The use of CAM is highly prevalent in Asian patients treated for asthma in primary care, and is associated with cultural and clinical factors reflecting a need to improve care.

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In order to reduce the health inequalities within a society changes need to be made in broad health determinants and their distribution in the population. It has been expected that the Health impact assessment(HIA) and Healthy Cities can provide opportunities and useful means for changing social policy and environment related with the broad health determinants in developed countries. HIA is any combination of procedures or methods by which a proposed 4P(policy, plan, program, project) may be judged as to the effects it may have on the health of a population. Healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential. In Korea, social and academic interest regarding the HIA and Healthy Cities has been growing recently but the need of HIA and Healthy Cities in the perspective of reducing health inequality was not introduced adequately. So we reviewed the basic concepts and methods of the HIA and Healthy Cities, and its possible contribution to reducing health inequalities. We concluded that though the concepts and methods of the HIA and Healthy Cities are relatively new and still in need of improvement, they will be useful in approaching the issue of health inequality in Korea.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between objective oral health status determined by dentists, self-perceived subjective oral health status, and oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) in the elderly. The related factors affecting OHRQoL in the elderly were also surveyed. Four hundred and thirty elderly individuals who visited the three public health centers and four dental clinics in Busan were selected by convenience sampling. Twelve dental hygienists investigated the subjective oral health status and OHRQoL using the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and twentyone dentists examined the objective oral health status, including healthy remaining teeth, treated remaining teeth, functional remaining teeth, missing teeth, and non-treated missing teeth. Data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 12.0. OHRQoL was higher when oral and periodontal status was perceived as healthy, when there was no toothache, no interference in mastication, and when study subjects had the ability of food softening. It was also higher when study subjects had ≥20 remaining teeth and ＜9 missing teeth, and were wearing denture. The related factors affecting OHRQoL of the elderly were the type of medical insurance, toothache, ability of food softening, perception of periodontal status, and the number of healthy remaining teeth. There was a significant relationship between the subjective-objective oral health status and OHRQoL in the elderly. A continuous oral health care system aimed at retaining ≥20 healthy remaining teeth is needed to improve oral health and OHRQoL for the elderly, especially for the elderly receiving medical aid.

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