• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.155-182
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• 1998

There exists a remarkable differences in use of MRI scanning among income classes. The poor can hardly utilize it. This is because, among high cost technnologies, MRI is the only equipment not covered under health insurance benefits in Korea. This study was designed 1) to reveal the status of nation-wide MRI installation, customary charges and per unit annual scanning performance, and 2) to analyse factors influencing the above variables. The data for this study came from "MRI Prevalence Survey" conducted by the National Federation of Medcial Insurance(NFMI) in 1997, and were analyzed through SAS packages for T-test, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression. Data were collected from 188 hospitals equipped with MRI scanners. Major findings are summarized as follows : The number of MRI scanners has increased from 69 in 994 to 158 in 1996(2.3 times) while per unit annual scanning performance has risen by 11.2% from 2,173 cases in 1994 to 2,417 cases in 1996. Such a rapid increase was made possible mainly due to the inclusion of CT scanning under the health insurance benefit package. The customary charges for MRI scanning with or without contrast media, on average, amounted to 484,000 Won and 402,000 Won, respectively, with the percentile increase of 17.8% and 8.1% each during the same time. Korea ranks the third worldwidely in terms of number of MRI installations, 4.8 scanners per one million persons, only next to Japan and United States. Geographical variation of MRI, however, was rather high, 7.91 unit, in Cheju area compared to 1.82 in Kyongnam area. Variations of customary charges of MRI scanning can be explained as much as by 44.8% by both the total amount of claims to NFMI and geographical variable. The charges were more likely to be higher in metropolitan areas like Seoul and in hospitals with a bigger amount of claims. While those of per unit annual scanning performance can be explained as much as by 30.7% by both MRI installation cost and level of MRI-installed organizations. Per capital scannig performance was higher in tertiary hospitals and hospitals equipped with more expensive scanners than hospitals with less expensive scanners. Two measures are called for the remedying the existing excessive abundance in MRI units in korea : One is to set a ceiling of MRI units in an area like a province or a metropolitan district. The other is to establish a committee on introduction of high cost technologies for reviewing its effective use.ctive use.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.23 no.2 s.98
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• pp.195-204
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to analyze dietitians' sanitary practices and perceptions of obstacles according to HACCP. Questionnaires were administered to 94 elementary school dietitians in the Gwangju and Jeonnam Regions of South Korea. The data were evaluated by a 5 scale Likert method and statistically analyzed The results of the study are as follows. Each subject was generally characterized as a university graduate 79.8%, with 10 to 15 years experience 37.6%, and in her mid to late thirties 39.4%. We found that direct management was the highest occurring form of food service system 96.8%. With regards to the type of food service operation quantitative service as 60.6%, and partial self-service was 30.9%, 89.4%of all served only lunch. In all, 93.6% of the teams collaborated, while their organic collaboration was 64.9%. When HACCP was applied, sanitary practices scored an average of 4.83, which was significantly higher than 4.62 when HACCP was not applied. The dietitians' perception of sanitary practices was as very high 4.75 of 5. Sanitation, in regards to food management, scored 4.89 among the detailed items. This proves that in relation to food management, sanitation is considered most important. When HACCP was not applied, the perception of obstacles was, on an average, 3.07, which was higher than 2.74 when HACCP was applied. The results for the detailed items, which focused on sanitary practices and different perceptions of obstacles according to HACCP, were as follows. When HACCP was applied, a high mean of 3.32 occurred for facilities and utilities shortages followed by degree of cooperation at 3.22, and then monitoring at 3.01. The item that dietitians viewed as the biggest obstacle was lack of departmental budget support (M=3.46). Other serious obstacles were facilities, facility sanitation, and utility shortages (M=3.38), as well as the aappropriateness of machines and cooking utensils and arrangements in the dining room (M=3.28). Stepwise multiple regression was used to better understand how much these perceptions of obstacles would influence sanitary practices when HACCP was applied. The item analysis of the HACCP obstacles proved that persons involved in food service, except the food service employees, didn't cooperate enough with their food service employees. As a result, this lack of cooperation had a negative effect on sanitary practices. Accordingly, it is necessary to determine the causes of for lack of cooperation and attract the active attention of those involved.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.49-69
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to derive contextual indicators of medical provider quality and assess their relative importance along with the individual utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and institutional births with a skilled birth attendant (SBA) in India using a multilevel framework. Methods: The 2015~2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from India was used to assess the outcomes of neonatal, infant, and under-five child mortality. The final analytic sample included 182,980 children across 28,283 communities, 640 districts, and 36 states and union territories. The contextual indicators of medical provider quality for districts and states were derived from the individual-level number of ANC visits (<4 or ${\geq}4$) and institutional delivery with SBA. A series of random effects logistic regression models were estimated with a stepwise addition of predictor variables. Results: About half of the mothers (47.3%) had attended ${\geq}4$ ANC visits and 75.8% delivered in institutional settings with SBAs. Based on ANC visits, 276~281 districts (43.1~43.9%) and 13~16 states (36.5~44.4%) were classified as "low" quality areas, whereas 268~285 districts (41.9~44.5%) and 8~9 states (22.2~25.0%) were classified as "low" quality areas based on institutional delivery with SBAs. Conditional on a comprehensive set of covariates, the individual use of both ANC and SBA were significantly associated with all mortality outcomes (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.26, and OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.19, respectively, for under-five child mortality) and remained robust even after adjusting for contextual indicators of medical provider quality. Districts and states with low quality were associated with 57~61% and 27~43% higher odds of under-five child mortality, respectively. Conclusion: When simultaneously considered, district- and state-level provider quality mattered more than individual access to care for all mortality outcomes in India. Further investigations are needed to assess the importance of improving the quality of health service delivery at higher levels to prevent unnecessary child deaths in developing countries.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.237-244
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• 2015

