• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.403-407
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• 2009

Objectives : The amount of medical utilization by Medical Aid recipients was 3.7 times that of patients with Korean Medical Insurance. This study aims to describe the surplus medicine and the medication-related utilization, and to determine factors contributing to surplus medicine. Methods : Among those who used copayment-free Class I Medical Aid in 2005, 146,880 subjects who were $\geq19$ year-old and received >365 days medical treatment per year were studied with their case managers by conducting face-to-face interviews. The analytic methods were description, chi-square, t-tests, ANCOVA and multiple logistic regressions. Results : Most subjects were female (68.6%), the elderly (62.5%), and the separated (61.6%), had an elementary graduation or less (74.8%), and had disabilities (33.2%). The percentage of subjects with surplus medicine was 18.5%. However, the percentage of females, the elderly, those with non-disabilities, the separated, the uneducated, those with a very poor perceived health status and those with an economical burden for medical treatment was 19.3%, 18.9%, 19.0%, 19.3%, 19.0%, 20.2% and 24.3%, respectively. For subjects with surplus medicine, averages for the number of used pharmacies, the pharmacy-visit days and the medication costs were 4.6 drugstores, 34.9 days and approximately 1,124 thousand Won(￦). These values were higher than those without surplus medicine (4.4 drugstores, 33.8 days, and ￦1,110 thousand, respectively). The odds ratios of the contributing factors to surplus medicine were female 1.11 (95% CI=1.07-1.14), the elderly 1.06 (95% CI=1.02-1.10), those with non-disabilities 1.08 (95% CI=1.05-1.12), the separated 1.14 (95% CI=1.10-1.18), the unmarried 1.12 (95% CI=1.07-1.18), the uneducated 1.03 (95% CI=1.01-1.08), those with a very poor perceived health status 1.04 (95% CI=1.01-1.08) and experiencing an economical burden for medical treatment 2.33 (95% CI=2.26-2.40). Conclusions : 18.5% of subjects had surplus medicine with a higher mean of medication cost. Therefore, health education and health promotion programs to prevent surplus medicine and to improve the appropriate usage of medication are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2022

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not completely reversible and requires long-term management with appropriate treatment. This study aimed to analyze trends in treatment regimens and medication costs for COPD patients using a national claims database. Methods: We conducted this analysis using National Patient Sample data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service covering the period from 2015 to 2018. We have constructed a dataset comprising COPD disease classification codes J43.x and J44.x (based on KCD-7 code, J43.0 was excluded) and compiled a list of drugs fitting current guidelines. To identify trends, we calculated frequency, ratio, and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) using the numbers of prescriptions and patients. Results: The number of COPD patients was 7,260 in 2018, slightly decreased from 2015. Most of these COPD patients were aged 60 or older and included a high proportion of males (72.2%; 2018). The number of patients prescribed inhaled medications increased gradually from 2015 to 2018 (9,227 (47.1%); 2015, 9,285 (51.5%); 2018), while the number of patients prescribed systemic beta-agonists and Xanthines has decreased since 2015 (CAGR -14.7; systemic beta-agonist, -5.8; Xanthines). The per capita cost of medication has increased by 0.4% (KRW 206,667; 2018, KRW 204,278; 2015) annually during the study period. Conclusion: This study showed that treatment with inhaled medications had continuously increased in accord with changing guidelines, but oral medications were still widely used. It is necessary to emphasize the importance of inhaled medications in treating COPD to reduce additional economic burden through appropriate medication use.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2023

Background & Objectives: Fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) offer advantages in adherence and cost-effectiveness compared to free combinations (FCs), but they can also complicate the prescribing process, potentially leading to therapeutic duplication (TD). This study aimed to identify the prescribing patterns of FDCs for dyslipidemia and investigate their associated risk of TD. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study involving drugs that included statins, using Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service-National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS) data from 2018. The unit of analysis was a prescription claim. The primary outcome was TD. The risk ratio of TD was calculated and adjusted for patient, prescriber, and the number of cardiovascular drugs prescribed using a multivariable Poisson model. Results: Our study included 252,797 FDC prescriptions and 515,666 FC prescriptions. Of the FDC group, 46.52% were male patients and 56.21% were aged 41 to 65. Ezetimibe was included in 71.61% of the FDC group, but only 0.25% of the FC group. TD occurred in 0.18% of the FDC group, and the adjusted risk ratio of TD in FDC prescriptions compared to FC was 6. 44 (95% CI 5. 30-7. 82). Conclusions: Prescribing FDCs for dyslipidemia was associated with a higher risk of TD compared to free combinations. Despite the relatively low absolute prevalence of TD, the findings underline the necessity for strategies to mitigate this risk when prescribing FDCs for dyslipidemia. Our study suggests the potential utility of Clinical Decision Support Systems and standardizing nomenclature in reducing medication errors, providing valuable insights for clinical practice and future research.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.142-151
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• 2004

