scholarly journals A Study on the Installation of Facilities for People with Disabilities in Dental Institutions of Chungbuk, South Korea

Author(s):  
Sun-ju Kim ◽  
Jin-sun Park

To maintain the oral health and ability to smoothly receive dental treatment of people with disabilities, their accessibility to dental institutions must be enforced. Hence, this study aimed to assess the status of installation of convenience facilities for people with disabilities in dental institutions in Chungbuk Province, South Korea. According to the checklist based on installation items for convenience facilities for people with disabilities, 245 dental institutions in Chungbuk Province were visited and investigated to examine whether they had installed internal, intermediary, sanitary, and information-related facilities for people with disabilities. Inputs were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Frequency analysis by item was conducted to determine the rate of installation, and Fisher’s exact test was performed to analyze the actual state of installation according to the type of institution. The results revealed a relatively higher rate of appropriate installation and access routes to the main entrance and parking spaces for people with disabilities in terms of intermediary and internal facilities, but at times they were installed at inappropriate locations or lacked proper signboards. The state of installation of convenience facilities by institution type was 0–1.3% per item at the clinic level but 75–87.5% per item in general and dental hospitals (p < 0.001). Insufficient government management and supervision at clinic-level dental institutions lead to limited scope for regulating the installation of convenience facilities. Better laws, with continued support and supervision of central and local governments, are needed to resolve this issue.

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jong-Hun Son ◽  
Do-Gyeong Kim ◽  
Eunkyeong Lee ◽  
Hosik Choi

This study analyzed the operation-related historical data of the call taxi service for disabled people in Seoul, South Korea. The study investigated how unevenly distributed the accessibility of disabled people to transportation is in terms of time and space. In addition, the reasons that cause imbalanced accessibility were investigated in areas with good and poor accessibility. Accessibility was defined as how quickly call taxi services for the disabled are available at specific times and locations. For the analysis, the log data for tracking the status of taxis in time and space were processed to calculate their availability, an index that reflects the dwelling time and the number of taxis available at a specific time and in a specific area. This index was divided into time and space and used as a surrogate measure to assess accessibility. The results showed that there were spatial and temporal accessibility imbalances in demand responsive transit (DRT) service. The insufficient supply during the night resulting from the current DRT operating schedule has reduced the accessibility of call taxis for the disabled, and the concentration of drivers’ breaks also affected the accessibility of service during the daytime. This suggests the need for (1) an increase in supply and (2) evenly distributed breaks for the drivers. In terms of space, the outer areas of Seoul generally were found to be more accessible than the central areas. In addition, areas near depots that serve as hubs and resting places for taxi drivers, areas with excellent medical infrastructures for people with disabilities, and areas with good traffic environments tended to have good accessibility; this suggests the need to reallocate garages and improve the traffic environments to improve accessibility.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Eva Martin-Fuentes ◽  
Sara Mostafa-Shaalan ◽  
Juan Pedro Mellinas

There is a lack of comprehensive international studies on accommodations for people with disabilities; only small, local-level studies exist. This study aims to show the status of the tourist accommodation sector through the online distribution channel in terms of accessibility to offer more inclusive tourism. A descriptive analysis has been carried out with more than 31,000 hotels from the online travel agency Booking.com, in the 100 most touristic cities in the world. For the first time, an accurate picture of adaptation in the hotel sector for people with disabilities is presented. Results show that the adapted hotel infrastructures by countries are uneven. The main adaptations are those that help to avoid mobility barriers, and in contrast, hotels offer very few adaptations for sensory disabilities such as visual disabilities. Moreover, this study shows that, worldwide, countries with the highest income per capita, such as the United States of America, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, have the highest degree of hotel adaptation.