The purposes of this study are to examine the correlations among mental health and quality of life in stroke patients and find the factors affecting quality of life. The participants were 224 inpatients diagnosed with stroke. The Stroke Specific Quality of Life(SS-QOL) was used for measuring Quality of life and the Symptom Check-List-90-Revised(SCL-90-R) was utilized to measure mental health. The relationships among the variables were examined with Pearson correlation coefficients. And the simple regression analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis were performed to identify the predictive variables that explain changes of quality of life. There were statistically significant correlations between quality of life and mental health. Mental health was identified as a factor that explains 28% of change in quality of life. And depression was identified as a factor that explains 42% of change in quality of life. The quality of life in stroke patients, the depression was negatively related with it. When working with a stroke patient, an occupational therapist needs to address mental health aspects from the beginning of the rehabilitation process for a holistic approach and optimal outcome.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.409-420
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• 2018

This is a convergence study to investigate the factors affecting the psychological happiness of leisure sports participants(social baseball club) and to present a strategy for effective program development. The subjects of this study were 151 participants of social baseball clubs in J-do area and collected data by self-reported questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results of this study were the explanatory power was 54.1% with psychological happiness, quality of life, self-efficacy. As a result, it was confirmed that strengthening interpersonal relationship ability, positive reinforcement of self-efficacy, and quality of life were important for improvement of psychological happiness. and in the future, it is necessary to study repeatedly to confirm the influence of psychological through objective measurement.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.338-357
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• 2012

This study investigated any possible financial attributes of the CDS spreads of a firm belonging to financial industries headquartered in the Republic of Korea. There were few studies on this issue, especially for the firms located in emerging capital markets. Coupled with the models such as a multiple regression and a principal component analysis(PCA), this research has identified that only two explanatory variables such as SLOPE and INTER3 (i.e. interaction effect between the BETA and the SLOPE) consistently showed their statistically significant influence on the CDS spreads through the 'selected' model without and with applying a stepwise regression procedure for the robustness. Given the rapid developments of sophisticated financial derivatives, this study may suggest a valuable insight to foreign and domestic investors to identify the possible determinants of CDS spreads at the firm- and/or the industry-level.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.697-703
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• 2006

