KIHASA has published Health and Social Welfare Review, Vol. 41, No. 3

Editorial: "The Need for a New Theory" by Shin Young-jeon, Hanyang University

Article I: "Effect of Long-term Care Supply Characteristics on Induced Demand" by Seo Jong Geun, Lee Han Gi, Lee Seo Yun, & Wang Young Min

This study shows that increases in long-term care applications were caused by the influence of supply characteristics, and we analyzed that applications increased due to supply characteristics. In this study, an empirical analysis was conducted to examine the effect of long-term care supply on induced demand. Linear panel analysis was used to control each regional and periodical error as endogeneity. A close relationship was observed between the supply and care applications. Over the years, suppliers and applications increased together and every year suppliers led the increase in applications. Our linear panel analysis found that the effect on the application varied depending on the supply characteristics. Home-based supply had a significant impact on the increase in applications. On the other hand, residential facility had no significant effect on applications. The number of social workers had the greatest influence on the increase in applications. As demand inducement occurred due to supply by region, it is necessary to strengthen the role of insurer and public to identify elderly individuals in need of care services.

Article II: "A Comparative Analysis of Foreign Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products: Focusing on the Design Features of Conventional Cigarette Packaging and Sticks" by Yang Jinwook & Kwon Kyenghee

In 2019, the Ministry of Health and Welfare introduced a plain packaging policy for standardizing the color and design of conventional cigarette packs to suppress the effects of advertisements and promotions. In this study, the relevant laws and guidelines of Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada were searched on the website of each country’s regulatory agency. The regulatory elements of these countries were then compared. The results showed that each country similarly regulates the color, structure, and size of conventional cigarette packs, labeling information, the length and diameter of conventional cigarette sticks, the type of information labeled on the stick, and so on. However, some regulatory elements showed clear differences in the level of regulation by country. Thus, a close review is required when applying such elements to Korea. In particular, over time, regulatory elements to increase the effectiveness of the policies are being added or changed. Therefore, the latest regulatory trends must be thoroughly reviewed in the policy-making process. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for the enactment of laws and regulations in Korea when introducing policies in the future.

Article III: "Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Korean Version of the Digital Addiction Scale" by Kim Yongseok, et al.

Existing studies in Korea have used internet addiction scale, smart phone addiction scale, SNS addiction scale, internet gaming addiction scale. However, these scales have limitations. They only measure addiction problems caused by excessive use of specific digital devices or contents. The recently developed Digital Addiction Scale (DAS) has the advantage of being able to measure the excessive use of various digital devices and the resulting problems with a single tool. Recognizing the usefulness of the Digital Addiction Scale, this study was conducted to validate the Korean version of the DAS. A total of 359 college students in various majors from five regions across the country participated in the online survey. Findings were satisfactory. In the exploratory factor analysis on the scale, the two-factor structure (compulsive use factor, negative outcome factor) was found to be the optimal model. The internal consistency reliability of the Korean version of the DAS was evaluated in three ways, while most of the results exceeded the recommended criteria and the Korean version of the DAS showed a positive (+) correlation with the Internet/smart phone over-dependence scale. Finally, it was suggested that more research should be conducted to increase the practical value of the Korean version of the DAS.

Article IV: "Evaluation of Suicide Literacy Level among Rural Elderly" by An Soontae, et al.

This study aims to examine the level of understanding of depression and suicide symptoms among the elderly in rural areas. A questionnaire survey was presented to 119 people over the age of 60 residing in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the three types of vignettes (normal, depression symptom, suicidal signs), and then answered questions about their level of concern and coping advice they would like to recommend for the target. First, the study revealed that the rural elderly who participated in this study could not clearly distinguish between depression and suicidal signs. Second, there was no significant difference between the three groups in the level of concern toward the target depicted in the vignettes. Third, the study found that the participants were not aware of the correct response to depression or suicidal crisis. The coping advice of ‘call the suicide helpline’ is essential to those who have shown signs of suicide; however, it was established that not many cases provided such advice. Based on these empirical results, we explored social efforts needed to improve individual knowledge for suicide prevention and subsequently suggested directions for mental health promotion for the elderly in rural areas.

Article V: "Factors Affecting Complicated Grief of Those Who Experienced Bereavement" by Kim Hye Jin, et al.