Polar Record ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Flamm

Abstract While the Antarctic Treaty System intended to keep Antarctica an area of international cooperation and science free from militarisation and international conflict, the region has not been completely shielded from global power transitions, such as decolonisation and the end of the Cold War. Presently, emerging countries from Asia are increasingly willing to invest in polar infrastructure and science on the back of their growing influence in world politics. South Korea has also invested heavily in its Antarctic infrastructure and capabilities recently and has been identified as an actor with economic and political interests that are potentially challenging for the existing Antarctic order. This article first assesses the extent and performance of the growing bilateral cooperation between South Korea and one of its closest partners, New Zealand, a country with strong vested interests in the status quo order. How did the cooperation develop between these two actors with ostensibly diverging interests? This article finds that what may have been a friction–laden relationship, actually developed into a win-win partnership for both countries. The article then moves on to offer an explanation for how this productive relationship was made possible by utilising a mutual socialisation approach that explores socio-structural processes around status accommodation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Sato ◽  
Shigeto Koyama ◽  
Chikahiro Ohkubo ◽  
Shin Ogura ◽  
Ryutaro Kamijo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Self-care and professional care of implants may prove difficult for elderly people who require nursing care. However, the actual state of care and problems remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the actual state of implant problems in elderly people living in their own home or in a nursing home who received visiting dental treatment. Methods We mailed questionnaire survey forms to 2339 representatives or specialists who were members of the Japanese Society of Oral Implantology, the Japanese Society of Gerodontology or the Japan Prosthodontic Society. We narrowed down the respondents to those who provided visiting dental treatment, and analyzed the actual state of implants observed during visiting dental treatment (type, care, problems, countermeasures, etc.). Results Of the 924 dentists who responded to the questionnaire survey, 291 (22%) provided visiting dental treatment. While the majority of implant types encountered in the previous 12 months were root-form implants, there were still a certain number of blade and subperiosteal implants. Daily implant care involved mostly cleaning with a toothbrush + auxiliary tools. The most frequent implant problems encountered in the past were difficulty in cleaning and peri-implantitis. Medication and antiphlogistic treatment were most frequently adopted as countermeasures to implant problems, followed by observation. When we classified the results into those for the dentists who provided implant treatment and those for the dentists who did not, we found that many of the dentists who did not provide implant treatment opted for observation or medication, while those who provided implant treatment also implemented removal of superstructure, retightening of screws, repair and so forth. Conclusions We found that many of the implant troubles encountered by dentists who provided visiting dental care were difficulty in cleaning or peri-implantitis, and that the actions taken against these troubles varied depending on the experience of the dentist performing the implant treatment. Our study also revealed that dentists who provide visiting dental care need to acquire knowledge and skills of implant treatment, to have actions prepared in case they encounter such cases, or to closely coordinate with dentists who specialize in implants.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seong-Yong Park ◽  
Jin-Mi Kwak ◽  
Eun-Won Seo ◽  
Kwang-Soo Lee

This paper presents a cross-sectional study based on the cause of death statistics in 2011 extracted from all 229 local governments in South Korea. The standardised hypertensive disease mortality rate (SHDMR) was defined by age- and sex-adjusted mortality by hypertensive diseases distinguished by International Classification of Disease- 10 (ICD-10). Variables taken into account were the number of doctors per 100,000 persons, the proportion with higher education (including university students and high school graduates), the number of recipients of basic livelihood support per 100,000 persons, the annual national health insurance premium per capita and the proportion of persons classified as high-risk drinkers. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were applied to identify the potential associations. The statistical analysis was conducted with SAS ver. 9.3, while ArcGIS ver. 10.0 was utilised for the spatial analysis. The OLS results showed that the number of basic livelihood recipients per 100,000 persons had a significant positive association with the SHDMR, and the proportion with higher education had a significant negative one. GWR coefficients varied depending on region investigated and some regional variables had various directions. GWR showed higher adjusted R2 than that of OLS. It was found that the SHDMR was affected by socio-economic status, but as the effects observed were not consistent in all regions of the country, the development of health policies will need to consider the potential for regional variation.


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