Endocrine disruptors were measured with GC/MS in effluents discharged from sewage treatment processes in pilot scale for the purpose of water reuse. From that analysis, we compared the removal rate of them by treatment processes. Nonylphenol was mainly detected in effluents and high concentration from 0.36 to 0.94 ${\mu}g/L$. $17{\beta}$-estradiol(E2) and $17{\alpha}$-ethynylestradiol(EE2) were detected as below the limit of detection in effluent. Endocrine disruptors were removed effectively in the range from 50 to 100% by treatment process. EC50 value($9.0{\times}10^{-3}$ M) of $17{\beta}$-estradiol(E2) by dose response curve of E-screen assay has higher than that of bisphenol A($2.736{\times}10^{-5}M$) and p-octylphenol($9.760{\times}10^{-6}$ M). These results showed that alkylphenols have lower relative estrogen potency than other estrogens such as $17{\beta}$-estradiol(E2). Calculated estrogenic activity(ng-EEQ/L) was 2 times higher than measured total estrogenic activity which estimated by E-screen assay. Moreover estrogenic activity of effluent by treatment process showed very low as below 1 ng-EEQ/L.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.187-198
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• 2020

The purpose of the study is to investigate infection management status of long term care hospitals and infection prevention knowledge of caregivers. This is descriptive study to investigate the factors affecting caregivers' infection control performance in long term care hospitals. The data collection period was from August, 2018, and a total of 197 caregivers from 8 long term care hospitals. The data analysis were done Win SPSS 20.0 with t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Infection prevention knowledge was positively correlated with infection control performance (p=<.001). The factors influencing performance in a long term care hospital caregivers were over seventy years old (t=2.50, p=.013), eight-hour working time (t=-2.62, p=.010), nursing staffing First grades (t=2.48, p=.014), and infection prevention knowledge (t=2.96 p=.003), which explained 12.9% (F=6.70 p<.001). In summary, we recommend to develop infection education interventions to improve caregivers' infection control performance in long term care hospitals and to improve of the function in long term care hospitals.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.109 no.3
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• pp.249-258
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• 2020

The purpose of this study examined the succession by vegetation type after forest ecosystem restoration in the Baramjae area. Vegetation of the Baramjae area was classified using a survey of 81 sites from May to October 2019. The vegetation type was classified as Pinus densiflora community group with both Quercus mongolica community and P. densiflora typical community. The group unit was further classified as the Quercus dentata typical subgroup, Salix koreensis subgroup, and Q. mongolica typical subgroup. Such as Q. mongolica, Quercus variavilis in vegetation unit 1, Q. mongolica, Q. dentata in vegetation unit 2, P. densiflora in vegetation unit 3 and S. koreensis in vegetation unit 4 were shown a high importance value. The difference in species by vertical layer is explained by sere. Based on the vegetation type classification system, Detrended Correspondence Analysis was conducted to observe the trend of succession. Since restoration, vegetation unit 1 and vegetation unit 2 were considered to have developed the most extensive vegetation. In vegetation unit 2 and vegetation unit 4, many of the species found were in the early vegetation development in S. koreensis subgroup. Accordingly, vegetation in the Baramjae area can be categorized as a stepwise succession.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.132-144
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• 2017

Purpose: To identify baseline prognostic factors for survival in patients with disease progression, during or after chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. Materials and Methods: We pooled data from patients randomized between 2009 and 2012 in 2 phase III, global double-blind studies of ramucirumab for the treatment of advanced gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma following disease progression on first-line platinum- and/or fluoropyrimidine-containing therapy (REGARD and RAINBOW). Forty-one key baseline clinical and laboratory factors common in both studies were examined. Model building started with covariate screening using univariate Cox models (significance level=0.05). A stepwise multivariable Cox model identified the final prognostic factors (entry+exit significance level=0.01). Cox models were stratified by treatment and geographic region. The process was repeated to identify baseline prognostic quality of life (QoL) parameters. Results: Of 1,020 randomized patients, 953 (93%) patients without any missing covariates were included in the analysis. We identified 12 independent prognostic factors of poor survival: 1) peritoneal metastases; 2) Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score 1; 3) the presence of a primary tumor; 4) time to progression since prior therapy <6 months; 5) poor/unknown tumor differentiation; abnormally low blood levels of 6) albumin, 7) sodium, and/or 8) lymphocytes; and abnormally high blood levels of 9) neutrophils, 10) aspartate aminotransferase (AST), 11) alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and/or 12) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Factors were used to devise a 4-tier prognostic index (median overall survival [OS] by risk [months]: high=3.4, moderate=6.4, medium=9.9, and low=14.5; Harrell's C-index=0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64-0.68). Addition of QoL to the model identified patient-reported appetite loss as an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions: The identified prognostic factors and the reported prognostic index may help clinical decision-making, patient stratification, and planning of future clinical studies.