, in respect to the hypothesis assuming the difference in performance based on geographical position, it was confirmed that hospitals in Ulsan City experienced the largest growth in the number in foreign patients. Fourth, in respect to the sizes of hospitals, those with 201 to 300 sickbeds showed the highest increase by the average of 3.45. The implication of the above research outcome indicates that while the number of foreign patients visiting Korea for medical purposes is on the rise, the number of professionals in place with necessary knowledge and capacity is insufficient and requires improvement.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.367-381
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the change in the distribution and hierarchical structure of commercial land use. Tools for analyzing the spatial structure are index of concentration, coefficient of localization and location quotient. This research is applied to Daegu, focusing on the period 1985-2003. During the 1985-2003 period, the growth rate of commercial land use volume amounted to 330%, compared with a population growth rate of 118%. The biggest component of commercial land use is the retail sector. As the lodging, medical, transportation-warehouse and entertainment sectors have the propensity for concentration and comprise the specialized commercial areas in the suburbs, the other sectors arc evenly distributed. Jung-gu has functioned as a downtown core in the hierarchical structure of commercial areas. So, in the structure of commercial land use, Daegu has continued to be a single nuclear structure. But, Dongdaegu Station influence area has evolved into the second order center since 2000. This is the sign of change in spatial structure from single-nuclear pattern to multi nuclear pattern.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.84-97
• /
• 2023

Background: The concept of high-impact chronic pain (HICP) has been proposed for patients with chronic pain who have significant limitations in work, social life, and personal care. Recognition of HICP and being able to distinguish patients with HICP from other chronic pain patients who do not have life interference allows the necessary measures to be taken in order to restore the physical and emotional functioning of the affected persons. The aim was to reveal the risk factors and predictors associated with HICP. Methods: Patients with chronic pain without life interference (grade 1 and 2) and patients with HICP were compared. Significant data were evaluated with regression analysis to reveal the associated risk factors. Receiving operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate predictors and present cutoff scores. Results: One thousand and six patients completed the study. From pain related cognitive processes, fear of pain (odds ratio [OR], 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87-0.98; P = 0.007) and helplessness (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.12; P = 0.018) were found to be risk factors associated with HICP. Predictors of HICP were evaluated by ROC analysis. The highest discrimination value was found for pain intensity (cut-off score > 6.5; 83.8% sensitive; 68.7% specific; area under the curve = 0.823; P < 0.001). Conclusions: This is the first study in our geography to evaluate HICP with measurement tools that evaluate all dimensions of pain. Moreover, it is the first study in the literature to evaluate predictors and cut-off scores using ROC analysis for HICP.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.1403-1418
• /
• 1999

Nursing is a discipline that helps to understand human being, to mitigate pains in life by promoting and recovering health, and to study the basic principles in sustaining and preserving life. To understand man and thus to nurse, it is essential to take the way of life of the specific person, his/her ideas, and natural environment into consideration. This means, the temperament, geography, environment and society peculiar to Korea have formed its own culture distinguished from those of other people. Thoughts and philosophy develop as a products of the specific culture and society. Therefore, accurate understanding of the concepts of nursing in the traditional thoughts and philosophy is indispensible to define Korean nursing. Modern Korean nursing at first rooted in the westernized nursing and western nursing intervention has been applied ever since its introduction in the late 19th century under the paradigm of western natural science. However, Koreans in the past made use of alternative therapy which put its emphasis on the organic and holistic view of life as well as a means for traditional medicine and nursing. This alternative therapy has been largely ignored since the introduction of western medical science, and was considered something used only by the aged or the uneducated. Moreover, Health concerned practices and customary traditional therapy have been discarded in the clinical medicine as "unscientific" or "unsystematic". As described above, it is true that Korean nursing has developed in the quantitative aspect only adhering to western nursing intervention. Now it is the time to stop to hold ourself and to look back our past. To find and develop the originality of Korean nursing to cope with the globalization, it is necessary to rediscover nursing (alternative) therapy in Korean culture ignored so far. For this purpose, this study examines the oriental philosophy to explore alternative nursing theory now under development. Also it aims to present ways to apply alternative therapy to nursing education, research and clinical practices and ultimately to show the desirable direction of the nursing to go in the future. Yangsaeng theory of Taoism and Yin-yang, Oh-hang(five elements) and khi theory in Dongeuibogam which gave enormous influences on Korean medical culture and treatment together with Sahsang(four temperaments) emphasized in Dongeuisusebowon will be examined as conceptual framework. Concepts of nursing are categorized into views on each the universe, the human being and nursing. Views on human being is classified into subcategories of body, life, health, and disease. Also it emphasizes the necessity of including alternative therapy in nursing intervention. Views on the universe is classified into yin-yang, khi, and temperament. Nursing will be available anywhere and easily accessible with this new nursing intervention. Trying to give a new thoughts to all those traditional concepts and alternative therapy, this article suggests the necessity of developing original Korean nursing theory and nursing intervention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.599-610
• /
• 2020

The AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is not evaluated for spatial accuracy and temporal availability even if it is located within a building or a specific area that needed necessary to partition by spatial analysis and location allocation analysis. As a result of the analysis, the spatial analysis was performed using the existing public data of AED with applied the GIS location analysis method. A public institution (119 safety center, police box) was selected as a candidate for a public AED base that can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year according to the characteristics of each residential area. In addition, Thiessen Polygons were created for each candidate site and divided by regions. In the analysis of the service was analyzed regional in terms of accessibility to emergency medical services in consideration of the characteristics of AED, that emergency vehicles could arrive within 4 minutes of the time required for emergency medical treatment in most areas of the study area, but it did not areas outside of the city center. As a result, It was found that the operation of the AED base service center centered on vehicles of public institutions is effective for responding to AED patients at night and weekend hours. 19 Safety Center under and police box the jurisdiction of Daegu City to establish an AED service center for public institutions, location-based distance, attribute analysis, and minimization of overlapping areas that the method of using a vehicle appeared more efficient than using the existing walking type AED.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.259-266
• /
• 2015

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among women worldwide. Cervical cancer is significantly associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The prevalence of HPV infection is influenced by geography, immune status, sexual history and genetic factors. For example, geographically, HPV prevalence varies from 1.5% to 39%. However, little is known about the relationship between HPV prevalence and age. An analysis of HPV prevalence by age will help determine when high-risk groups are exposed to HPV. Such an analysis could also demonstrate a correlation between specific HPV genotypes and age. In addition, the analysis might clarify the optimum age for using vaccines. In this study, HPV prevalence and genotype distribution among Korean and Chinese women are analyzed by age. The REBA HPV-ID$^{(R)}$ assay (YD diagnostics, Yong-in, Republic of Korea) was used for detecting HPV genotypes in uterine cervical liquid-based cytology samples from 533 women from Korea and 324 from East China (Western Shandong province. Women with severe dysplasia such as SCC (Squamous cell carcinoma) and HSIL (High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) groups were primarily in their 40s and 50s, whereas women with mild and moderate dysplasia (ASCUS and LSIL groups) were primarily in their 30s and 40s. Women with HPV genotype 16 and 18 infections were primarily in their 40s. The results suggest that HPV infection is associated with certain age groups in the Korean population.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.91-105
• /
• 2005

The assessment (or the evaluation) of spatial disparity is the main concern for the study of spatial disparities or spatial inequalities. In order to evaluate the spatial disparity, the regional differences have to be counted quantitatively. Several measurements have been introduced for evaluating the development potentials of each region. Most of them are the composite indices of the socio-economic variables rather than the real potentials of the region. This study attempts to investigate the spatial disparity in Korea. For the purpose, the levels of opportunity potentials of the cities have been calculated by the Potential Model redefined by Lee(1995). The opportunity potentials have been calculated for the educational, cultural, medical service, environmental sectors, income, and consumption sectors, and the spatial patterns of various opportunity potentials have been analyzed. The spatial patterns of opportunity potentials show the severe concentration on the Metropolitan Seoul area through all sectors. The next level concentration appears at the other end of the Keuyng-Bu axis. And the cities relatively high opportunity potential values are distributed along the Keuyng-Bu axis. Remain parts of the country show quietly low opportunity potential values. In particular, the southern-west and the northern-east parts show relatively very low values. This pattern appears for all sectors except for the opportunity potential of the environmental sector. It means that the spatial disparity in Korea have been promoted and enhanced by the national development policies concentrated the investment on the large cities along the Keuyng-Bu axis during the last 40 years.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.359-365
• /
• 2005

Objectives : An abrupt economic decline may widen the socioeconomic differences in health between the advantaged and disadvantaged in a society. The aim of this study was to examine whether the South Korean economic crisis of 1997-98 affected the socioeconomic inequality from all-causes and from cause-specific mortality between 1995 and 2001. Methods : Population denominators were obtained from the registration population data, with the number of death (numerators) calculated from raw death certificate data. The indicator used to assess the geographic socioeconomic position was the per capita regional tax revenue. Administrative districts (Si-Gun-Gu) were ranked according to this socioeconomic measure, and divided into equal population size quintiles on the basis of this ranking. The sex- and 5-year age-specific numbers of the population and deaths were used to compute the sex- and age-adjusted mortality rates (via direct standardization method), standardized mortality ratios (via indirect standardization methods) and relative indices of inequality (RII) (via Poisson regression). Results : Geographic inequalities from all-causes of mortality, as measured by RII, did not increase as a result of the economic crisis (from 1998-2001). This was true for both sexes and all age groups. However, the cause-specific analyses showed that socioeconomic inequalities in mortalities from external causes were affected by South Korean economic crisis. For males, the RIIs for mortalities from transport accidents and intentional self-harm increased between 1995 and 2001. For females, the RII for mortality from intentional self-harm increased during the same period. Conclusions : The South Korean economic crisis widened the geographic inequality in mortalities from major external causes. This increased inequality requires social discourse and counter policies with respect to the rising health inequalities in the South Korean society.