Objectives : To document the use and out-of-pocket expenditure of complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) in Korean adult population. Methods : Nationwide, random-sampled, and population-weighted telephone survey was conducted. The sample size of respondents was 1,000(age over 18). The respondents were asked about their use, out-of pocket expenditure of CAM in the past 12 months. SAS 8.0 statistic package was used for checking the relevance between each variables by performing $x^2-test$ and variance evaluation. Results : In 2001, 64.0% of people experienced more than one alternative therapy and the beneficiary took therapy average figure of 2.07. Alternative therapies were generally used for health promotion(73.7%) rather than curing the disease(26.3%). The most common therapies included Medication(30.2%), Physical-therapy(21.9%) health implements(20.8%), herb medication(19.2%), diet therapy(14.3%) etc. Average annual out-of-pocket expenditure was ￡<192,186. Use varied according to age, living province, income, and education, while cost expenditure did according to sex, health condition, income, education. Conclusions : The use of CAM in Korea is very large and the expenditure for them is 22.6% of national medical expenditure. It shows great need of political and academic approach.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2008

Total Knee Replacement (TKR) surgery is one of the invasive procedures for patients with late-stage knee joint disorders. In the present study, economic efficiency was compared between uses of the 2nd and 3rd generation cephalosporins for the prophylaxis before and after the surgery using frequency analysis in terms of various factors such as medication costs, the number of days of antibiotic use and hospitalization due to TKR surgery. The results showed that the 3rd generation cephalosporins did not reduce the infection rate and total medication costs, but rather raised antibiotic cost in comparison with the 2nd ones. A frequent use of the 3rd ones is closely related to emergence of resistant bacterial strains. Therefore, we suggest that unnecessary prescriptions for the broad spectrum antibiotics should be avoided.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was to ascertain whether there are differences in health care utilization and expenditure for Type I Medical Aid Beneficiaries before and after applying Copayment. Methods: This study was one-group pretest posttest design study using secondary data analysis. Data for pretest group were collected from claims data of the Korea National Health Insurance Corporation and data for posttest group were collected through door to-door interviews using a structured questionnaire. A total of 1,364 subjects were sampled systematically from medical aid beneficiaries who had applied for copayment during the period from December 12, 2007 to September 25, 2008. Results: There was no negative effect of copayment on accessibility to medical services, medication adherence (p=.94), and quality of life (p=.25). Some of the subjects' health behaviors even increased preferably after applying for copayment including flu prevention (p<.001), health care examination (p=.035), and cancer screening (p=.002). However, significant suppressive effects of copayment were found on outpatient hospital visiting days (p<.001) and outpatient medical expenditure (p<.001). Conclusion: Copayment does not seem to be a great influencing factor on beneficiaries' accessibility to medical services and their health behavior even though it has suppressive effects on outpatients' use of health care.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2016

Background: The subcutaneous formulation of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) was preferred due to favored self-administration and would be an economical treatment option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This study was to compare the economic impact of biologic DMARDs administered by subcutaneous injection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had inadequate response to conventional DMARDs. Methods: The cost-minimization analysis was conducted to estimate the lifetime health care costs of treatment sequences with subcutaneous biologic DMARDs as first-line therapy from a health care system perspective. The Markov model was developed to represent the transitions through treatment sequences based on American College of Rheumatology response rate and discontinuation rate. The health care costs comprised the cost of medications, administration, dispensing, outpatient visits, test/diagnostic examination, palliative therapy and treatment of serious infection. All costs were expressed in 2016 Korean Won (KRW) and discounted at 5%. Results: The mean lifetime health care cost per patient was lowest in the etanercept sequence, which was estimated at KRW 63,441,679. The incremental costs of the treatment sequence started with adalimumab, golimumab, abatacept, and tocilizumab were KRW 7,985,730, KRW 4,064,669, KRW 2,869,947, and KRW 4,282,833, respectively, relative to etanercept sequence. These differences in costs mainly were attributable to medication costs. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses confirmed that etanercept represented the option with the lowest cost compared with comparators. Conclusion: This study found that etanercept is likely a cost-saving treatment option among subcutaneous biologic DMARDs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.115-130
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• 1996

