박성희1, 황정해2, 최윤경3, 강창범4

1한중대학교 간호보건대학 간호학과, 2한양사이버대학교 보건행정학과, 3한국방송통신대학교 간호학과, 4한국건강증진재단 연구개발팀

Background: This study was carried out to examine the trends of government-supported health promotion research
projects conducted in Korea over the past 12 years.
Methods: Research type, area of interest, organization, and expense of 726 research projects conducted from
1998 to 2009 were examined and the health promotion content analyzed.
Results: In Korea, 361 health policy researches (HPR) and 365 general health researches (GHR) were supported
by the government during the defined time period. A total of 60.5 health promotion research were conducted
annually with a total amount of 27.1 billion won provided (2.26 billion won per year). With the average research
project lasting 8.5 months, HPR (7.7 months) projects were completed sooner than GHR (9.2 months).
Those who majored in preventive medicine completed 177 research (24.4%), the most number of research
projects, followed by public health (22.5%), and family medicine (15.6%). There were 641 health promotion research
projects done mostly on policies, legal systems, and grasping current conditions, and only 85 (11.7%)
clinical test research on the development or effects of health promotion programs.
Conclusions: HPR have been increasing annually. However, our study could not be certain of how close the
studies were to the government's health promotion policies. Furthermore, the main health promotion area,
'healthy living', was not researched as often as should be. Additionally, to improve applicability of the research
projects, interdisciplinary cooperation should be promoted.

Korean J Health Promot 2012;12(3):137-145
Keywords: Health promotion, Research, Korea, Policy, Public health