BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Hangzhou, a digital leader in China, is pioneering the development of an 'Internet Plus' medical and geriatric services system designed to leverage the city's advanced digital infrastructure, extensive medical resources, and strong government support to address the healthcare needs of its elderly population. Despite the surge in the use of such technology, there remains a gap in the comprehension and perception of such technological solutions and how the said solutions can be effectively integrated into community-based services to meet the elderly's complex healthcare needs. This study, therefore, aimed to explore not only the preferences and acceptability of the 'Internet Plus' model among elderly residents in Hangzhou, but to also identify the key factors that influence the successful integration of such technology into elderly-focused care services.

The study used quantitative surveys and qualitative data to better understand geriatric requirements. A structured questionnaire was administered to a stratified random sample of 908 elderly residents across various communities in Hangzhou, measuring the utilization and the preferences for diferent older adults care services. Purposive sampling was alsodone on 15 participants who underwent in-depth interviews. Quantitative data was statistically analyzed using SPSS 26.0 while qualitative data was processed using Atlas.ti, a qualitative data analysis software.

The analysis of survey responses from 908 elderly residents in Hangzhou, combined with qualitative interviews, provided a comprehensive view of the preferences and needs regarding the "Internet Plus" elderly care system. Majority of respondents at 91.3% favored technology-assisted home care, emphasizing the convenience and comfort it offers. The "Internet Plus" model for medical services was preferred by 96.4%, suggesting a strong inclination towards technology-enabled healthcare access. Comprehensive health maintenance was considered important by 94.4% of participants thereby highlighting the need for ongoing health support. The qualitative analysis corroborated these findings, with elderly participants expressing a strong desire for home-based medical services and the importance of reliable emergency medical assistance.

The study affirmed a pronounced preference for technology-assisted healthcare among Hangzhou's elderly, underscoring a critical shift towards patient-centric models. To optimize elderly care, it was also discovered how imperative it was to expand home care technologies, to fortify the 'Internet Plus' healthcare framework, and to augment community health centers for holistic care. Integrating swift emergency response systems was also found out to be essential in order to ensure that the 'Internet Plus' model not only meets but exceeds the evolving healthcare demands of the aging population.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to define and clarify the concept of political competence for nurses.METHODS: A hybrid model method was used to investigate the dimensions, attributes, and definitions of the concept. In the theoretical stage of the study, literature on nursing, politics, and other discipline were reviewed. In the fieldwork stage, individual in-depth interviews and focus groups interviews were conducted with politically seasoned experts or activists who had an understanding of the concept of political competence for extensive descriptions in nursing and field of health care.RESULTS: The concept of political competence was represented in four dimensions as political knowledge, political efficacy, political interaction, and political activity. In the political knowledge dimension, there were three attributes, namely, political knowledge, political information and systematic analysis ability. The political efficacy dimension had three attributes of internal political efficacy, external political efficacy, and self-pride of nursing profession. The political interaction dimension had three attributes of organizations and community service, networking, and persuasive power. The political activity dimension had six attributes of political leadership, political expression, assertive behavior, political advocacy, political participation, and policy intervention.CONCLUSION: This concept development might provide a basic understanding of developing a measurement tool and for constructing a theory promoting nurses' political competence.
Concept Formation ; Delivery of Health Care ; Focus Groups ; Leadership ; Mental Competency ; Methods ; Nursing ; Politics ; Professional Competence ; Seasons ; Social Welfare

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to evaluate the risk of exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) during working hours by job status and occupation. METHODS: Using the 4th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS), 49,674 respondents who answered the question about SHS were studied. A chi-square test was carried out to determine whether there is a significant different in SHS exposure frequency by general and occupational characteristics and experience of discrimination at work and logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify the risk level of SHS exposure by variables. RESULTS: In this study, we found that male workers in their 40s and 50s, workers employed in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, daily workers, and people working outdoors had a higher rate of exposure to SHS than the others. The top five occupations with the highest SHS exposure were construction and mining-related occupations, metal core-makers-related trade occupations, wood and furniture, musical instrument, and signboard-related trade occupations, transport and machine-related trade occupations, transport and leisure services occupations. The least five exposed occupations were public and enterprise senior officers, legal and administrative professions, education professionals, and health, social welfare, and religion-related occupations. CONCLUSION: Tobacco smoke is a significant occupational hazard. Smoking ban policy in the workplace can be a very effective way to reduce the SHS exposure rate in the workplace and can be more effective if specifically designed by the job status and various occupations.
Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Humans ; Interior Design and Furnishings ; Leisure Activities ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Music ; Occupations ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Welfare ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tobacco ; Tobacco Smoke Pollution ; Wood

