• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.237-248
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the extent of income-related inequity in health care utilization and expenditures to compare the extent in 2005 and 2010 in Korea. Methods: We employed the concentration indices and the horizontal inequity index proposed by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer based on one- and two-part models. This study was conducted using data from the 2005 and 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We examined health care utilization and expenditures for different types of health care providers, including health centers, physician clinics, hospitals, general hospitals, dental care, and licensed traditional medical practitioners. Results: The results show the equitable distribution of overall health care utilization with pro-poor tendencies and modest pro-rich inequity in the amount of medical expenditures in 2010. For the decomposition analysis, non-need variables such as income, education, private insurance, and occupational status have contributed considerably to pro-rich inequality in health care over the period between 2005 and 2010. Conclusions: We found that health care utilization in Korea in 2010 was fairly equitable, but the poor still have some barriers to accessing primary care and continuing to receive medical care.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.875-887
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• 2017

Objectives: The objective of this study is to provide basic data needed in developing an educational program designed to upgrade capacity and awareness of preventive dental treatment among oral health workers, by analyzing levels of awareness of preventive dental treatment and educational needs among dentists and dental hygienists. Methods: The collected data was analyzed with SPSS program ver. 19.0. The data was under t-test. Results: The frequency level of giving preventive dental treatment to patients among dentists and dental hygienists is below mid-point, 3 on the 5-point Likert scale. In terms of frequency level per item, scaling & polishing was ranked the highest, followed by periodontal maintenance, tooth-brushing instruction, and prescription and instruction of oral care product in descending order. On the questions asking how important preventive dental care they perceive to be, both dentists and dental hygienists perceived it to be highly important. When they were asked to rank those items by the importance of education, they considered periodontal maintenance as the most important one, followed by individual education of oral health, incremental oral health care, scaling& polishing, toothbrushing instruction, and prescription and instruction of oral care product. Respondents pointed out problems in running a preventive dental treatment program as follows: overwork, lack of dedicated workforce, un-fixed costs, and lack of necessary equipment. When they were asked to point out items needed to run such a program, the largest number of respondents indicated dedicated workforce placement, followed by improving awareness of the customer, and improving awareness of the dental workers. Conclusions: In order to effectively run a preventive dental treatment program, it is necessary for oral health workers to clearly understand the concept of it. It is also necessary to develop and operate an education program on preventive dental treatment targeting oral health professionals.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.22 no.1 s.25
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• pp.1-7
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• 1989

This paper examines the failure to promote adequate preventive health care in the U.S. It focuses specifically on the preventive health services of screening, counseling, and immunization. It explores evidence on their effectiveness, as well as coverage under current private and public health insurance plans. It concludes with a proposal to expand health insurance coverage for preventive services and to reimburse physicians directly for preventive health services provided to patients.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.256-257
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• 1999

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.327-335
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• 2014

Objectives: Several epidemiological studies on medical care utilization prior to suicide have considered the motivation of suicide, but focused on the influence of physical illnesses. Medical care expenditure in suicide completers with non-illness-related causes has not been investigated. Methods: Suicides motivated by non-illness-related factors were identified using the investigator's note from the National Police Agency, which was then linked to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment data. We investigated the medical care expenditures of cases one year prior to committing suicide and conducted a case-control study using conditional logistic regression analysis after adjusting for age, gender, area of residence, and socioeconomic status. Results: Among the 4515 suicides motivated by non-illness-related causes, medical care expenditures increased in only the last 3 months prior to suicide in the adolescent group. In the younger group, the proportion of total medical expenditure for external injuries was higher than that in the older groups. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed significant associations with being a suicide completer and having a rural residence, low socioeconomic status, and high medical care expenditure. After stratification into the four age groups, a significant positive association with medical care expenditures and being a suicide completer was found in the adolescent and young adult groups, but no significant results were found in the elderly groups for both men and women. Conclusions: Younger adults who committed suicide motivated by non-illness-related causes had a higher proportion of external injuries and more medical care expenditures than their controls did. This reinforces the notion that suicide prevention strategies for young people with suicidal risk factors are needed.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.10-22
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• 2010

