The history of rehabilitation of disabilities in Korea began with the foreigners and missionaries who were interested in it after Korean War. In 1981. Disabled Persons Welfare Act was enacted and the 88 Paralympics brought the nations attention to the welfare and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. Since then, the facilities and the services for the disabled persons have expanded rapidly and the rehabilitation treatment and nursing intervention are drawing more attention. Against this background, the survey on the current status of disabilities, welfare service, facilities, and rehabilitation nursing was conducted. The results of this survey are as follows 1. According to the 2000 census of disabilities. the number of persons with disabilities in Korea is estimated at 1.449.500. or 3.09% of the entire Korean population, 0.74% up from 2.35% in 1995. 2. Disability Types in 2000 The 2000 census showed that the persons with disabilities numbered 1.449, 496 out of the total population and 1.024,371 persons are registered for disability. making up 70.7% of the estimated disabled population. Among them, physically disabled persons accounted for the largest 41. 7% (605.127) and mentally retarded persons stood at the smallest 9% (13.481). 3. Percentage of Disability Presence The survey showed that more than 90% of disability were acquired. However, 44.8% of mental disability and 61.4% of hearing /speaking disability were not acquired after birth. This means that these disabilities happened by congenital cause or birth accident. 4. Yearly Figure of Registered Disabled Persons In 1989. 218,601 persons registered for disability and, in 2000, the number increased by 4.7 times to 1.024.371. These figures are different from the actual number of disabled persons. According to the 1995 census. 1.053.486 were disabled persons but only 378,323 registered for disability. And. in the 2000 census. 1.024,371 out of the 1.449.496 of disabled persons registered for disability. 5. Welfare Service for Persons with Disability 62.6% of the total disabled people are registered and physically disabled persons accounted for the highest percentage of 96.7%. 26.5% of non-registered disabled people said that they didn't know the registration procedure. The rest of them replied that they didn't think they were disabled or that registration didn't seem to give any benefits 6. Welfare Policies for Disabled Persons The welfare benefits given to the disabled are as follows: Issuance of disabled sign for car drivers. Permission to use LPG fuel. Reduction of public facility fees. Household allowance. Tax reduction or exemption, Medical allowance and education subsidy for children, and Housing. 7. Current Condition of Welfare Facilities by Disability Type. The welfare institutions for disabilities numbered 188i in total and they can accommodate 16,823 persons. Categories of these institutions are physical disability(37), visual disability(10). hearing/speaking disability(l4). mental retardation(59), and sanatoriums(68). 6. Human Resource of Rehabilitation of Disabilities Advanced education programs include rehabilitation nursing in its curriculum and this was selected as the program of Korean Academic Society of Nursing in 1990. In November 1997, Korean Academic Society of Rehabilitation Nursing was launched and many academic meeting and seminars were held. This organization is also making efforts to develop the education program for qualified rehabilitation nursing professionals and to develop the standards of rehabilitation nursing practice. In the professionals of the rehabilitation there are rehabilitation specialist, physical therapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist. It is needed to come up with the measures to supply stable human resources following the demand of disabled persons and to recognize the private certificates for rehabilitation professionals as official ones after reviewing the education and training programs of private institutions. 9. Rehabilitation Nursing 1) Rehabilitation nursing was taught as an independent subject in 11 undergraduate programs and 9 graduate programs. 2) Research on rehabilitation nursing in Korea were 24 experimental research and 11 non-experimental research. The intervention of experimental research were mostly education and exercise rehabilitation programs. 3) In the three rehabilitation hospitals, nursmg IS divided into two categories, direct nursing and education & counseling. Direct nursing includes tracheostomy or nasogastric tube care, urination and defication, skin care, pain control, complication, prevention and care, prevention of injury from a fall. etc.
Censuses ; Child ; Counseling ; Curriculum ; Disabled Persons ; Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Family Characteristics ; Fees and Charges ; Hearing ; Housing ; Humans ; Korea* ; Korean War ; Mentally Disabled Persons ; Missions and Missionaries ; Nursing ; Parturition ; Penicillin G Benzathine ; Physical Therapists ; Public Facilities ; Rehabilitation Nursing* ; Rehabilitation* ; Skin Care ; Specialization ; Taxes ; Tracheostomy ; Urination

PURPOSE: This ethnograpy was done to explore patterns of health care behavior in patients with chronic health problems. METHODS: The participants were 15 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 2 family members. Among the patients 4 had progressed to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork in a department of internal medicine of I hospital. Data were analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods. RESULTS: Illness and disease, relationship between health care givers and clients, and communication patterns between health professions and clients were discussed as the context of health care behavior. Health care behavior of the participants was categorized by its focus: every day work centered, body centered, organ centered, and pathology centered. CONCLUSION: Participants' health care behavior was guided by folk health concept and constructed in the sociocultural context. Folk etiology, pathology, and interpretation of one's symptoms were influencing factors in illness behavior. These findings must be a cornerstone of culture specific care for the chronic diseases.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Attitude to Health ; Communication ; Family Relations ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/complications/*psychology ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Liver Cirrhosis/etiology ; Liver Neoplasms/etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Physician-Patient Relations ; *Qualitative Research ; Republic of Korea

