• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.125-146
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether "the feminization of poverty" is under process in Korea and what factors are key determinants of these trends. The Korean Labor and Income Panel Study from 1998 to 2005 is used and the sample includes all individuals who aged 18 or more. The results show that the feminization of poverty is still under process since 1998 and the economic status of females is getting worse compared to their counterparts. Regarding the causes of these trends, the level of education and type of employment are significant predictors for explaining the feminization of poverty in cross-sectional data analysis. In the longitudinal analysis, however, the number of persons in households and the number or working persons have significant influences on the feminization of poverty. It is urgently necessary to enact social policies preventing discriminations against females in the labor markets and to introduce social welfare benefits for females based on citizenship. In addition, the welfare benefits for the elderly are also necessary because their economic status is the worst among all age groups.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.110-127
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• 2008

Expenditures on pharmaceuticals of different concepts were estimated and their functional, financing and providers' breakdowns were examined in line with the OECD's System of Health Accounts (SHA) manual. This study also shows the way such estimates are made. The results are then analyzed particularly from the international perspective. Data from both Household Survey by the National Statistical Office and the National Health and Nutritional Survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea were used to estimate pharmaceutical expenditures that. are financed by out-of-pocket payments of the household, while national health insurance data etc. were used for estimation of pharmaceutical expenditures that are financed by public funding sources. The 'per capita expenditure on pharmaceutical/medical non-durables' in Korea stood at 380 US$ PPPs, less than the OECD average of 443 US$ PPPs in 2006, but its share of the per capita health expenditure of 25.9% noticeably outnumbered the OECD average of 17.1%, due partly to low per capita health expenditure as a denominator of the ratio. This indicates that Koreans tend to spend less on health care than an OECD average, while tending to spend more on pharmaceuticals than on other health care services, much like the pattern found in relatively low income countries. An international pharmaceuticals pricing mechanism is most likely responsible for such a tendency. In addition, it is to be noted that the percentage comes down to 21.0%, when expenditures on both medical non-durables and herbal medicine, which is locally quite popular among the elderly, have been excluded.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the relationship among musculoskeletal problems, sleep problems, and self-rated mental health of home-care workers. Methods: Data were collected from 447 home-care workers spanning three occupation types: life supporters for the elderly, home-visit caregivers, and life supporters for the disabled. Musculoskeletal problems, sleep problems, and self-rated mental health were assessed using structured questionnaires. Factors affecting self-rated mental health were analyzed using multiple regression. SPSS was used to test the mediating effects of sleep problems on musculoskeletal problems and self-rated mental health. Results: Among the general characteristics, the variables that showed significant differences in musculoskeletal problems were monthly income level, caring-related career duration, weekly working hours, and occupation type; and the variable that showed significant differences in self-rated mental health was occupation type. Among the occupation types, supporters for the disabled had the most musculoskeletal problems and the lowest self-rated mental health. Musculoskeletal problems among home-care workers had a direct negative effect on self-rated mental health and indirect negative effects on sleep problems. Conclusion: Measures are needed to reduce the differences in working conditions and health status among the occupation types of home-care workers. Considering the relevance between the health issues of home-care workers, the development of a carefully designed health promotion strategy is required.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2010

Objectives: To investigate the patterns of unintentional home injuries in Korea. Methods: The study population was 12,382,088 people who utilized National Health Insurance services due to injuries (main diagnosis codes S00 to T28) during 2006. Stratified samples(n=459,501) were randomly selected by sex, age group and severity of injury. A questionnaire was developed based on the International Classification of External Causes of Injury and 18,000 cases surveyed by telephone were analyzed after being projected into population proportionately according to the response rates of their strata. Domestic injury cases were finally included. Results: Domestic injuries (n=3,804) comprised 21.1% of total daily life injuries during 2006. Women were vulnerable to home injuries, with the elderly and those of lower income (medical-aid users) tending to suffer more severe injuries. Injury occurred most often due to a slipping fall (33.9%), overexertion (15.3%), falling (9.5%) and stumbling (9.4%), with severe injury most often resulting from slipping falls, falls and stumbles. Increasing age correlated with domestic injury-related disability. Conclusions: The present findings provide basic information for development of home injury prevention strategies, with focus on the elderly.

