• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.167-174
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• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the accessibility of dental care services among individuals with precarious employment in South Korea. Methods: We used the $9^{th}$ wave of the Korean Health Panel data (2015) and included 7,736 wage and non-wage earners in our study. We determined precariousness in the labor market as a combination of employment relationship and job income, and categorized individuals based on this into the following four groups: Group A comprising those who report job and income security, Group B comprising those who experience job insecurity alone, Group C comprising those who report a stable job but low income, and Group D comprising those who experience both job and income insecurity. Accessibility to dental care services was determined by experience of unmet dental care needs and unmet dental care needs caused primarily by financial burden. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the effect of precarious work on access to dental care services. Results: Individuals with job insecurity (Group B; OR=1.445; 95% CI=1.22-1.70) and both job and income insecurity (Group D; OR=1.899; 95% CI=1.61-2.24) were more likely to have unmet needs than the comparison group. Both groups B and D were also 2.048 (95% CI=1.57-2.66) times and 4.435 (95% CI =3.46-5.68) times more likely, respectively, to have unmet dental care needs caused by financial burden. Education status, health insurance, and health status were all also effective factors influencing unmet dental care needs. Conclusions: Unstable employment and low income resulted in diminished access to dental care services. Therefore, governments should consider health policy solutions to reduce barriers preventing individuals with employment and income instability from accessing adequate dental care.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.450-466
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• 2015

This study examines why families move to neighborhoods at different levels of income. By analyzing a survey dataset of homeowners who sold and bought a house in 1999 in Franklin County, Ohio, in USA on their mobility decisions, this study examined the factors associated with cross-income residential location decisions. I categorized both survey respondents and neighborhoods into low-, middle-, and high-income levels and ran multinomial logit analyses for each of the low-, middle-, and high-income family groups to examine why families moved to neighborhoods at different levels of income. The analysis suggests that middle-income families moved to high-income neighborhoods because of school reputation and moved to low-income neighborhoods because of investment purposes.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

Purpose: As an important provision to protect the rights and interests of low-income groups, it is worth studying whether the minimum wage policy can improve the quality of life for people. Research design, data and methodology: Using data from the 2015 and 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS), this paper employs the logit model to estimate the probability of an individual's annual income being higher than the per capita disposable income of their province. It also utilizes the DID model to analyze the impact of minimum wage increases on individuals' annual incomes. Results: The analysis reveals that an overall increase in the minimum wage raises the probability of an individual's annual income exceeding the per capita disposable income by 3%. Among them, the probability increased by 2.2% for males and by 3.2% for females. Furthermore, the impact of the minimum wage on annual income varies depending on the individual's income level. Notably, the most positive and significant impact is observed for individuals whose income level is close to the minimum wage standard. Conclusions: This provides evidence that the increase in the minimum wage has effectively improved the quality of life for the population.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.467-481
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• 2021

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the biochemical characteristics, intake of energy, and nutrients by household income levels of Korean adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Methods: Data from the 6th (2013 ~ 2015) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES) were used for the study. A total of 1,839 (966 boys, 873 girls) subjects were included, and they were divided into four income groups according to their household income level. We examined general characteristics (gender, region of residence, skipping or not-skipping breakfast, lunch, dinner, frequency of eating-out), anthropometric characteristics (height, weight, weight status), biochemical characteristics (fasting plasma glucose, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, hemoglobin, and hematocrit), the quantitative intake of energy and nutrients using the Korean Dietary Reference Intakes (KDRI), and the qualitative intake evaluated by the nutrition adequacy ratio (NAR) and mean nutrition adequacy ratio (MAR) of the four groups. Results: There were significant differences by income group within the region of residence and the rate of skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The low-income group had a higher rate of skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner. According to the income group, there was a difference in the height of boys, and there was no difference in the weight and obesity of boys and girls. In the biochemical characteristics, only the hematocrit of girls showed differences by income group. The quantitative intake of energy and nutrients compared with KDRI differed by income group. There were differences in energy, carbohydrates, proteins, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and phosphorus levels in boys and protein, vitamin A, niacin, and sodium levels in girls. The qualitative intake of energy and nutrients examined using NAR and MAR also differed according to the income group. The NAR showed differences in calcium in boys and vitamin C and calcium in girls. The MAR revealed differences in both boys and girls by income group. Conclusions: Among adolescents in the low-income group, the rate of skipping meals was high, and the quantitative and qualitative intake of energy and some nutrients was low. It is suggested that the nutritional intake can be improved by lowering the rate of skipping breakfast, lunch, dinner. We suggest that even just providing breakfast in schools can be considered highly effective in improving the rate of avoidance of skipping meals and improving nutrient intake. Also, we suggest that it is necessary to improve the food environment, food availability, and food accessibility through national and social support for low-household income adolescents.