To determine whether personal history of lactation in premenopausal women influence bone mineral density, a cross-sectional study was conducted. One hundred eighty-four premenopausal women were selected from women who had been checked for bone mineral density by dual energy x-ray absortiometry in lumbar spine, femoral neck, Ward's triangle, and trochanteric site at general hospitals in Seoul and Pusan. They completed a questionnaire including life style factors and reproductive history. In the data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients were used to test any association between individual variables and bone mineral density and a statistical comparisons between long term lactation(>24 months) and short term lactation(<24 months) were made by one way analysis of covariance. The results were summarized as follows: 1) There was no significant difference in the bone mineral density of the lumbar vertebrae in premenopausal women between the long term lactation group(>24months) and the short term lactation group(<24months). 2) There was no significant difference in the bone mineral density of the femur neck, Ward's triangle, and trochanteric site in premenopausal women between the long term lactation group (>24months) and the short term lactation group (<24months). Considering these results, we suggest prospective studies that measure bone mineral density before and after, in addition to those during lactation. We also suggest the further study with premenopausal women less than 35 who have achieved peak adult bone mass.
Adult ; Bone Density* ; Breast Feeding* ; Breast* ; Busan ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Femur ; Femur Neck ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Lactation ; Life Style ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproductive History ; Seoul ; Spine ; Statistics as Topic

Sixty-three patients with permanent sigmoid colostomy were surveyed to evaluate their satisfaction and complications with the "irrigation technique" and the "atural evacuation" of the colostomy management (irrigation technique; 32 patients, natural evacuation; 31 patients). All patients had colostomy for at least 12 months without disease recurrence. Each patient was interviewed in addition to standard questionnaire. The irrigation was not associated with any major complication including colonic perforation. The irrigation was used younger age group than the natural evacuation (53+/-10 vs. 62+/-12, P=0.01). The frequency of bowel movement was lower in the irrigation than in the natural evacuation (5.1+/-2.5/wk vs. 10.8+/-9.0/wk, P=0.04). Five patients (16%) of the irrigation experienced spontaneous bowel action but only one patient suffered from it. The time spent for managing irrigation was 59+/-13 minutes. Twenty-three patients (74%) of the natural evacuation suffered from one or moreproblems such as expensive apparatus, leakage, skin irritation or odor. Sixteen patients (52%) of the natural evacuation and 2 patients (6%) of the irrigation were restricted in social activity (P=0.0001). Thirteen patients (42%) of the natural evacuation and 1 patient (3%) of the irrigation were dissatisfied with colostomy management (P=0.002). Thus, the irrigation technique seems to be more effective and satisfactory method for managing colostomy without compromising patient's social activity when it is performed in appropriately selected patients.
Colon ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Colostomy* ; Humans ; Odors ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rectal Neoplasms ; Recurrence ; Skin

BACKGROUND: Skin thickness for parameter of skin aging has been analysed with various methods. Skin thickness variations between the young and the old has been studied with various methods such as biopsies, calipers, micrometers, computer tomography, ultrsonography. But none of these methods evaluates skin thickness exactly. OBJECTIVE: For the evaluation of age-dependent skin thickness changes, we compared the skin thickness of an old-aged group and a young group with 20MHz-ultrasonography. METHODS: In order to identify the skin thickness variation between different age groups, 60 subjects, 30 aged 23-33, and 30 over 60, were studied with 20MHz-high frequency ultrasonogrphy (Dermascan C, Cortex Technology, Hadsund, Denmark) on fourteen skin sites. This machine was designed to measure the thickness from the top of the epidermis to the bottom of the dermis. After storage of cross-sectional skin imaging, skin thickness was calculated with a computer assisted image-analysis program. Skin thickness of the old was analysed by age, sex, height and weight.
Biopsy ; Dermis ; Epidermis ; Humans ; Skin Aging ; Skin* ; Ultrasonography*

Purpose: This study aimed to explore nursing students’ experience with community-linked nursing education programs. Methods: This study utilized a qualitative content analysis. Participants were 55 sophomore nursing students. The community-linked nursing education program was conducted for eight weeks using the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evolution (ADDIE) model. Data were collected from 55 reflection records and five individual interviews and then analyzed through the three steps of qualitative content analysis, coding, condensing, and categorizing. Results: Twelve categories, 26 subcategories, and six topics emerged. The themes of impression and lesson from the community-linked nursing education programs were “recognizing the importance of professional competence in performing the role of nurse,” “recognizing the need for leadership and cooperation in nursing practice,” and “increased awareness of the role as a nursing professional for community residents.” The themes of the strategies used were “looking at the goal and moving forward,” and “aligning differences and working together with team/community members.” The theme of strategies for the advancement of community-linked nursing education programs was “establishing a sustainable student-participating community-linked education program.” Conclusion The community-linked nursing education programs made students aware of the necessary competencies as professionals. In particular, they gave them hope for their role as professional nurses in the community. It could also be seen that they developed the ability to engage in team activities for community activities. Community-linked nursing education programs will need to be developed into continuous programs with community residents.

