On May 9th 2017, the 19th presidential election was held. This election was historically significant because of the impeachment of the former president. This election was held in a relatively short period of time, unlike the normal presidential elections. Therefore, there was not enough time to deliberate pledges for candidates and review pledges for the people. South Korea has suffered from many healthcare problems associated with low-birth rate, population aging, and low economic growth rate. In this paper, we compared the ‘10 main pledge’ of the major five candidates of the 19th presidential election and discussed focusing on the healthcare issue. As a result of comparing the 10 main pledge of the major candidates, it was difficult to find healthcare parts whereas there were lots of welfare parts existed. We need enough time to review and discuss pledges in the next election.
Aging ; Delivery of Health Care ; Economic Development ; Korea

BACKGROUND: The mental problems of the elderly are at issue as a serious social phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors affecting the mood disorders of the elderly. METHODS: The subjects were 1,779,236 aged ≥65 and participated in health screening. Dependent variable was mood disorders. Independent variables were consisted of community level (regional deprivation index and healthcare resources) and individual level (sex, age, insurance type, disability, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, body mass index, and healthcare utilization). Multilevel logistic regression was performed. RESULTS: At the individual level, women, employed insured, severely disabled people, heavy alcohol drinkers, high-intensity physical activity, body mass index, and patients who had chronic disease and severe disease were significantly associated with mood disorders. As the age has increased, it has let increase of mood disorders. At the community level, as the regional deprivation index has increased by 1, mood disorders has been increased by 1.005 times. The intra-class coefficient was 7.04%. CONCLUSION: We found individual and community level factors are associated with mood disorders. Systematic approach is essential to reduce mood disorders.
Aged* ; Body Mass Index ; Chronic Disease ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Services for the Aged ; Humans ; Insurance ; Linear Energy Transfer ; Logistic Models ; Mass Screening ; Mood Disorders* ; Motor Activity ; Multilevel Analysis ; Regional Health Planning ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking

BACKGROUND: This study aims to identify the monthly average medical expenses of public pension recipients, and analyze the determinants of total health and medical expenses and Western and Oriental medicine expenses, medical service expenses, and medical supplies expenses. METHODS: This study used the fifth year data of 2013 out of the raw data of the Korean Retirement and Income Study collected by the National Pension Research Institute. This study conducted t-test, analysis of variance, and linear regression to verify publicly the relevance between pension recipients' general characteristics and health and medical expenses status using IBM SPSS ver. 21.0 for data analysis. RESULTS: It was analyzed that there is a difference in the spending of expenditure and health care costs according to public pension recipients. Medical expenses of the national pensioners was higher compared to the special corporate pensioners. The national pensioner is related expenditure size, education level, family members living together, residential areas, status of spouse, number of chronic illness, and status of limitation in daily life with psychological health status. CONCLUSION: Therefore, fairness does not occur fire to the medical use between the special corporate pensioners and national pensioners, aggressive of government such as health policy and financial support for the retiree pension policy that reflects the reality intervention would be required.
Academies and Institutes ; Chronic Disease ; Education ; Equipment and Supplies ; Financial Support ; Fires ; Health Care Costs ; Health Expenditures ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Pensions* ; Retirement ; Spouses ; Statistics as Topic

With the growth of aging population in Korea, a better care of chronic and other degenerative illnesses is urgently needed. Evidences suggest that this can be achieved through incorporating a wide range of care options, expanding beyond medical interventions. The aim of this study is to analyze the distribution of publically funded research to understand if the Korean research and development funding system matches various approaches and purposes to successfully tackle the chronic care needs of an aging society. We complied the list of funded projects to be analyzed by searching the National Technical Information Service database with key words such as aging society/senescence, chronic diseases, disability, and health promotion. Most projects were based on the biomedical approach with the purpose of establishing the etiology and clinical (treatment) interventions. Health promotion projects showed a distinctive distribution with more percentage of projects based on psycho-behavioral approaches while research on chronic diseases predominantly biomedical. It would be necessary to diversify publically-funded research projects to develop effective and efficient care technologies for the future.
Aging ; Chronic Disease ; Financial Management ; Health Promotion ; Information Services* ; Korea

To establish an appropriate policy for robotic surgery in Korea, the National Evidence-based Collaborating Agency (NECA) and the Korean Society of Health Policy and Administration held a round-table conference (RTC) to gather opinions through a comprehensive discussion of scientific information in gastric cancer. The NECA RTC is a public discussion forum wherein experts from diverse fields and members of the lay public conduct in-depth discussions on a selected social issue in the health and medical field. For this study, representatives from the medical field, patient groups, industry, the press, and policy makers participated in a discussion focused on the medical and scientific evidence for the use of robotic surgery in gastric cancer. According to the RTC results, robotic surgery showed more favorable results in safety and efficacy than open surgery and it is similar to laparoscopy. When the cost-effectiveness of robotic surgery and laparoscopy is compared, robotic surgery costs are higher but there was no difference between the two of them in terms of effectiveness (pain, quality of life, complications, etc.). In order to resolve the high cost issue of the robotic surgery, a proper policy should be implemented to facilitate the development of a cost-effective model of the robotic surgery equipment. The higher cost of robotic surgery require more evidence of its safety and efficacy as well as the cost-effectiveness issues of this method. Discussions on the national insurance coverage of robotic surgery seems to be necessary in the near future.
Adenosine-5'-(N-ethylcarboxamide) ; Administrative Personnel ; Consensus* ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Insurance Coverage ; Korea ; Laparoscopy ; Quality of Life ; Stomach Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Emergencies* ; Public Health*