This study was performed to investigate the practical oriental medical expenses by the use of internal data of an oriental hospital due to the bias of medical insurance program data. The purpose of this study was to describe prevalent diseases of clinical department in the studied hospital, to analyze medical expenses structure and to verify the each cost share ration of expenses on insurer to insuree. Under this purpose, we analyzed actual medical expenses data of 1,611 hospitalized patients of the oriental medical university hospital with 150 beds that can be approached to internal data from Jan. 1, 1994 to Dec. 31, 1994. The major findings are as follows : 1. Upper five of most frequent diseases of admitted patients were Joul-Jung-Pung(55.5%), Yoo-Kak-Tong(7.3%), Yoo-/Tong(7.1%), Gu-An-Wa-Sa(2.7%) and sequale of Joul- Jung-Pung(2.4%) 2. In medical expenses structure, hospital ward fee was 47.1%, medication fee 41.3%, fee for procedure(acupuncture, moxibustion, negative therapy, physical therapy, etc) 11.1% and consultation fee 0.5%. In addition to the cost share ration of insuree & that of insurer was 75:25 respectly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.449-467
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• 2005

Purpose: This study aims to offer the fundamental data in order to cost the nursing service on the basis of the NIC and a close examination of the interventions that are contained in the health insurance cost list under the system of the current health insurance. Methods: The data is handled with the SPSS 10.0 program. The participants' general peculiarity is calculated in terms of the real number and the percentage, and the performing frequency of the nursing interventions is calculated in terms of the mean and the standard deviation. the correlation between the participants' general peculiarity and the performing frequency of the nursing interventions is analysed with t-test or one way ANOVA of SPSS. Results: In the performing frequency of the nursing interventions, the domain of "the physiological: basic" was the highest as 2.69${\pm}$1.21, the domain of "the behavioral" was the lowest as 2.11${\pm}$1.12. There were 50 core interventions in the medical unit, 48 in the surgical unit, 24 in the MICU and 33 in the SICU. The health insurance cost items contained commonly in the core interventions of each unit were 12, and the health insurance cost items except 12 items contained commonly in the core interventions of each unit were appeared 14 items in the medical unit, 6 in the surgical unit, 7 in the MICU and 2 in the SICU. The core interventions contained commonly in four units of the medical unit, the surgical unit, the MICU & the SICU are 18. And among these, the core interventions contained in the health insurance cost items are 10; pain management, hyperglycemia management, analgegic administration, medication administration: intravenous, oxygen therapy, pressure ulcer prevention, fluid management, fluide monitoring, intravenous(IV) insertion, intravenous(IV) therapy. As the result of the comparison & analysis between the core interventions of the NIC and the health insurance cost items, the core interventions contained in the health insurance cost list are 21(29 as the health insurance cost items). Conclusion: In the performing frequency of the nursing interventions, the domain of "the physiological: basic" is being performed most frequently, and in the performing frequency of the core interventions, the interventions of the domain of "the physiological: complex" is being performed most frequently. On the basis of these results, the writer hopes that the attempts to interlink the nursing interventions into the nursing cost by using of standard terms and the efforts to cost the nursing services would also be made in the future constantly.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of general ward nurses in hospitals using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Methods: Participants were 30 nurses working at a general ward. Input variables were labor cost and time of direct nursing. Output variables were prevention rate of medication error and bedsores, and patient satisfaction. These variables were extracted using literature review and CVI of an expert group. Data were collected from September 18 to October 7, 2017. Data were analyzed using EMS 3.1 program for DEA and descriptive statistics. Results: The average efficiency score of 30 nurses was 0.986, which was very high over all. In the super-efficiency analysis of 11 nurses, their efficiency ranged from 1.0 to 1.047. In addition, when the current output was fixed, the labor cost of nurses did not affect efficiency. Conclusion: This study attempted a new approach concerning performance evaluation of nurses using DEA. This method was useful during appraisal of nurses. We suggest that various input and output variables that were not considered in this study should be added to develop a integrative performance analysis model for nurses.