Suicide is a major problem in Korean health care and a serious social problem. In Korea, 12,463 people (24.3 per 100,000) lost their lives due to suicide in 2017. Although the government has established three National Comprehensive Plan of Suicide Prevention (2004, 2009, 2016), and National Action Plan of Suicide Prevention (2018), the suicide rate is still high. The suicide rate of the elderly is especially high. This is due to the economic vulnerability of the elderly in Korea. Therefore, in order to prevent suicide in Korea, mental health care approach and social welfare approach should be integrated. The intervention of preventing suicide of suicide attempters should include social welfare services as well as mental health program and should be based on community. There are many health problems, including prevention of suicide, which can not be solved only by the efforts of health care. Many health problems are social problems and the integrated approach is needed to solve them. In order to solve many health care problems and improve health, integrated approach of health, social science, and humanities is needed.
Aged ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humanities ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Mental Health Services ; Social Problems ; Social Sciences ; Social Welfare ; Suicide

Korea is undergoing a rapid environmental change in health and welfare. Therefore, the law mandates the establishment and implementation of plans in accordance with the changes. A total of 49 long-term plans related to health and welfare were specified by the National Law Information Center, the Korean representative legal information website managed by the Korea Ministry of Government Legislation. Of the 49 long-term plans, 10 plans (20.4%) were not yet fully constructed. Eight out of 10 non-constructive plans have been put into force for more than a year, but these plans still require further systematic planning and development. The complete construction of long-term plans is substantial to account for the changes in South Korean health and welfare. In addition, a systematic plan with solidarity and continuity between the mutual plans should be established in planning.
Information Centers ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Social Welfare

PURPOSE: This study tries to comprehend older adults' perspectives of community supports and health services in a South Korean city and identify important sociodemographic and health characteristics that affect their perspectives. METHODS: 166 older adults were involved in this cross-sectional study. Questions on background characteristics and community supports and health services criteria (categorized as service accessibility, offer of services, voluntary support, or emergency care planning) based upon the WHO's Age-Friendly Cities Guide were used. The data were analyzed using paired and independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Emergency care planning was rated as the most important by the participants (mean age=76.24 years, 22.9% male), while its current level of performance was lowly appraised (p<.001). The rated importance for each category differed based on individual characteristics. Depression (p=.016), older age (p=.012), and restricted network type (p=.039) were significantly related to ascribing a higher degree of importance to community services. CONCLUSION: Community initiatives are warranted to optimize emergency care for older adults. This planning must be based on the unique characteristics of older adults in coordination with supportive resources. In addition, comprehensive assessments are warranted before implementing action plans to ensure that the multi-dimensional problems of older adults are incorporated.
Adult ; Community Health Services ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Emergency Medical Services ; Health Services ; Humans ; Korea ; Social Welfare

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate effects of welfare center's cognitive improvement program on the community elderly provided by nursing student volunteers and social welfare.METHODS: A quasi-experimental with non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was implemented. The participants were the community elderly with or without mild cognitive impairments (experimental group: 17, control group: 15). The experimental group participated in the cognitive improvement program for four months based on the demonstration program of the special grade of dementia in long-term care insurance for the elderly.RESULTS: After the intervention, the satisfaction with perceived social support (F=9.30, p=.005) was improved statistically between the experimental group and the control group, but there was no significant difference in MMSE-K, IADL, depression, EQ-VAS, and EQ-5D variables.CONCLUSION: These results indicated that a multidisciplinary approach or a variety of manpower is needed, in order to prevent the dementia of the elderly. However, in order to provide a systematic cognitive-based intervention, it was once again recognized that the training of relevant experts and the quality planning on them were very important.
Aged ; Cognitive Therapy ; Dementia ; Depression ; Humans ; Insurance, Long-Term Care ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Nursing ; Social Welfare ; Students, Nursing ; Volunteers