Sudden bereavement is known to increase the psychological distress of those left behind. Complicated grief is a set of symptoms of pathological mourning that persists after bereavement, and the risk of occurrence is high when experiencing sudden loss, such as suicide. In Korea, whose suicide rate is the highest among OECD countries, suicide survivors continue to occur, which raises concerns about complicated grief and their potential suicide risk. However, not much study has been conducted in Korea on complicated grief, and systematic analysis of influencing factors is lacking. Therefore, this study analyzed the data (N=1,068) of the 1st Wave of the Longitudinal Study of Suicide Survivors, using a nationwide stratified sampling method. An exploratory study was conducted on the factors affecting complicated grief. Higher complicated grief was associated with higher bereaved age, shorter time after death, higher level of interaction with the deceased, and higher emotional intimacy with the deceased. When the cause of death was suicide, it had a more significant effect on the complicated grief than other sudden and expected death. Based on these findings, clinical interventions were suggested for people who experience difficulties after bereavement, including suicide in social relationships. 

Article VI: "The Effect of Intrusive Parenting on Somatic Symptoms in First-year University Students: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Depression" by Lee Eui Bhin & Kim Jinwon

This study aimed to examine the effect of intrusive parenting on somatic symptoms of first-year university students and the mediating effect of depression. A total of 1,139 cases of university students from 7th wave data of Korean Children and Youth Panel Study 2010 (KCYPS 2010) was used. For statistical analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling were conducted; moreover, bootstrapping method was used to test the significance of indirect effect. Primary findings are summarized as follows. First, the direct effect of intrusive parenting on somatic symptoms of first-year university students was statistically significant. Second, the mediating effect of depression on the relationship between intrusive parenting and somatic symptoms in first-year university students was significant. Based on aforementioned results, this study discussed the importance of parenting education and family-based intervention in reducing the effect of parental intrusiveness which increases depression and somatic symptoms in first-year university students. In addition, this study discussed the necessity of providing health check up in university and related intervention strategies to reduce depression and somatic symptoms in first-year university students. Last, this study concludes with study limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Article VII: "The Empathy and Working Relationships of Public Sector Case Managers with People with Mental Illness " by Lee Min-hwa & Seo Mi-kyung

Empathy is an important skill for a case manager to develop the working relationship with clients with mental illness, who have complex problems in the community. The purpose of the study is to compare the levels of empathy and working relationship for the types of vignettes, as well as to analyze the influence of empathy on the working relationship. We randomly presented typical vignettes of schizophrenia, alcoholism, and physical handicap to 393 case managers in the public sector. The results revealed that the levels of empathy and working relationships were differed significantly for the three types of vignettes. The level of Empathy in case managers was higher towards schizophrenia and alcoholism than towards physical disability. However, the opposite was observed in terms of sub-domains within working relationships. Working relationships were significantly affected by the gender, age, and career of the participants. In addition, empathy was the significant predictor of all sub-domains within working relationships; the cognitive component of empathy was a common factor that has a significant effect on working relationships in all vignettes. As a result, we highlight the importance of empathy as the foundation of working relationship in social work practice, and suggest strategies to enhance empathy among case managers.

Article VIII: "Current Psychosocial Care for Children and Adolescents with Cancer and Their Families: Perspectives of Service Providers in Hospitals and Community Welfare Agencies" by Kim Min Ah, Choi Kwonho, and You Jung-Won

Survivors of pediatric and adolescent cancer and their families experience various psychosocial difficulties throughout survivorship. Thus, it is important to provide psychosocial services to improve their quality of life. This study explored the status of service provision in Korea from the perspective of hospital and community welfare service providers based on the psychosocial standards of care for childhood cancer developed in the United States. Nine medical social workers in hospitals and five social workers in community welfare agencies were interviewed about service provision and barriers. The analysis found psychosocial assessments, interventions, and support for patients and primary care providers with economic difficulty during the initial diagnosis and treatment process were comprehensively provided, but interventions for siblings and other family members were limited. Services for school reentry, social interaction, long-term follow-up and monitoring, palliative care, and bereavement support services were not sufficient. This study provides implications for expanding service resources and scope, strengthening multidisciplinary cooperation, developing professional training for service providers, and further developing a Korean version of standardized guidelines for psychosocial services for childhood cancer.

Article IX: "Current Status of Unmet Health Care Needs in the Disabled in Korea" by Choi Kyung-Hwa, et al.

