Factors influencing the health satisfaction of users of public health and medical institutions in South Korea

IntroductionIn this study, we investigated the health satisfaction levels of users of regional health and medical institutions in South Korea and the influencing factors.MethodsWe included randomly selected 300 people with experience in using health and medical institutions from panel data targeting the entire nation. We used questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and sociodemographic characteristics to analyze the health satisfaction. EQ-5D-5L was used to measure health-related quality of life in five areas: mobility, self-management, daily activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed in three steps to examine the factors influencing health satisfaction.ResultsThe analysis showed that the health satisfaction was positively (+) correlated with monthly income, mobility, self-management, daily life, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression, and negatively (−) correlated with the number of chronic diseases and type of health insurance. The influencing factors in Step 1 and 2 were chronic diseases (β = −0.380, −0.385), respectively. The influencing factors in Step 3 were pain/discomfort (β = 0.202), anxiety/depression (β = 0.257), and the number of chronic diseases (β = −0.222).DiscussionsThe current data suggested that regional health and medical institutions should focus their services on residents with chronic diseases. Moreover, they should expand physical activities to relieve physical pain or discomfort and provide services related to mental health. To accomplish these, we suggested that the government will need to promote post-service health checkup results as a key project, provide user-customized services, provide online services utilizing ICT, expanding the government's financial support, and building infrastructure

Catastrophic Health Expenditures and Its Inequality in Households with Cancer Patients: A Panel Study

This study aims to examine the determinants of catastrophic health expenditure in households with cancer patients by conducting a panel analysis of three-year data. Data are adopted from surveys administered by Korea Health Panel for 2012–2014. We conducted correspondence and conditional transition probability analyses to examine households that incurred catastrophic health expenditure, followed by a panel logit analysis. The analyses reveal three notable results. First, the occurrence of catastrophic health expenditure differs by age group, that is, the probability of incurring catastrophic health expenditure increases with age. Second, this probability is higher in households with National Health Insurance than those receiving medical care benefits. Finally, households without private health insurance report a higher occurrence rate. The findings suggest that elderly people with cancer have greater medical coverage and healthcare needs. Private health insurance contributes toward protecting households from catastrophic health expenditure. Therefore, future research is needed on catastrophic health expenditure with focus on varying age groups, healthcare coverage type, and private health insurance

Does Health Promotion Program Affect Local Resident’ Emotions?

Healthy cities continuously attempt to improve residents’ health. Health is affected by psychological factors, such as happiness and emotions. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of healthy city program performance on individuals’ emotions, as well as the correlation between healthy city program performance and emotions using personal happiness index as a parameter. We conducted a questionnaire survey of residents in areas implementing healthy city projects. A total of 596 responses were obtained. We used structural equations to analyze the relationship of structural influences. Results showed that healthy city program performance had significant static effects on emotion. This observation shows that healthy city programs decrease local residents’ negative emotions, such as stress and depression. Therefore, healthy city programs stabilize residents’ emotions by increasing health friendliness. To improve the performance of healthy city programs, it is necessary to mitigate health risk factors and positively affect individuals’ emotions

A Proposal for Public Health Information System-Based Health Promotion Services

This study aims to examine the current status and utilization of 22 health promotion projects that use the health care information system. We investigate the health promotion examination results for a counseling project held at health centers, which use information connected with the Health Insurance Corporation. First, we review the status of 22 health promotion projects, including 13 integrated health promotion projects and 9 other health promotion projects. Next, we examine the linkages between the 22 projects and other health promotion systems. Consequently, despite accumulating vast amounts of data, only 10 places could be linked to health promotion data in the health and medical information system; the Social Security Information Service was the only exception to this trend. The Public Health Information System (PHIS) had the lowest data utilization rate in the project. The study results show that it is necessary to utilize data from local health and medical institutions in order to provide information system-based health promotion services. In particular, it seems to be effective when health and medical institutions provided various counseling services and other linked services to local residents in connection with the Korea Health Insurance Corporation’s health examination results

Power control in wireless ad hoc networks for energy efficient routing with capacity maximization

In wireless ad hoc networks, energy-constrained operation is very important due to the limited battery capacity. One of the reasons for excessive energy expenditure in this network is irregularly distributed node patterns which impose large interference range on a certain area. In this paper, we present a simple and energy efficient on-demand routing scheme by using discrete level of power control and priority based packet scheduling. With little additional routing overhead, the proposed scheme provides better way to deliver data than existing routing protocols which use fixed transmission power

Social Network Analysis in the Legislative Process in the Korean Medical Device Industry

This study analyzes the legislation process of the Korean government regarding the development of the medical device industry in the perspective of the issue network. It also aims to identify the difference in network structure between conservative and progressive governments and analyze major issues and stakeholders. It examines the network structure in the legislation process of the government to develop and support the medical device industry through social network analysis (SNA). This study conducted a policy network structure analysis of the conservative and progressive governments. SNA was used for the structure analysis, using the contents of newspaper articles as the baseline data related to the medical device industry. We analyze using the 2-mode network analysis that the node centrality is determined by eigenvector centrality. The more nodes with great power (stakeholders, information, resources) it is linked to, the greater power centrality (eigenvector centrality) it will have, which indicates that it has great influence within the network. The conservative government discussed the promotion of the medical device industry led by government departments, focusing on its potential as a future growth engine. On the contrary, the progressive government tended to have fewer stakeholders and issues around the idea, shifting the stakeholders that lead the promotion of the industry from government departments to relevant interest groups, and focusing more on policy issues like transparency than on economic issues. We identify implications to legislate the relevant act by analyzing the relevant stakeholders and issues around legislation, while reinforcing the competitiveness of Korea’s medical device industry in the larger global framework. We believe that this study would comprehensively addresses the pros and cons of the government-led promotion of the medical device industry in Korea, as well as the key issues for stakeholders, which can be applicable to many other societies

Innovative Distribution Priorities for the Medical Devices Industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Purpose This study aimed to set priorities for improving the medical device distribution structure and to suggest an innovative improvement plan for the distribution structure using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, focusing on stakeholders in the medical device industry. Methods This study conducted a survey with 35 specialists using the AHP method, which is a multiple-criteria decisionmaking methodology, in order to set priorities for improvement plans to address the problems faced by the medical device distribution structure. Results The AHP analysis showed that supply stability was the most important factor, followed by greater transparency, efficiency, smart supply, and cost reduction. Conclusions It is necessary to establish a stable supply system and manage crises through supply stability, as well as to provide opportunities for fair trade through greater transparency. As steps towards those goals, we propose establishing a unique device identification system, an information disclosure system, online distribution, and a group purchasing organization system in Korea

Comparative Study on Program/Erase Efficiency of 3-D SONOS Flash Memory Cell Transistor: Structural Approach from Multi-Gate (MG) to Gate-All-Around (GAA) FET

Abstract In this paper, we reported a non-planar 3-D SONOS memory, GAA (Gate-All-Around) SONOS (Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Silicon-Oxide) memory according to demands for the high-density and low-power nonvolatile memory. Using TCAD simulation, we have investigated program/erase efficiency and retention properties from tunneling currents of 3-D SONOS memory. Our results show that GAA SONOS is very promising candidate for high density and low power nonvolatile memory