• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2006

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between regional material deprivation and the standardized mortality ratios(SMRs) of community residents aged 15-64 in Korea. Methods: SMRs were investigated using the registered death data from 1995 to 2000 that was obtained from the Korean National Statistics Office with the denominators being drawn from the 1995 to 2000 census. Material deprivation was measured using the Townsend score that was calculated from the 1995 to 2000 census. The relationship between the regional material deprivation and the SMRs of the community residents aged 15-64 was investigated by using ANOVA, Spearman's rank correlation analysis and Pearson's correlation analysis. The trends in mortality inequality were investigated using the concentration index. Results: On the ANOVA, the SMRs of the men and women residents in the least deprived areas were the smallest and those in the most deprived areas were the largest. Spearman's rank correlation analysis, Pearson's correlation analysis and the concentration index revealed that significant positive relationships exist between the regional material deprivation and the SMRs of the community residents aged 15-64. Conclusions: This study suggests that there are mortality inequalities among the communities in Korea and part of this difference is due to the material deprivation of the community. Strategies aimed at reducing mortality inequalities among the communities will be needed to address economic inequalities. Further studies are needed to explore the mechanisms of how the regional deprivation influences on health and how the other factors of the community influence on the health of the community residents.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.1 s.56
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• pp.195-207
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• 1997

High price equipment is one of the major factors that increases national health expenditure in developed countries. Computerized Tomography(CT), one of the important high price equipment, has been concerns of health service researchers and policy makers in many countries. In Korea, CT, first introduced in 1984, have spreaded nationwide with rapid speed. Though the Committee for Approving Import of High Price Medical Equipment, founded in 1981, tried to regulate the introduction of high price medical equipment including CT, the effort resulted in failure. The exact situation of diffusion of the high price equipment, however, was not yet investigated. We aimed at the description of the diffusion of CT in Korea and analysis of influencing factors on hospitals for the adoption of CT. We mainly used the database of CT, made in 1996 by the National Federation of Medical Insurance for the purpose of insurance payment for CT. Also characteristics of hospitals were gathered from yearbooks published by the central and local governments and by the Korean Hospital Association. We calculated the cumulative number of the CT per one million population year by year. In turn, multiple linear logistic regression was done to find out the contributing factors for the adoption of CT by each hospital. In the logistic regression model, it is regarded as dependent factor whether a hospital retained CT or not in 1988 and 1993. The major categories of the independent factors were hospital characteristics, environmental factors and competitive conditions of hospitals at the period of the adoption. The results are as follows: Number of CT scanners per one million persons in Korea marked more higher level compared with those of most OECD countries. Major influencing factors on the adoption of CT scanners were hospital characteristics, such as hospital referral level, and competitive condition of hospitals, such as number of CT scanners per 10,000 persons in each district where the hospital was located. In Korea, CT diffused with rather rapid speed, comparable with those of the United States and Japan. The major factors contributing on the adoption of CT for hospitals were competitive condition and hospital characteristics rather than regional health care need for CT. In conclusion, a kind of regulating mechanism would be necessary for the prevention of the indiscreet adoption and inefficient use of high price equipment including CT.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.349-360
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• 2011

The international oil price have being fluctuated due to the exhaustion of fossil energy problem became big social issue. Rural villages are relatively sensitive to the energy problem, reflecting the characteristics of rural sustainable and stable introduction of renewable energy sources that are available is essential. In addition, through the influx of young workers in rural areas to regain vitality, efforts to improve rural living environment has been under the rural newtown project. In this study, a survey aimed at rural dwellers through the AHP, interview to report of realization about renewable energy and review the current policies. The results of realization survey though AHP are as follows, (1) the advantage of the natural environment (2) the superiority of government supporting policy and being economic, (3) easy to use, (4) ecologically stable, and (5) policy stable, respectively. In addition, renewable energy sources among the inhabitants of rural areas by solar energy was the highest score. The impact of regional characteristics compared with other energy sources receive little, easy to apply and has already been considerable technological development is considered.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.27-36
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• 2017

The world's unique geographical, multilingual, multiethnic, multiracial and multi religious Himalayan country Nepal has more than 100 years history on telephony service and it has been formulating appropriate policy and regulation for the adoption of new technology, introducing the competitive market environment for the overall development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures and application of ICT service and tools for socio-economic transformation. The Nepalese market seems to be continuously growing and having huge demand of mobile telephony and internet subscriptions trend. The ICT infrastructure development in difficult geographical area is quite challenging and thus operators are focusing mobile telephony and mobile internet services. Nepal has been doing its best effort on formulating policy and regulation, adoption key strategies for ICT sector development and at the same time joining hands with international and regional bodies such as ITU, SAARC etc for ICT sector development. Due to geographical diversity, policy and regulatory barriers in some extent, power supply constraints and low affordability from customers on ICT tools and services, Nepal has been facing challenges on ICT infrastructure development. However, the national statistics on ICT, Networked Readiness Index and ICT Development Index show that Nepal has done quite good progress and is keeping its pace on ICT development despite the these challenges. Moreover, there seems to be quite uncovered market segments on internet service and big opportunity on ICT sector development in Nepal in the days to come.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.36-55
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• 2020