PURPOSE: This ethnography was done to explore the meaning of illness in Korean Americans with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS: The participants were 6 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 6 general informants who could provide relevant data. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork with ethnographic interviews within Korean communities in two cities in the United States. Data were analyzed using causal chain analysis developed by Wolcott. RESULTS: The analyses revealed three meanings for the illness: hidden disease, intentionally hidden disease, and inevitably hidden disease. The contexts of meaning of illness included characteristics of the illness, social stigma, structure of health care system and communication patterns and discourse between health care providers and clients. CONCLUSION: The meaning of illness was based on folk illness concepts and constructed in the sociocultural context. Folk etiology, pathology and interpretation of one's symptoms were factors influencing illness behavior. These findings could be a cornerstone for culture specific care for Korean Americans with chronic hepatitis B.
Aged ; *Asian Americans ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Personnel ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*ethnology/etiology/psychology ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Republic of Korea/ethnology ; Social Stigma

The purpose of this study is to estimate the minimum optimal scale(MOS) of the self-employed health insurance associations. Considering the high proportion of operating expenses, the author have selected 254 regional health insurance associations from the 1990 Finance Report of the self-employed health insurance programs. both a quadratic function and a hyperbolic function were chosen for the analysis. The dependent variables are the average maintenance cost per insured person and per household, and the independent variables are the number of insured members and of household. The minimum optimal scale was obtained from the differentiation of the quadratic function. Major findings are summarized as follows: 1. The M.O.S. was calculated as 166,174 members (27,442 households) for the rural self-employed health insurance associations and 258,462 members (75,446 households) for the urban. Providing that both the rural and urban health insurance associations would e integrated, the M.O.S. be found to become 231,687 members (68,101 households) 2. Compared with the optimal minimum scale, the magnitude of the current health insurance association found to be much smaller, less than half of the optimal scale. 3. In order to reduce the operating cost, it is necessary to enlarge the operational scale of self-employed health insurance associations.
Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Insurance ; Insurance, Health* ; Korea* ; Urban Health

Recently, the number of obese people have been increasing due to westernized diets and increased sedentary activity. In particular, obese adolescent have been newly recognized as having significant health problems. This study focuses on determining the gender difference of obese adolescents through implementation of a structured questionnaire on general characteristics, attitudes toward dieting, eating habits and emotional depression due to obesity. Data collection was carried out by 291 students in attendance at 3 high schools in Pusan from 11. 2. 1998 to 11. 30. 1998. The targes were 148 boys and 143 girls who were judged as obese in the school's physical check-up. The test of reliability of this research was calculated by chronbach's alpha . Data analysis was managed by computer and statistics by SPSS/WIN. The results of the survey are as follows: 1.For the questionnaire regarding attitudes toward dieting which include 28 items, 10 out of 28 items (about 36%)showed gender difference. 2. For the questionnaire regarding eating habits which include 17 items, 5 out of 17 items (about 30%)showed gender difference. 3.For the questionnaire regarding emotional depression about obesity, 30.6% of boys and 27.3% girls answered but no statistical significance. The results of this survey indicated that this study will be important as a good guideline for treating obese adolescents. It is hoped that much more research on gender difference in obese adolescents will be implemented in the future. In addition, the development of effective treatments for obesity should be based on the gender of the adolescent.
Adolescent* ; Busan ; Data Collection ; Depression* ; Diet* ; Eating* ; Female ; Hope ; Humans ; Obesity ; Statistics as Topic ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Medical record of 66 eyes which had undergone pars plana vitrectomy for the treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy were reviewed to study their clinical features, incidences and types of complications, visual outcome, and visual prognostic factors. The final visual outcome showed the improvement in 50[76%] eyes, no change in 13[20%]eyes, and the worsening in 3[4%] eyes. Preoperative prognostic factors favoring final visual acuity included the followings:1]insulin dependent diabetes mellitus which developed before 30 years of age, 2]absence of iris neovascularization, 3]absence of tractional macular detachment. Postoperative complications included vitreous hemorrhage in 34[52%]eyes, cataract in 12[19%]eyes, increased intraocular pressure in 6[10%]eyes, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in 4[6%]eyes, choroidal effusion in 3[5%]eyes, corneal epithelial defect in 2[3%]eyes, neovascular glaucoma in 1[2%] eye. Postoperative complications associated with poor visual outcome were rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and neovascular glaucoma.Intraoperative complication of iatrogenic retinal tear did not seem to deteriorate the final visual acuity.
Cataract ; Choroid ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetic Retinopathy* ; Glaucoma, Neovascular ; Incidence ; Intraocular Pressure ; Iris ; Medical Records ; Postoperative Complications ; Retinal Detachment ; Retinal Perforations ; Traction ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy* ; Vitreous Hemorrhage