Purpose: Through a thorough examination of the CCSC (Community Comprehensive Support Center) system in Japan, this study suggests a scheme to provide community-based preventive health care services for the elderly in Korea. Methods: The study inquired into the applicability of the Japanese model by reviewing the data related to the CCSC project, aided by both in-depth interviews with staff in the field and consultations with specialists. Results: Rearrangement of the Visiting Health Management Project system is needed to manage the collective or individual visiting care management for frailty prevention of the elderly in communities. The delegated service system for preventive care in the community, including direct management by one of the public health centers, also needs to be reviewed and the application of stricter standards for the selection of the agency or corporation to run the delegated service is necessary. Long-Term Care Insurance, along with national and local grants, is to be considered as a financial resource for the community-based preventive health care model for the elderly. By making active use of education rooms at district offices, senior citizen centers in neighborhoods for the elderly with easy access can be created. The project needs to raise active supports from communities, develop programs which can be absorbed into particular local cultures, and promote the understanding of the preventive project in local communities. The preventive program should focus on first solving the problems of depression, seclusion, and lack of mobility of the elderly. Second, the program should instruct physical self-management for exercise-nutrition-dental maintenance, and third, the program should strengthen the cognitive abilities of the elderly. In addition, it is necessary to systematize and implement counter-plans of the family and community to protect the elderly who has mental and cognitive problems. Finally, by establishing a network of public health welfare resources based upon research on a community level, assessment and planning for the health of the elderly should be one with their family, and comprehensive consultation and recommendations should be provided to the family. Conclusion: Taking into consideration the experience Japan has had with respect to a similar project, it is appropriate to develop and implement a service system which would combine the Visiting Health Management Project system which has already been established and a preventive health care model for the elderly on a community level.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.335-346
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was conducted to examine the degree of dental fear according to the experiences of the preventive dental care services. Methods: A self-administered survey was conducted in the subjects of male and female teenagers who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do areas, and 231 copies of collected data for a month from July 26, 2017 were analyzed to find the following results. Results: In terms of the experiences of the preventive dental care services, they were classified in the order of preventive scaling (67.5%), education of toothbrushing (60.6%), fluoride application (49.8%) and sealant (44.2%). For the degree of dental fear according to their general characteristics, treatment avoidance factor ($2.56{\pm}1.19$) in the married was higher than that in the unmarried. All of treatment avoidance, physiological response and fearful stimulus induction factor, and the entire degree of fear were higher when there were experiences of the preventive dental care services than those without such experiences. The factors affecting the degree of dental fear included dental health conditions, experiences of toothbrushing education, sealant and fluoride application. In case those without the experiences considered their dental health condition was not healthy, the degree of dental fear was increased. Conclusions: This study verified that the degree of dental fear was increased in case no experiences of the preventive dental care services. Therefore, it is necessary to seek out the measures for promotion of the preventive dental care services, to reduce the degree of dental fear and enhance the dental health.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.22 no.1 s.25
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• pp.136-145
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• 1989

This study made a descriptive analysis of the cumulative amount and rate of sports medical care utilization during the 24th Seoul Olympic Games by the participating athletes, officials, etc. The sports medical care utilization was a component of the total medical care use and was basically caused by the prevention and treatment of sports injuries. The analytic data were derived from the Olympic Health Management Information System(OHMIS) of the SLOOC and the Korea Athlete Trainer Association(KATA). These were analyzed according to the quantity of physician visits and the utilization rate, which was the amount of utilization divided by the total number of participating persons. The results were as follows: Firstly, the sports medical care utilization by the persons participating in the Seoul Olympics amounted to 17.9% of the total medical care utilization. The venue medical services utilization accounted for 54.7% of the total physician visits, which was larger than the village medical center's utilization. The number of physician visits per hundred persons during the 2 week period in the venue clinic was 3.03 and that of the village medical center was 2.51, therefore, the total was 5.54. Secondly, athletes accounted for 82.3% and officials 12.2% in the sports medical care utilization by participants. These results were because athletes, who were directly related to the games, called extremely often on the physicians. The utilization rate of sports medical care by athletes was 34.29. Thirdly, the sports medical demand according to type of therapy could be ranked from high to low in the following order: sports massage, thermal therapy, and electrical stimulation treatment, etc. The department of physical therapy in the village medical center was used a great deal. Fourthly, the trend of daily sports medical care utilization by the athletes showed a bell shape centering around the opening day of the Seoul Olympic Games. The utilization rate of athletes was 2.3; however, that of officials was 0.6. Lastly, the sports medical demand was calculated according to the continents, and Central America, Africa and Middle-East Asia proved to have a higher rate of sports medical care utilization than the more powerful and industrialized continent or regions.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2008

This paper provides the guidelines from which to develop a visiting health care program at the Public Health Center in Korea and involves an expanded payment compensation system of preventive services based on the new long-term health insurance system in Japan. The function and management methods to achieve the goals practiced in a community contact center for elderly support which have recently been established will guide the specific directions and strategies that the Public Health Center should pursue. That is to say, comprehensive and continuous efforts will be put forth in preventive home visiting care targeting the elderly in certain jurisdictions. At this point in time in which the visiting care nursing program has not yet started, visiting health care provided by the Public Health Center oversees chronic diseases of a vulnerable population. But after it has been developed nationwide, the visiting health care system at the Public Health Center will be distinctive and focused on health promotion and prevention.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.70-80
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• 2000

This study is conducted to evaluate the social concern of the related issues through trend analysis of reports on Oriental medical care in major domestic newspapers including Dong-a Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo, Chosunilbo, and JoongAng Ilbo. Materials of this study were collected from a total of 1,039 reports on Oriental medical care by internet search of each newspaper company's homepage from fan 1, 1993 to Dec 31, 1999. Two researchers analyzed the trend of report contents on Oriental medical care by publication year. The major results were as follows: The most frequent subject in these reports related to Oriental medical care was 'disease', appearing in 45.5% (473) of tile reports, followed by 'oriental health system (31.5%)' and "oriental medical facilities (16.5%)'. Also, topics on the collaborative efforts of Oriental and Western medical care were reported in 7.9% of the cases. According to a survey of the opinions held for the contents in these reports, 51.0% reports held neutral views while 48.2% and only 0.8% reports had favorable and negative views, respectively. In conclusion, the reports covering Oriental medical care in major domestic newspapers have increased in recent times and many held favorable views. Considering the widespread influence of mass-media, the government and health-related organizations must continuously monitor the opinions in daily newspapers, for the opinions are the influencing force of health-rotated behaviors and changes. In this light, these organizations should enforce the health policy on strategies for mutual development of Western and Oriental medicine in Korea.