Climate change is one of the most discussed issues in international for a today. Evaluating the effect of climate change at a regional level and setting up an appropriate policy to address the issues associated with climate change require a proper evaluation process on the climate change and adaptation projects already implemented. Although various evaluation approaches to climate change adaptation programs have been proposed, it is rare to find a proper systematic approach to evaluating the reliability of those climate change adaptation programs. In the current situation regarding the system to evaluate climate change adaptation programs, the purpose of this study is to suggest a theoretical and standardized evaluation system on the reliability of climate change adaptation schemes. The new approach suggested in this paper will be appropriate when requiring a confidence level for adaptation programs that are specially localized and categorized. Using various quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods with the inherent reality mechanism, we provide a conceptual framework to measure the reliability of climate change adaptation programs with a flexible adjustment process. With the proposed framework, it is possible to provide the level of confidence on the results collected from the evaluation systems and construct a standardized, system-wide assessment procedure toward climate change adaptation policies. By applying this approach based on scientific evidence on the reliability of climate change adaptation policies, appropriate and efficient climate change adaptation programs will be properly designed for and implemented in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2006

The introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has strengthened and extended the value of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a fundamental tool for sustainable development. In particular, SEA helps to overcome the limitation of project EIA as a stand alone approach that is applied relatively late in the decision making cycle. SEA is applied to proposals of policy, plan, and/or programme when major alternatives are open. In Korea, similar to SEA, the Prior Environmental Review System (PERS) was introduced to overcome the limitations of the EIA, by checking the environmental impacts on major policy and administrative actions in the early stage of decision making process. SEA appears in various national, regional and international laws. SEA is addressed specifically in the UNECE SEA protocol to the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a transboundary context, as well as the European Commission SEA Directive (2001/42/EC). SEA is a valuable tool for integrating sustainability decisions into country's policies, plans and programmes. This paper reviews the policy direction for implementation of the SEA and efficient Environmental Assessment (EA) through integration of the PERS and the EIA.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.58-90
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• 1996

This study provides an empirical analysis of location competition for demand maximization by central place theory among physicians in nonmetropolitan areas of Korea. The results show that the primary care physicians distribute themselves evenly from urban communities to rural communities. The subspecialists, however, cluster together in major cities rather than decentralize themselves in rural counties. This study establishes the three statistical models : Primary care physicians, subspecialist physicians, and total physicians. Two models of primary care physicians and total physicians have a strong significance in multiple regression analysis (p=-.0001). The primary care model explains approximately 45% of the variation and the total physicians model explains approximately 70% of the variation in physician/1,000 population ratios across national counties. The subspecialist physicians model analysze the tobit regreassion because of the left consored and truncated values(57 cases = 0). In all three models, analysis of the coefficiencts for physician centralization degrees in the 0- to 5- and 5- to 10-km rings around the core county reveals each a positive and negative association betwee these degrees and the physician/1,000 population ratios in the core county. Also, the results provide moderate evidence that the relationship between clinic physicians and community hospitals is competitive, and the relationship between clinic physicians and pharmaceutists is synergistic. This suggests that public policy makers and local self-governing bodies must take an active role to ensure procider availability and the regional health planning in all nonmetropolitan areas of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.634-646
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• 2009

This paper critically examines cluster dynamics and development in a multi-scalar approach, criticizing both the argument overemphasizing local networks and endogenous development for regional development and the contention highlighting global networks and the role of global players. We argue that state policies, exogenous and direct, play a significant part in cluster dynamics and development especially in the case of Korea where the state government's strong policies have led to rapid industrialization. We analyze multi-scalar factors, especially the government policies at a national level, in the development paths of the three cases including Ulsan automobile cluster, Daedeok research cluster, and Dongdaemun fashion cluster.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.506-514
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• 2015

In this study, a new analytical techniques is proposed for seeking policy alternatives aimed at objectives of TDM, increasing the transit rideshare. Determinants of travel mode such as personal characteristics, lifestyle, and urban spatial characteristics are interdependent and have combined effect on decision. In addition, individuals, groups, and regional characteristics have interdependencies at different levels. Unlike traditional regression analysis, hierarchical analysis model has the advantage of identifying interdependencies and complex relationship between the combined impact factors. This analysis technique is expected to be a significant contribution to seek a more efficient TOD policy.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.19 no.spc
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• pp.78-81
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• 2011

This study compares and contrasts the Wales and England Organic Action Plans (WOAP and EOAP) and a Korean regional Life-Food Development Plan (KLFDP) in order to facilitate the development of the organic sector in Korea. Early action plans, for example, the first WOAP (1999) focused support on developing the supply of organic products whereas later action plans focused on marketing and consumer. OAPs may not only provide specific issue-solving roles by proposing new policy measures but also perform a regulatory role as a controller for organic sector development as a whole. The current KLFDP seems to stick to the former role but hardly has the latter role such as setting priorities, harmonizing various conflicting policy measures and factors and performing evaluation process for further progress. To secure better harmonized and sustainable development of Korean organic farming sector, constructing comprehensive national-level organic action plan, which has policy developing, implementing, regulating, evaluating and evolving functions, might be the most efficient choice.