• Survey Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-122
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• 2006

Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA)', launched in 2006, has developed a research network with 'Health and Retirement Study(HRS, US),' Studies on Health and Retirement in Europe(SHARE, EU),' and 'English Longitudinal Study of Ageing(ELSA, UK)'and tried to construct a mega data library. The KLoSA team has designed their research with focusing on the following three points, in order to use KLoSA for international comparative studies. First, KLoSA shares the key research areas such as family structure, health, employment, income, asset, subjective expectations with the comparable studies. Second, KLoSA team has developed the instrument to reflect the Korean culture and institutions. They considered the institutional characteristics in public pension and health care system and in employment practices. They also counted the cultural conventions in family life such as financial management and care exchange, Finally, KLoSA tries to capture the psychological characteristics of the Korean elderly by making the measurement scales more understandable.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.254-264
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• 2015

This study was done for analyzing the effects of menopausal women's life stress on life satisfaction and depression. The subjects of this study were 425 menopausal women in Daejeon Metropolitan City and Chungnam Province. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe's test, Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS 19.0 program. Life stress differed according to marital status, income, climacteric symptoms level. Also the findings indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between life stress and life satisfaction. However, there is negative effect of life stress on depression. The results of this study offer basic data for the development of counseling and social support program to reduce depression and improve the life satisfaction for menopausal women. Also integrated programs and capacity-building programs were suggested to prepare the elderly life.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.197-209
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was done to examine good death awareness, attitudes toward advance directives (ADs), and preference for care near the end-of-life (PCEOL) of hospitalized elders in long-term care hospitals. Relevant characteristics were investigated as well as correlation of the variables. Methods: This descriptive research study involved 161 hospitalized elderly patients in long-term care hospitals. A self-report questionnaire was used to measure Good Death Scale, ADs Survey, PCEOL Scale, and general characteristics. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation with SPSS/WIN 23.0. Results: In terms of good death awareness, a significant difference was observed; in according to age (F=3.35, p=.037), payer of treatment costs (F=3.98, p=.021), mobility (F=3.97, p=.021), heard discussion about ADs (t=-3.89, p<.001), and willing to complete ADs (t=2.12, p=.036). As far as attitudes toward ADs, the participants presented significant difference depending on religion (t=2.38, p=.018), average monthly income (F=3.91, p=.022), duration of hospital admission (F=5.33, p=.006), person to discuss ADs (t=-2.76, p=.006). On PCEOL, there was a significant difference, depending on religion (t=-3.59, p<.001) and perceived health status (F=3.93, p=.022). Finally, as for how the variables were related to each other, good death awareness and attitudes toward ADs had a weak positive correlation with PCEOL. Conclusion: To help seniors staying in nursing homes face a good death and enjoy autonomy, there should be educational and support systems that reflect each individual's sociodemographic characteristics so that the seniors can choose what kind of care they want to receive near the end-of-life.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.236-247
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• 2012

Purpose: Purposes of this study were: evaluation of family burden of caring for elders who receive long term care services, and examination of differences in burden before and after the introduction of long term care service in Korea. Methods: Data were collected by questionnaires from 416 caregivers of elders who were registered with the Long Term Care Insurance Corporation in six cities. Data were collected in September, 2010 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test, and ANOVA with the Scheffe test, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: Family burden decreased significantly after longterm care service was initiated. Subjective burden decreased from 2.93 to 2.69 (t=11.78, $p$<.001), and objective burden, from 3.40 to 3.10 (t=12.73, $p$<.001). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that factors affecting subjective burden were family relations (F=13.60, $p$=.003), age (F=5.47, $p$=.019), job (F=6.98, $p$=.008), and education (F=4.59, $p$=.032), and that factors affecting objective burden were living together (F=17.66, $p$<.001), job (F=13.34, $p$=.003), monthly income (F=6.61, $p$=.010), and type of service (F=6.62, $p$=.010). Conclusion: The results of this first study to investigate caregiver burden after the Korean Long-term Care Insurance System was begun provide positive information for the development of strategies to decrease family burden in long term care.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.94-106
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• 2022

This study was attempted to investigate relationship between level of frailty and sleep duration in the Korean older adults using data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES VIII-1, 2019). The subjects were 1,690, complex sample frequency, descriptive statistics, cross and logistic regression analysis were performed using SPSS program. As a main result, sleep duration simultaneously adjusted for general, health behavior and disease characteristics did not show significant relationship between frail level, but 'not recommended' sleep duration is significantly decreased 70~74 years old, significantly increased lower level of education, lower level of income, and a lot of perceived stress. Finally, personal and social efforts are required to prevent frailty, improve sleep duration of older adults.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.569-576
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• 2019

The purpose of this study aimed to examine the effects of job stress on the turnover intention through mediation of vacational consciousness and to reduce turnover intention of long-term care workers based on the results. We used 447 long-term care workers working in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. For the research purpose, the mediation effect was verified after the technical analysis and verifying multicollinearity using on SPSS and sobel-test. The results of this study are as follows: First, the lower the age of care worker and the higher the monthly household income, the higher the turnover intention. Second, the higher the perceived job stress, the higher the turnover intention. Third, the higher the job consciousness of the long-term care workers, the lower the turnover intention. Fourth, job stress of long-term care workers showed statistically significant effect on turnover intention by partial mediation of job consciousness. Based on the above results, I suggested the clinical and policy practice to prevent the separation of long-term care workers and improve the quality of care service for the elderly.