PURPOSE: This study tries to systematically understand factors that explain levels of happiness among pregnant women in the Ecological systems theory. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 169 pregnant women in Korea. Collected data from self-report questionnaires were analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis using the SPSS statistics 23 program. RESULTS: A total of 5 models were examined according to individual, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem in the Ecological systems theory. In the first model including individual factors, extraversion, neuroticism, and physical and psychological change constitute significant factors explaining happiness. In the second model with microsystem factors and in the third one with mesosystem factors, marital intimacy appears to be a significant factor. In the fourth model including exosystem factors, community service is a significant factor. In the final model with social atmosphere, personality (β=.15 for extraversion; β=−.30 for neuroticism), physical and psychological change (β=−.15), marital intimacy (β=.35), and community service (β= .18) turn out to be significant. These factors explain 59% of the variance of happiness in the pregnant women in Korea. CONCLUSION: Considering the fact that pregnant women's happiness is explained by microsystem and exosystem factors as well as individual factors, developing intervention programs that can promote influencing factors such as marital intimacy and community service is necessary to improve levels of happiness among pregnant women in Korea.
Atmosphere ; Community Health Services ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Ecology ; Ecosystem ; Extraversion (Psychology) ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Happiness ; Humans ; Korea ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women ; Social Welfare

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to develop a Korean version of an ICF e-Learning tool (KICF e-Learning tool). METHODS: The process of translation and adaptation of the ICF e-Learning tool was followed: two translators developed the Korean versions independently, and a consensus version of the translation was then produced. An expert committee, which was composed of five experts from physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, and social welfare, reviewed the consensus Korean version to make a beta version of the tool. A field test was conducted to determine if the Korean version of the tool was easy to understand and suitable to use in ICF learning. Feedback from the field test were used for the final adaptation of the KICF e-Learning tool. RESULTS: One-hundred and twenty-six volunteers (40 males and 76 females) were invited to examine the KICF e-Learning tool. The participants reported various levels of ICF knowledge from none to very good. Forty-eight participants reported no knowledge of ICF. The majority of participants (n=84) reported that Korean terms or expression in the tool were easy to understand and one-hundred fourteen participants would recommend the tool to another person. The Korean cases would be helpful for a Korean audience to study the ICF using the tool. CONCLUSION: The KICF e-Learning tool was developed and is ready for use by the public for the consistency of ICF education. On the other hand, development of an advanced module will be needed.
Consensus ; Education ; Hand ; Humans ; Learning ; Male ; Occupational Therapy ; Social Welfare ; Speech-Language Pathology ; Volunteers

On September 12, 2018, President Jae-In Moon announced the Comprehensive Plan for Lifelong Care for People with Developmental Disabilities, with representatives from the associated government branches (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Employment and Labor) in attendance. The goals of this plan are to provide health, medical, rehabilitative, special education, and social welfare services according to the life-stages of the affected individuals; to reduce parental pressure; to promote social interventions; and to enhance community-level participation in order to create a ‘welfare society in harmony.’ However, in order for the plan to succeed, additional efforts must be made in the following areas. First, an epidemiological survey is needed to understand the scale, prevalence, and incidence of developmental disabilities and to establish an evidence base to support policy development. Second, accurate definitions of developmental disabilities must be established in order to avoid policy discrimination based on impairment type and age. Third, personal evaluations to assess disabled individuals' unmet needs and customized service designs to deliver those needs are required. Fourth, the plan must fulfill the goals of accessibility and fairness that the government intends to provide. Fifth, the government should consider an integrated financial support system and to propose a detailed plan for monetary distributions. Finally, an integrated system that links health, medical, employment, educational, and welfare services must be constructed.
Comprehensive Health Care ; Developmental Disabilities ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Education, Special ; Employment ; Financial Support ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intellectual Disability ; Moon ; Parents ; Policy Making ; Prevalence ; Social Welfare