• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2016

This paper examines the effects of a universal childcare subsidy on childcare decisions and mothers' employment by using Korea's policy reform of 2012, which provided a full childcare subsidy to all children aged 0 to 2. I find that the introduction of a universal childcare subsidy increased the use of childcare centers by children aged 0-2, which led to less maternal care compared to that provided to children aged 3-4. However, the expanded subsidy had little effect on mothers' labor supply. Moreover, the policy effects vary by individual and household characteristics. The effects of the expanded subsidy are mainly found in low-income households and less educated mothers. Highly educated mothers and high-income households are likely to focus more on the quality of childcare service. These results imply that a simple reduction in childcare costs would bring only limited effects on mothers' time allocation behavior; thus, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of childcare services.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.469-481
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• 2019

Background: As South Korea is becoming an aged society very rapidly, the increase in osteoarthritis prevalence raises various public health issues in this country. This study aimed to explore the socio-demographic factors associated with osteoarthritis in the current Korean elderlies. Methods: Using the National Survey of Korean Elderly data (2014, 2017), we analyzed 20,326 elderlies (males, 8,248; females, 12,078) and conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses by sex. The dependent variable is whether a participant was diagnosed with osteoarthritis or not. Independent variables of interest is socio-demographic factors such as age, marital status, household type, residential area, household income, religion, the longest job, the number of close relatives, the number of close friends, and survey year. Control variables are various health behavioral factors and disease-related factors. Results: Prevalence of osteoarthritis was 19.2% in male elderlies and 47.0% in female elderlies. According to the results of the multivariate logistic regression adjusted for all studied control variables, the odds ratio (OR) for having osteoarthritis of under-elementary school graduates (their counterpart was college graduate group) was 1.81 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-2.52) in males and 1.67 (95% CI, 1.12-2.47) in females. The OR of those having a job in agriculture & forestry fishery as their longest job (their counterpart was those who had never participated in labor force during their lifetime) was 5.07 (95% CI, 1.46-17.58) in males and 1.49 (95% CI, 1.27-1.74) in females. In males, the second-low quartile group in household yearly income (their counterpart was the highest quartile group) had the OR of 1.22 (95% CI, 0.98-1.53). In females, the OR of those having a religion of Buddhism (their counterpart was those having no religion) was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.07-1.35) and the OR of those who had no relatives (their counterpart was those having more than 3 close relatives) was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.10-1.56). Conclusion: This study found that in Korean elderlies, education, the longest job, household income, religion, and the number of close relatives are associated with their suffering from osteoarthritis. Further study and designing appropriate interventions are needed to alleviate current and future individual and socioeconomic burdens of osteoarthritis in an aged society like South Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.135-150
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• 2016

Research Methods: This research analyzed the data on those aged 20 and older from the Report on Korean Medicine Usage Research, which was conducted in 2011. The definitions of toxicity were defined by the presence of toxicity listed in the survey. The questions used in analysis were sex, age, household income, health insurance, medical fees, satisfaction rates on treatments, as well as the types of diseases and the presence of toxicity from treatments. The analysis was done through frequency analysis using SAS 9.2 and Fisher's Exact Test. Results: Toxicity occurred in 2.1% patients out of the 3518 studied. The types of toxicity were skin problems, such as hives and pruritus (34.7%), gastrointestinal problems (20.8%), neurological diseases (4.2%), liver(1.4%), kidney toxicity(1.4%), and others (22.2%). There were no differences in toxicity by sex, age, household income and the types of health insurances. However, toxicity were positively correlated with the increase in standard of education (p=0.0124). In addition, as treatment costs increased (p<0.0001) and satisfaction rates decreased, toxicity increased (p<0.0001). Toxicity increased in patients with low back pain (p=0.0429), hwabyung (p=0.0392), lumbar sprain (p=0.0004), correction body type (p=0.0118), growth (p=0.0045), and from motor accidents (p=0.0448). In logistic regression analysis, Toxicity were positively correlated with medical fees, and cancer treatment and negatively correlated with satisfaction rate on treatments. Conclusion: The toxicity that occurred in outpatients who used Korean medical clinics mostly happened in skin, digestive organs, nerves, livers, and kidneys toxicity. The occurrences differed by the Educational lengths, expensive costs of treatments, low satisfaction rates of the treatments, and cancer.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.43-59
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• 2018