• Korean Journal of Rural Living Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 1995

This study explored the spousal financial communication, the household financial satisfaction and their relationships among couples living in Iksan-si, Chunlabuk-do. As results of this study, the differences in financial satisfaction were significant for couples, and between full-time housewives and employed wives, but not for two groups of husbands by spouse's employment. Openness of financial communication was significantly explained by personal income ratio to total family income and conflicts of it was done by age, total family income, personal income ratio to total family income, white-color workers. Generally, financial satisfaction was significantly explained by educational level, total family income, and white-color workers.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.237-252
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• 1997

The purpose of this study were to identify the income allocation structure of private education and child care and to analyze contributing factors income allocation structure of private education and child care for two children among Korean married couples. For these purposes total sample of 760 married couples those having two children of both pre-school aged and elementary school aged wee selected and total sample was divided into two groups by first child's school aged; those were pre-school aged(375) and elementary school aged (385) Statistics were frequencies means percentile and Tobit and OLS analysis. The results were as follows. First 268 households among the households those having the first child of pre-school aged spent 11% of income for private education while 29 households spent 7% of income for child care. 348 households among the households having the first child of elementary school aged spent 11% of income for private education. Second pre=-school aged' contri uting factors to income allocation struture of private education and child care were household family type family size home ownership and financial asset amount and elementary school-aged factors were satisfaction of family relationship and financial asset.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2022

Objectives: This study examined the effect of out-of-pocket (OOP) payment reduction on the potential utilization of low-value magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) across income groups. Methods: We conducted an experimental vignette survey using a proportional quota-based sample of individuals in Korea (n=1229). In two hypothetical vignettes, participants were asked whether they would be willing to use MRI if they had uncomplicated headache and non-specific low back pain, each before and after OOP payment reduction. To account for the possible role of physician inducement, half of the participants were initially presented with vignettes that included a physician recommendation for low-value care. The predicted probability, slope index of inequality (SII), and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated using logistic regression. Results: Before OOP payment reduction, the lowest income quintile was least likely to use low-value MRI regardless of physician inducement (36.7-49.6% for low back pain; 30.5-39.3% for headache). After OOP payment reduction, almost all individuals in each income quintile were willing to use low-value MRI (89.8-98.0% for low back pain; 78.1-90.3% for headache). Absolute and relative inequalities concerning potential low-value MRI utilization decreased after OOP payments were reduced, even without physician inducement (SII: from 8.15 to 5.37%, RII: from 1.20 to 1.06 for low back pain; SII: from 6.99 to 0.83%, RII: from 1.20 to 1.01 for headache). Conclusions: OOP payment reduction for MRI has the potential to increase low-value care utilization among all income groups while decreasing inequality in low-value care utilization.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.110-143
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• 1996

The purpose of this study is to assess the extent of inequality in health outcomes and the distribution of health services according to health need under National Health Insurance System in Korea. For the empirical analysis, data were collected through an interview survey during one month of October, 1994. Interview were conducted with a total of 10, 875 of the employees and the self-employed selected through cluster, systematic sampling. The major findings of this research are as follows: 1. The analysis of the differentials in morbidity rates by socio-economic group showed that health inequality in the pro-higher groups existed in all self-reported morbidity indicators. 2. The findings of the conventional use measures showed that the lower socio-economic groups had more ambulatory and inpatient services than the higher groups. In contrast to the level of the medical care utilization, however, the higher socio-economic groups were more likely to use the high-quality source of care in terms of their treatment place compared to the lower groups. 3. By using the need-based use measures, the results were different from each use-disability ration indicator. Using the use-disability ration measured by physician visits per 100 restricted-activity days in the population, it was found that there was no evidence favoring the higher socio-economic groups. In contrast, the use-disability ration based on physician visits per a chronic patient in one year displayed that there was remarkable relative difference by income group as well as the evidence of the pro-higher income groups. 4. The results of logistic regression analysis and two-stage estimation method indicated that although the utilization is significantly affected by type and duration of insurance coverage, the use or nonuse of service and the volume of physician care consumed is determined by health need and demographic characteristics rater than economic status. In sum, these findings suggest that physician service is equitably distributed according to health need under national health insurance system in Korea. As there were some evidences of inequality including the differential in physician visits of chronic patients by income group, however, the government should strengthen the activities to guarantee the equity of health services utilization.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.275-282
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• 2009

Objectives : This study aimed to verify the association between wealth or income level and health status after adjusting for other socio-economic position (SEP) indicators among Korean adults aged 45 and over. Methods : Data were obtained from the 1st wave of Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (households: 6,171, persons: 10,254). We used self-rated health status and activities of daily living (ADLs) as dependent variables. Explanatory variables included both net wealth measured by savings, immovables, the other valuated assets and total income including pay, transfer, property and so on. Binary logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationships. Also, in order to determine the relative health inequality across economic groups, we estimated the relative index of inequality (RII). Results : The inequality of health status was evident among various wealth and income groups. The wealthiest group (5th quintile) was much healthier than the poorest group, and this differential increased with age. Likewise, higher income was associated with better health status among the elderly. However, these effects, as measured by the odds ratio and RII, showed that wealth was more important in determining health status of elderly people. Conclusions : This study suggests that economic capability plays a significant role in determining the health status and other health-related problems among the elderly. Particularly, our results show that health status of the aged is related more closely to the individual s wealth than income.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

This paper aims to analyze inequality of maize self-sufficiency rate among countries in 1970-2011. Utilizing sub-group consistency of Generalized Entropy and Atkinson inequality index, the estimated maize self-sufficiency rate inequality is further decomposed into two steps' separate country groups. First, lower and upper income groups and then lower, lower middle, upper middle and high income groups are used based on the national classification of the world bank. It is inferred that 1980s' policy intervention and 1990s' Uruguay Round negotiations have different effect on the inequality among four different country groups.