Background: We compared the health-promoting behavior of long-term cancer survivors with those of the general population to identify necessary behavioral interventions to reduce the health risk among cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We used data from the 2007 and 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES IV [2007~2009] and KNHANES V [2010~2012]) on smoking status, alcohol use, physical exercise, and disease screening. We compared long-term cancer survivors with members of the general population; the controls were matched by propensity score matching. A multiple logistic regression model was used to investigate the association between cancer status and health-promoting behavior. Results: Long-term cancer survivors had a lower risk of smoking than the general population controls (OR: 0.42, 95%CI: 0.25-0.71). In addition, the long-term cancer survivors had a lower risk of alcohol use than the general population controls (OR: 0.70, 95%CI: 0.50-0.98). However, in terms of physical exercise and disease screening, no statistically significant differences were detected (physical exercise OR: 1.01, 95%CI: 0.75-1.35; disease screening OR: 1.27, 95%CI: 0.93-1.74). All covariates were adjusted. Conclusions: The long-term cancer survivors had a much lower risk of smoking and alcohol use than the general population controls. However, almost no differences in physical exercise and screening for cancer recurrence or secondary disease were detected between the long-term cancer survivors and general population controls. To reduce the health risks and challenges facing long-term cancer survivors, interventions to encourage physical exercise and screening for cancer recurrence and secondary disease should be implemented.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the continuity of care (COC) for patients with hypertension. Additionally, the factor of whether participants were treated via telemedicine was also considered. This study used the National Health Insurance and Medical Aid claims data of the Republic of Korea between 2019 and 2020. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify the differences in the number of visits and the most frequent provider continuity (MFPC) of hypertensive patients before and after the appearance of COVID-19 in Korea. Additional analysis was performed with data that excluded cases of patients who received telemedicine services. A total of 5,791,812 hypertensive patients were included in this study. The MFPC decreased by 0.0031 points after the appearance of COVID-19, and it showed the same decrease even when telemedicine cases were excluded. The number of outpatient clinic visit days decreased by 0.2930 days after the appearance of COVID-19. Without the telemedicine cases, the number of outpatient clinic visit days decreased by 0.3330 days after the appearance of COVID-19. Accordingly, the COVID-19 protocols did not affect hypertension patients’ COC but impacted the frequency of their outpatient visits. In other words, with or without telemedicine, the utilization of healthcare was not disrupted, but there was a significant difference in the volume of healthcare use depending on the inclusion of telemedicine cases.

Health financing strategies contribute significantly to containing the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aims to reassess Korea’s financing strategies in response to COVID-19 in 2020, to ascertain its effects and sustainability. The Joint External Evaluation tool was adopted to analyze the data collected from government reports, official statistics, and other sources. Findings show that Korea could maintain a low incidence and fatality rate compared with other countries, at low costs. It was a result of rapidly procured healthcare resources based on laws and policies established after the 2015 epidemic, and the National Health Insurance. However, to achieve long-term sustainability, it is important to enhance the financial stability of the national health insurance and increase the proportion of the public sector in healthcare resources.

We aimed to examine trends and characteristics of substance use (opioid, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin) among hospitalized homeless patients in comparison with other hospitalized patients in 3 states.This was a cross-sectional study, based on the 2007 to 2015 State Inpatient Data of Arizona, Florida, and Washington (n = 32,162,939). Use of opioid, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, respectively, was identified by the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision. Multi-level multivariable regressions were performed to estimate relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Dependent variables were the use of substances (opioid, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin), respectively. The main independent variable was homeless status. The subgroup analysis by age group was also conducted.Homeless patients were associated with more use of opioid (RR [CI]), 1.23 [1.20-1.26], cocaine 2.55 [2.50-2.60], marijuana 1.43 [1.40-1.46], and heroin 1.57 [1.29-1.91] compared to other hospitalized patients. All hospitalized patients including those who were homeless increased substance use except the use of cocaine (RR [CI]), 0.57 [0.55-0.58] for other patients and 0.60 [0.50-0.74] for homeless patients. In all age subgroups, homeless patients 60 years old or older were more likely to be hospitalized with all 4 types of substance use, especially, cocaine (RR [CI]), 6.33 [5.81-6.90] and heroin 5.86 [2.08-16.52] in comparison with other hospitalized patients.Homeless status is associated with high risks of substance use among hospitalized patients. Homeless elderly are particularly vulnerable to use of hard drugs including cocaine and heroin during the opioid epidemics.