The purpose of this study were to explorer the factors affecting the psychological well-being of working mothers and to investigate the moderating effect of spousal support and support systems for work family compatibility on relationship between work-family conflict and psychological well-being. The subjects were 300 working mothers who are aged under 50, have more than one child live in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0. The Results are follows. First, the analysis of work-family conflicts, spousal support and support systems for work-family compatibility, and psychological well-being of working mothers indicated that the working mothers perceived family-work conflict to be higher than work-family conflict. The working mothers received stronger support from support systems intended for work-family compatibility than from their spouses. The score of the psychological well-being of the working mothers was 3.27 (standard deviation = .91), which is higher than median. Second, the factors influencing the working mothers' psychological well-being were age, monthly household income, number of children, work${\rightarrow}$family and family${\rightarrow}$work conflict, and spousal support. Greater psychological well-being was linked to a young maternal age, a high monthly household income, a low number of children, low levels of work${\rightarrow}$family and family${\rightarrow}$work conflict, and strong spousal support. Third, spousal support mediated the relationship between family${\rightarrow}$work conflict and psychological well-being.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the associations of food security with socio-demographic characteristics, nutrient intakes and mental health status among older Korean adults. Methods: This study was conducted using data from the 2008-2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Subjects were 4,451 adults aged 65~98 years. Food security was measured using a self-reported question on food sufficiency of subjects' household. Based on the answers, study subjects were classified into secure, mildly insecure, moderately insecure, and severely insecure groups. Dietary intake was estimated by 24-hour dietary recall. Nutrient intake was assessed by dietary reference intakes (DRI). As for mental health status, the data on mental stress, depression, and suicide ideation were used. Results: Rate of food insecurity in older adults was 14.3%. Old age, being female, low education, low income level, living alone, and discomfort in daily living were more related to food insecurity. Means of nutrient intakes were significantly different according to food security status. Intakes of calcium, potassium, and vitamin $B_2$ were lower than recommended intakes in all groups. Consumption amounts of soy and soybean products, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, vegetable oils, meats, eggs, seafood, and dairy products were lower in food insecure groups. Mental stress, depression, and suicide ideation were higher in food insecure groups independent of the gender and income level. Conclusions: These present findings suggested that food security is related to mental health as well as nutrition status in older Korean adults. A national system that include food and psychosocial support programs for the elderly should be considered in order to improve the overall health of older Korean adults.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2021

This study aims to elucidate the actual state of family care on the basis of the exact amount of time, and to verify its influencing factors and results. To this end, family caregiving was analyzed using the 2019 Korean Time Use Survey. The analysis results were as follows. First, the average time spent on adult family care was 115 minutes per day, a large proportion of family caregivers were women, the average age was relatively high, there were many unemployed, and household income was relatively low. Second, the analysis of influencing factors revealed that those who were women, older, married, and of a low household income had a considerable likelihood of becoming a family caregiver and had a longer caring time. Third, analysis of the relationship between family care and other activities showed that the family caregiving time was in a substitute relationship with paid work or leisure time, but it was in a complementary relationship with housework time, which was more evident in the case of high-intensity family caregiving. On the basis of these results, this study proposes the implementation of regular family care surveys, expansion of family care support policies, and modification of support for caring time according to the nature, goals, and attributes of caregivers.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2019

