Jakyoung Lee

This study aimed to analyze the utilization of health care facilities and the health-seeking behavior of elderly people with non-communicable diseases and find the factors that affect them. A cross-sectional study was conducted in seven coastal areas of the Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam, using a sample of 370 elderly people aged over 60 years. Chi-square and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the factors associated with the utilization of health care services. The participants’ average age was 69.70 (SD), and 18% of them reported having ≥ two non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The results of the study showed that 69.8% of the total participants exhibited health-seeking behaviors. The findings also revealed that elderly people living alone, and those with an average or above-average income, had higher utilization of health care services. Participants with multiple NCDs exhibited more health-seeking behaviors than those with only one (OR: 9.24, 95% CI: 2.66–32.15, p = p = 0.016], [OR: 3.91, 95% CI: 2.04–7.49, p < 0.001], respectively). Health-seeking behavior is one of the most important positive implications for the aged population, as it encompasses one’s physical, mental, and psychological wellbeing. Future studies can aim at gaining an in-depth understanding of the same results, helping improve the health-seeking behavior of elderly people, and enhancing their quality of life.

Although South Korea has implemented various smoking cessation services, women who are emotional laborers, as well as parcel delivery, transportation, and construction workers, have poor access to these services. This study evaluated the smoking-related characteristics of workers in these four occupations as well as the awareness of and need for smoking cessation services. In total 808 workers in these four occupations aged 19 years and above were recruited nationwide and had their data analyzed. The participants’ age, marital status, number of work hours per week, job-related stress, age when they started smoking, average number of cigarettes a day, types of tobacco products, close relationships to others who smoke, number of attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, awareness of cessation services, prior utilization of cessation services, and need for cessation services were surveyed. Compared with parcel delivery workers, female emotional laborers and transportation and construction workers had more attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, and prior utilization of smoking cessation services, moreover, construction workers had a significantly lower awareness of smoking cessation services. Parcel delivery workers need smoking cessation programs, mobile applications to help them quit smoking, and improvements in their work environments. Cessation services and education should be promoted at workplaces and among managers.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the successful smoking cessation across different national smoking cessation services. Methods: This study included data that had been previously entered into the integrated information system for smoking cessation services and comprised 144,688 participants after excluding missing data. These clinics provide face-to-face counseling, phone calls, text messages, and e-mail services for six months and nine sessions. Results: The women-only program had the lowest success rate (11.3%). Compared with the women-only program, the six-month success rate of smoking cessation clinic at public health centers (OR = 3.72, CI = [3.52, 3.92]), visiting-type smoking cessation clinics (OR = 2.97, CI = [2.79, 3.16]), the residential 4 -night 5-day program (OR = 7.79, CI = [6.49, 9.35]), and a program for inpatients (OR = 2.36, CI = [1.89, 2.94]) showed a significant increase. Conclusions: Emotional labor workers who participated in the women-only program had low smoking cessation success rates, while those who participated in the residential 4-night 5-day program had high success rates.

Despite the steadily increasing prevalence of female smoking, gender-responsive tobacco cessation services have not been widely provided worldwide. The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with the use of tobacco cessation services among female tobacco product users in Korea from a national perspective. We performed a logistic regression analysis using data from 663 female smokers; 11.0% of female smokers had used government-supported smoking cessation services. A logistic regression model showed a statistically significant association between the utilization of smoking cessation services and a history of pregnancy and childbirth, depression, current use of heated tobacco products and multiple tobacco products, parental smoking status and receiving advice to quit. With regard to the motivation ruler, those in their 50s reported a higher importance than those in their 20s. Weight gain concerns when quitting smoking were the lowest among the participants aged 19–29. The need to develop gender-specific smoking cessation programs is the highest among the participants aged 39–49 and the lowest among those aged 19–29. This study suggests several factors related to the utilization of national health services among female smokers. Further studies considering gender-specific needs for the development of gender-responsive tobacco cessation support are needed.