• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.188-195
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• 2013

Background: The separation of pharmaceutical prescription and dispensing law was implemented in July 1st of 2000. This law was initiated by government without a through consensus among related stakeholders in the process of policy decision, eventually raising contention about decision making process rather than the performance of the policy. Methods: Therefore, this study tries to identify the accomplishment of the policy goals; based on the last decade's research we assessed inhibition of unnecessary prescription, drug misuse and overuse prevention, prevention of drug-related sentinel events, reducing unnecessary drug utilization, and reducing nation's medical cost. Results: Assessment results represent that government-suggested goal of the policy lacks sufficient evidence to evaluate accomplishment. Conclusion: Unlike other studies that evaluate problems regarding drug dispensing policy in the policy decision process, this study is meaningful in that it evaluated the policy goal based on the last ten years of related study results.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.484-494
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• 2000

Objective : To evaluate the relative benefits and the costs associated with the introduction of the new pharmaceutical provision called 'Mandatory Prescription System' which separates the role of physicians from that of pharmacists with respect to the prescription and dispensation of from the perspective of consumers (i.e., patients). Methods : The costs of the system were measured by considering both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs included additional payments for ambulatory care and dispensing fees that occurred under the new system. indirect costs consisted of transportation expenses and costs related to time spent for physician consultation, waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, and extra traveling. Benefits identified in this study were the reduction of drug misuse and overuse, and the overall decrease in drug consumption among the Korean population. Sensitivity analysis was peformed for the inclusion of benefits for outpatients of hospitals, price elasticity, and increased fees for established patients. Results : The net benefit was estimated to be about minus 1,862 billion won and the benefit-cost ratio was 0.478. This indicates that the costs of 'Mandatory Prescription' outweigh its benefits, relative to the previous system. The sensitivity analysis results for all the variables considered in this study consistently showed the benefit-cost ratio to be less than 1. Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that implementing Mandatory Prescription System in Korea might be inefficient from the consumer's perspective. The results of this study do not coincide with the results of previous studies, presumably because of the differences in study design and in which items of costs and benefits were considered.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.115-125
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• 2019

Objectives: Korea has been practicing the separation of dispensary from medical practice since 2000 as a national policy to prevent misuse or overuse of medicines. This study aimed to investigate prescription patterns from except pharmacies in order to determine the appropriateness of drug usage among those patients. Methods: Thirty-two pharmacies in the Yeongdong area of Gangwon Province were examined in this study. The same simulated patient complaining of cold symptoms for 3 days visited each pharmacy to obtain a prescription for medication. Results: At pharmacies prescribing medicine, steroids (53.1%) and antibiotics (50.0%) were used to treat the common cold. Duplicate prescriptions of drugs, such as antihistamines (47.0%) and decongestants (31.3%) were common. The average number of drug prescriptions was 6.59, and 53.2% of pharmacies had prescribed more than seven drugs. The average total cost of the prescriptions was 6,093 won, and the daily cost was 2,544 won. Conclusions: Steroids and antibiotics were frequently abused among patients whose medications had been prescribed by pharmacies. Also, there were a considerable number of drugs and duplicate prescriptions. The prices of the drugs were somewhat high.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.58-83
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• 2022

We developed analytical methods using high performance chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of 80 unapproved compounds in dietary supplements. The target compounds for analysis were unapproved ingredients (e.g., pharmaceuticals) that have potential adverse effects on consumers owing to accidental misuse, overuse, and interaction with other medication in dietary supplement. Two analytical methods were tested to identify the optimal validation results according to AOAC guideline. As a result, limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.14-0.5 ㎍ mL^-1; linearity (r²) was ≥ 0.99; accuracy (expressed as recovery) was 78.9-114%; precision (relative standard deviation) was ≤ 4.28% in the HPLC method. In the LC-MS/MS method, LOQ was 0.01-2 ng mL^-1, linearity (r²) was ≥0.98, accuracy was 71.7-119%; precision was ≤ 12.5%. The developed methods were applied to 51 dietary supplements collected from 2019 to 2021 through MFDS alert system. Based on our previous monitoring study, major compounds were icariin, sibutramine, yohimbine, sildenafil, tadalafil, sennosides (A, B), cascarosides (A, B, C, D), and phenolphthalein. In this study, we re-analyzed samples of detected compounds, and evaluated the statistical difference using Bland-Altman analysis to compare two analytical approaches between HPLC and LC-MS/MS. These results showed a good agreement between two methods that can be used to monitor the unapproved ingredients in dietary supplements. The developed two methods are complementarily suitable for monitoring the adulteration of 80 unapproved compounds in dietary supplements.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2015

Background: Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors (PDE5Is), which are prescription drug in South Korea, have been concerned about misuse, overuse and illegal provision of the drugs. This study was performed to investigate utilization and safety of illegal Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors (PDE5Is), and related factors among South Korean men. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted from May to July in 2013 among 1,500 nationally representative general males using computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI). The questionnaire included the characteristics of population, the characteristics of PDE5Is use, the experience with the use of illegally obtained PDE5Is, and adverse events after PDE5Is use. Results: Among study population, the 1,015 (67.7%) men answered that they have used the illegally obtained PDE5Is. Younger age, single, lower frequency of PDE5Is use in a lifetime was associated with an increased use of illegally obtained PDE5Is. The men experienced adverse events after PDE5Is use is 528 (35.2%). The most common adverse event was mild to moderate hot flashes. Conclusion: We need to enhance awareness about the risk of illegally obtained PDE5Is use, especially in younger men and single. Proactive educations and public relations on safe use of PDE5Is for proper patients are needed.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 1994

