To identify trends in patient satisfaction adjusted for sociodemographic factors and health status from 1989-2003.

Five repeated cross-sectional surveys were used. The study sample included 290,534 household members 20 years of age and over from the five survey periods of 1989, 1992, 1995, 1999, and 2003. Satisfaction was measured using a five-point scale, ranging from “very satisfied” to “very dissatisfied.” Crude satisfaction rates, representing the proportion of patients satisfied (very satisfied or satisfied), were calculated for each survey period. Satisfaction rates adjusted for age, sex, marital status, education, and selfrated health status were calculated for each of the five years.

Crude satisfaction rates increased from 15.4% in 1989 to 40.5% in 2003. The proportions of satisfaction and dissatisfaction were reversed after 15 years had passed. However, the satisfaction trend was not linear throughout the different years, with 1992 being the year with the lowest satisfaction rate (9.7%). These trends in crude rates did not change even after adjusting for patient characteristics. The odds of satisfaction in 1992 were 38% lower (odds ratio 0.62, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.64) than the odds in 1989. In 2003, the odds of satisfaction were 4.01 times (95% CI 3.89 to 4.13) the odds for 1989. Older, female, married, and less-educated people were more likely to be satisfied. Patients who rated their health as “very good” had the highest satisfaction rate, and those with “neutral” health ratings had the lowest. General hospitals achieved substantial improvement whereas pharmacies became the lowest-rated of all institutions.

The Korean health system has achieved better patient satisfaction rates over the past 15 years. Increased health expenditure, resources, and quality improvement efforts may have contributed to this progress.

The objective of this study was to provide a trend analysis of the prevalence of diabetes relative to the socioeconomic, lifestyle, and physiologic risk factors among Korean adults aged over 30 years for a 10-year period using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Prevalence difference and the slope index of inequality were calculated for each risk factors using binomial regression by considering the repeated cross-sectional features of the data. The prevalence ratio and the relative index of inequality were calculated using log-binomial regression. Linear trend tests were performed using SAS 9.2.

Crude prevalence of diabetes increased over the 10-year period, and was higher for men than for women. It was very high for adults 60 years or over, consistently increasing over time. The prevalence among unemployed men, women with higher level of stress, women with hypertension, and adults with serum triglyceride levels over 135 mg/dL increased over the 10-year period in comparison with the respective control group.

Considering the rapid economic development and associated lifestyle changes in Korea, action should be taken to control the prevalence of diabetes by both preventing and consistently monitoring these identified risk factors using a public-health approach.

The purpose of this study was to identify trends for studies published in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing and journals published by member societies from inaugural issues to 2010.

A total of 6890 studies were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Quantitative studies accounted for 83.6% while qualitative studies accounted for 14.4%. Most frequently used research designs were quasi-experimental (91.1%) for experimental research and survey (85.2%) for non-experimental research. Most frequent study participants were healthy people (35.8%), most frequent nursing interventions, nursing skills (53.5%), and 39.8% used knowledge, attitude and behavior outcomes for dependent variables. Most frequently used keyword was elderly. Survey studies decreased from 1991 to 2010 by approximately 50%, while qualitative studies increased by about 20%. True experimental research (1.2%) showed no significant changes. Studies focusing on healthy populations increased from 2001-2005 (37.5%) to 2006-2010 (41.0%). From 1970 to 2010, studies using questionnaire accounted for over 50% whereas physiological measurement, approximately 5% only. Experimental studies using nursing skill interventions increased from 1970-1980 (30.4%) to 2006-2010 (64.0%). No significant changes were noted in studies using knowledge, attitude and behavior (39.9% ) as dependent variables.

The results suggest that further expansion of true experimental, qualitative studies and physiological measurements are needed.

This study aimed to identify contents and trends of Korean nursing doctoral dissertations in terms of research methodology and theoretical characteristics.

The design of the study was descriptive study and a total of 1,089 quantitative studies completed between 1982 and 2010 were reviewed using the analytical framework developed by the researchers.

The majority of studies utilized the experimental design (51.5%) and the others were survey design (38.8%) and methodological design (5.0%). Study subjects were shown as patients (45%), care givers (11.2%), ordinary persons (40.6%) and others (3.2%). There were growing trends in experimental design and patients as subjects. The prevailing data collection settings were hospitals (45.8%) and community (27.8%). The theoretical frameworks that studies were based on were the existing theories (37%) and a newly developed theoretical framework by a researcher (25.2%). a framework derived from other studies by the researcher (25.2%). Majority of studies (78.5%) employed a single theory as a theoretical framework. However, 31.8% of studies had no theoretical framework based on.

Findings of this study provided the opportunities to shed new light on the current status of Korean doctoral dissertation and to deliberate on the future direction of nursing studies in Korea.

This study was done to describe the research trend of Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM) in Korea and internationally.

A Systematic review of CAM related literature published from 2000 to 2005 was done. A comprehensive search by using 34 CAM modalities as search terms to identify all articles dealing with CAM was undertaken from 4 databases: PubMed, RICHIS, KoreaMed, and Riss4U. A Total of 588 abstracts and 223 original articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers using systematic analysis guidelines. Data regarding the types of study design, characteristics of subjects and researchers, and classification of CAM modalities was recorded. The outcome measures of CAM were identified.

CAM research has been rapidly increasing worldwide in the last decade. In Korea, nursing(53.5%) followed by medicine(42.7%) occupied the majority of CAM research in comparison to medicine(42.9%) and disciplines in CAM(25.0%), like homeopathy, internationally. Prevailing research designs in Korea were experimental and quasi-experimental, however, randomized clinical trials were found. Internationally, survey research was dominant, with the exception of randomized clinical trials that were mostly an experimental design.

The findings suggest that a robust research design in CAM research is needed to accumulate strong scientific evidence and to adopt nursing interventions from CAM modalities.