Background: Edentulism is associated with socioeconomic status, rural residence, and chronic disease, but no studies have investigated edentulism and residence factors together. All information that drives a better understanding of the factors related to edentulism plays an important role in the planning and delivery of appropriate dental services for the elderly by national and oral health professionals. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of edentulism in adults aged over 60 years in Korea and to examine whether there are differences in dentate status between people living in urban and rural areas after controlling for sociodemographic and other related factors. Methods: The data for this study were collected from 2013 to 2015 as part of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VI, those individuals aged over 60 years and who had complete datasets were included (5,071). The number of teeth and residence status were categorized into two groups: edentate and dentate (1 or more); urban and rural. Multiple multivariate logistic regression analyses were sequentially applied to assess the association between dentate status and residence status after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Rural areas, lower household income, and lower education levels were associated with a higher edentate rate. The number of teeth was lower in rural areas than in urban areas. After adjusting for various factors, statistically significant associations were present for women, low household income, low education level, poor perceived health status, and alcohol consumption in participants. Conclusion: Elders living in rural areas had poorer oral health than elders living in urban areas. The government will need to provide effective systems for promoting oral health for elders living in rural areas.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.113-133
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• 2004

Although National Health Insurance(NHI) in the South Korea has guaranteed access to health insurance coverage to virtually all the people, a significant portion of out-of-pocket spending can create substantial financial burdens for some beneficiaries, particularly those with low incomes. Previous studies have estimated the magnitude of out-of-pocket spending by types of chronic illness or in- and out-patients. Prior estimates, however, have not given a complete picture of the impact of health care costs on lower-income populations. The result from this study shows that 20 percent of beneficiaries in the lowest-income quintile spent more than twelve percent of their household equivalent income out-of-pocket health services, whether they were enrolled in a Health care services or not. In comparison, the beneficiaries in the highest-income quintile level spent only 2 percent of their income out-of-pocket on health care. Also, the regression analysis suggests that age, household income, number of chronic illness, type of hospital in addition to the number of usage may affect the size of out-of-pocket spending.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.45-58
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• 2019

The government is recently pushing for five large-scale public housing sites near Seoul, the so-called third wave of new towns. In this regard, this study sought to analyze the key considerations in planning new towns from the perspective of the residents who are the consumers, using survey data. For this purpose, frequency analysis and variance analysis(ANOVA) were conducted on existing first and second era of new towns and the third era of new towns scheduled for construction. Eight indicators, such as environmental comfort, self-sufficiency such as jobs, transportation access and convenience, were set as subordinate variables, and characteristics of residents, including gender, age, number of households, household income, occupation, and residential areas, were set as explanatory variables. According to the analysis, the respondents rated the first era of new towns more positively than the second era of new towns. For self-sufficiency items such as jobs, both the first and second era of new towns showed low levels. In addition, for the eight indicators, the first era of new towns were no significant differences depending on gender, number of households, or household income, and the second era of new towns were no significant differences by the number of households, household income, occupations or place of residence. However, for new towns in the third period, the assessment of the importance of each indicator by age, number of households, household income and occupation showed significant differences. The results of the multi-comparison analysis of the third era of new towns showed that the importance of environmental comfort was highly valued by the youth, the managerial/professional/clerical position, single or five more persons of household, and the youth, high income household, the managerial/professional/clerical position when it comes to accessibility and convenience of transportation. It suggests that various personal characteristics and demands for each of the planning indicators need to be considered in planning for the third era of new towns.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.35-42
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• 2012

The rental housing has been a main role to supply a living space to the household who can not be available for the home-owner. Specially, the public rental housing is targeted for the low-income household and supplied with low rental fee. Therefore, the rent owner should manage and maintain the housing condition decently with a systematically maintenance plan which includes a repair time and scope, a repair cost. Among them, the repair time is important to make a repair plan. The repair time would be explained with two types, which is divided into a breakdown maintenance and a preventive maintenance. Each of them has a advantage in a repair cost, maintenance of the living condition and provision of the repair scope and method. In this paper, it aimed at providing the repair time in 12 components of the public rental housing which is reflected from a preventive maintenance. This study shows that overall, a permanent rental housing has a longer repair time than any other rental housing in 12 housing components. A public rental housing is closer to the a permanent rental housing then a redevelopment rental housing in repair time. On the other hand, the repair time of the 12 housing components is different form the rental housing. This leads to further study in difference of the repair time according to a tenant type.