Anxiety and anxiety disorders are one of the most common and most serious psychiatric problems. Anti-anxiety drugs are one of the most effective treatment method for these problems. Benzodiazepines have various side-effects and the risk of overuse and abuse. Therefore, physicians should prescribe benzodiazepines carefully. However, they should not be discouraged from prescribing benzodiazepines when they have a knowledge of the pharmacological characteristics of these drugs and there is a clear indication for their use. Generally speaking, problems of benzodiazepine use such as dependence withdrawal symptoms, and cognitive impairment are more likely to occur with high dose, long-term use(more than 4 months), in geriatric patients and patients with a history of alcohol or other sustance abuse. But long-term or high-dose use can be jusified for patients with panic disorder of agoraphobia, and medically-ill patients with persistent anxiety that cannot be otherwise treated. In summary, there cannot be a general prescribing formulation for benzodiazepine use. Physician should always make their decision based on the individual patient's risk/benefit factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Purpose： The purpose of this study was to investigate the current conditions and to analysis the needs of health education contents in school nurses and elementary school children. Methods : The survey was conducted through the questionnaire with school nurses and students. Subjects were 60 school nurse and 1483 elementary school children. Data was collected based on the from Mar to Apr. 2004. Finally, data was analyzed using mean, SD, and t-test. Results : The students need the health education related safety, oral hygiene, visual promotion, scoliosis prevention, cyber addiction prevention, anti-bullying and school violence prevention. School nurses suggest the contents of health education such as sex education, drug misuse and overuse prevention. There was also a difference in the need of health education among the school nurse and students. Conclusion：I suggest that health education should be conducted taking students' demand in each grade into consideration. School nurses need to positively improve the priorities of health education based on the students' demand.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.283-288
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• 2009

Pneumonia remains the leading cause of mortality in children. Diagnosis depends on a combination of factors, including clinical assessment, radiological and laboratory findings. Although Streptococcus pneumoniae remains the most important cause of childhood bacterial pneumonia, the great majority of cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are of viral etiology. A new, rapid, and inexpensive test that differentiates viral from bacterial pneumonia is needed to decide empiric antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics effective against the expected bacterial pathogens should be instituted where necessary. The role of emerging pathogens and the effect of pneumococcal resistance and heptavalent conjugate pneumococcal vaccines are to be considered in practice. There are reports supporting the valid and highly efficacious use of penicillin as a first-line drug for treating CAP. This review raises the issue of the overuse of unnecessary antibiotics in viral CAPs and the use of second or third-line antibiotics for non-complicated pneumonias in most clinical settings.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2017

Recently, several researches have been studied on agricultural automation system according to convergence of IT technology with agriculture. An automatic control system of the growth environment in crops is one of the these researches. The controls of damages caused by diseases and insects pest in crops are mainly carried out by manual mode or semi-automatic mode because of farmer's concerns for poor efficiency. But, this situation needs to be improved because it occurs various problems, such as human exposure to toxic pesticides, environmental pollution and waste due to drug overuse. In order to solve these problems, we developed an automatic quantity control system which based on the amount of pesticides for area under cultivation. The amount of pesticides is calculated according to the manufacturer's instruction for pesticides. To verify the effectiveness of our developed automatic system, we also compared with the systems of manual mode and the semi-automatic mode. The experimental results of a pest control performance of an automatic quantity control system showed that automatic system can reduce overuse of drugs. These results suggested that it can be expected to replace the existing system, with equivalent effectiveness to the manual mode.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.58-75
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• 1998

Background : In Korea, the rational use of antibiotics are rarely controlled, and their patterns of utilization are not understood. In order to reduce the excessive use and to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics, it is necessary to accurately determine present uses of antibiotics in hospitals. Methods : Analysis of the use of prescription drugs was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. A stratified sampling by types of hospitals, departments, and diseases was obtained from 1994 August data. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study, 2,697 adults with URI, 6,397 children with URI, 704 adults with bronchitis, and 1,838 children with bronchitis were included. Results : Most patients were prescribed medication (95.2-99.6%). Of the patients prescribed medication, more than 85% of URI patients and more than 91% of bronchitis patients were prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics expenses accounted for 14% of total medical expenses in adults and 9% of total medical expenses in children. In adults with URI, antibiotics expenses accounted for 52% of drug expenses. Of the patients prescribed antibiotics, average number of antibiotics used was 1.6-1.7. For patients who are prescribed antibiotics, drug expenses were 62-97% greater than patients not prescribed antibiotics. When children were prescribed antibiotics, the highest price of drugs prescribed were 3.4-fold greater. In addition, the number of drugs prescribed also increased by more than one. Elderly patients, more than 60 years, were prescribed antibiotics less frequently. Children less than 10 years and elderly patients greater than 60 years old were prescribed fewer antibiotics than other patients. And they were prescribed medications for longer days than other patients. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the average rate of prescribing antibiotics was higher in Korea than other countries. Measures to reduce overuse of antibiotics and to improve the appropriate prescription of antibiotics must be considered for cost effective treatment and overall health of people.