BACKGROUND: The purposes of this study is to analysis the differences of the job satisfaction between regular and non-regular workers in hospitals. METHODS: The samples used for data analysis are 632 workers of 6 hospitals using a standardized questionnaires in B, C, D, and G provinces. In research methodology, all the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson's correlation, and multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: In case of regular workers, communication, working conditions and employee benefit, and education were found to have a significant positive (+) effect on job satisfaction. In case of non-regular workers, empowerment, reward systems, communication, working conditions, and employee benefit had a significant positive (+) effect on job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: These results showed that hospitals needed to reinforce communication, working conditions and employee benefit to regular and non-regular workers in order to improve job satisfaction. Especially, more empowerment, working conditions, and employee benefit should be given to non-regular workers.
Education ; Job Satisfaction* ; Linear Models ; Power (Psychology) ; Research Design ; Reward ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance has been becoming serious challenge to human beings. Overuse of antibiotics, especially, for infants is concerned, but studies are very few for the prescribing pattern of antibiotic use for infants. This study analyzes prescribing patterns of antibiotics in outpatients of preschool children with acute respiratory tract infections in South Korea. METHODS: Data are used from 2011 Health Insurance Review & Assessment Services-pediatric patients sample. Inclusion criteria is outpatient children (0 to 5 years) with top five frequent diseases. Prescription rates are analyzed by types of disease, provider, specialty, region, and ages. Binary or multinomial logit models are used to analyze determinants of providers' prescription pattern. RESULTS: The main findings are as follows. First, distributions of prescription rates are shown as L-shape or M-shape depending on the types of disease. Second, the prescription variation is so large among providers, where providers are polarized as a group with low prescription rates and the other group with high prescription rates, though the shapes are shown diversified across types of disease. Third, prescription rates appear to be lower in pediatrics and higher in ENT (ear-nose-throat). Fourth, broad spectrum antibiotics are widely used among children. Finally, the logit analysis shows similar results with descriptive statistics, but partly different results across types of disease. CONCLUSION: Antibiotics for respiratory tract infections of infants are used excessively with a large variation among providers, and especially broad spectrum antibiotics are used. The prescription guideline for antibiotics should be provided for each specific disease to reduce antibiotic resistance in the future.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Humans ; Infant* ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Outpatients* ; Pediatrics ; Prescriptions* ; Respiratory System* ; Respiratory Tract Infections*

In most democratic countries, influential professional interest groups often become a part of the iron triangle in the policy making process. One of the typical methods by which professional interest groups participate in policy making process is by having interest group members in the national assembly, who is also sympathetic to the group, implement policies through legislation. In this study we found that from the Constitutional National Assembly to the 18th National Assembly, 147 members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea have been former health care professionals. The research analyzed the roles of these members in health care law amendments as requested by the professional organizations. This study analyzed 11 major cases that involved nullification or amendment of legislations in favor of the healthcare profession, against the basic policies of the government. The study showed that in the 11 major cases, policies were amended in the direction intended by the National Assembly members and other organizations with similar interests, which was against the policy stance of the government. However, these cases did not unilaterally imply that the National Assembly has been captured by the interest groups through the legislators with health care professional background; rather, they should be perceived to be influenced by the exhibited loss of governability by the government in respect to healthcare policy decisions, loss of initiative due to lack of controllability, and reversals and inconsistencies of the policies.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Iron ; Jurisprudence ; Policy Making* ; Public Opinion ; Republic of Korea ; Societies

This study aims to examine the performance of public municipal hospitals through the analysis of data envelopment analysis, efficiency, profitability, and publicness by using panel data during period from 2006 to 2010. The main findings of the study are as follows. First, as a result of efficiency analysis during the period from 2006 to 2010, it was revealed that the number of staff by each job category, labor cost ratio, the number of operating beds need to be decreased. Second, the performance data represented by the indicators of efficiency, profitability and publicness were complementary and showed a tendency of being increased or decreased in same direction. Third, from the result of panel analysis, the efficiency was mainly influenced by the structural factors, while the profitability was influenced by managerial factors, and the publicness by medical environment. In conclusion, in order to enhance the performance of public municipal hospitals in Korea, it is important to harmonize the effort for efficiency, financial and policy support by central and local government, and the continuous participation of community residents.
Hospitals, Municipal* ; Korea ; Local Government