This study aims to evaluate the proportion and factors of unmet health care needs (UHCNs) in the disabled and to compare UHCNs between disabled and non-disabled individuals. We conducted the annual proportion and cause of UHCNs by disabled or limited activity, type and grade of disabled using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1998, 2005, 2007~2018), Community Health Survey (2008~2019), Disabled Health and Welfare Survey (2000, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017), Korean Elderly Health and Welfare Survey (2008, 2011, 2014, 2017), Korea Health Panel Study (2008~2017). The proportion of UHCNs has been on the decrease overall, but it was higher in the disabled than in the non-disabled, higher in the severely disabled than in the moderately disabled, higher in those with external impairments than in people with other disability, and higher in dental care than in other health services. The difference in proportion of UHCNs did not decrease in between disabled and non-disabled individuals and was larger in dental care than in other health services. The main cause of UHCNs was “financial” for disabled persons and “not enough time” for non-disabled persons. Based on the results of this study, we suggest that further study is needed to find out the cause of the constant gap in the rate of unmet care needs between the disabled and non-disabled and to find ways to bridge the gap.

Article X: "Quality of Medical Service and Satisfaction Perceived by Foreign Patients: A Systematic Review" by Tian Yuzhuo, Yoon Heesoo, and Choi Mankyu

An increasing number of foreigners visit Korea for various reasons such as tourism, employment, and education. Moreover, medical institutions and treatment are one of the factors which attract foreigners to Korea, and the number of foreign patients is increasing. This study aimed to systematically review the existing literature regarding the quality and satisfaction on medical services perceived by foreign patients visiting Korean medical institutions and to suggest implications for future research and policies. This study analyzed a total of 28 articles which were published on domestic and international web-based electronic databases. The results indicated that the most studies focused on factors affecting satisfaction with medical services, and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the studies dealt with various population groups from different countries including China, Russia, Japan, and the U.S. The studies which include Chinese who visit medical institutions in metropolitan area as the participants accounted for the largest portion. Among the factors that affect the satisfaction with medical services, the expertise of doctors was the most significant factors affecting satisfaction. Based on these findings, medical institutions should develop targeted strategies based on the nationality of the foreign patients. Moreover, it is also necessary to develop valid scales which reflect the characteristics of foreign patients to measure the perceived quality of medical institutions and satisfaction with medical services. Further studies should also focus on various factors which impact on satisfaction with Korean medical services to attract foreign patients.

Article XI: "Moderation Effect of Nurse Staffing Level on the Association Between Integrated Nursing Care Adoption and Patient Experience Evaluation" by Choi Han-Sil, Lee Jinhyung, and Choi Jae-Young

This study was aimed at investigating the association of integrated nursing and care service program adoption with patient experience evaluation and the interaction effect of nurse staffing level. Toward this end, we performed robust regression analyses using multiple data sources including patient experience evaluation administered by health insurance review and assessment services (HIRA), adoption level of the integrated nursing and care service program, inpatient quality indicators, and hospitals’ structural and operational characteristics. Key findings are as follows. First, we observed a statistically significant positive relationships between integrated nursing and care service program adoption and physical hospital environmental domain of patient experiences evaluation and marginally significant association with overall evaluation domain, respectively. Second, we found strong evidence for the moderating effect of nurse staffing level on the association between integrated nursing and care service program adoption and patient experiences evaluation. Moderating effect of nurse staffing grade was significant in all domains of patient experience but nursing and patient rights protection. Hospitals with difficulties in retaining an appropriate level of nurse staffing may consider introducing and expanding an integrated nursing and care service program.

Article XII: "Effects of Integrated Nursing Care and Service Scheme on Nurse Employment: An Input-Output Model Approach" by Kim Jinhyun, et al.

The integrated nursing care and service scheme (INCS) is a new nurse staffing policy for inpatient nursing service in South Korea, which helped to reduce the ratio of nurse to patients from 1:14.0~16.0 to 1:9.9. As a result, the INCS has high job creation effects for nurses and other personnel. This study aims to estimate the employment effects of the INCS under the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) and compare it with those in other industries. Study data was collected from the INCS database of the NHIS and the input-output table of the Bank of Korea. The INCS from 2015 to 2019 was analyzed by descriptive statistics. Both direct and indirect employment effects were analyzed by an input-output model based on the INCS demand in 2019. In 2019, a total of 534 hospitals and 49,067 beds have participated in the INCS, and a total of 24,308 nurses, 7,528 nursing assistants, 3,590 ward staffs, and 1,622 rehabilitation staffs were directly employed. The total nursing fee was KRW 1.5 trillion per year. During the last 5 years, an amount of KRW 1 billion in the INCS was estimated to have produced an employment impact of 25.1 nursing jobs, 19.7 other jobs, resulting in a total of 44.8 positions. The employment effect of the INCS was 3.5 to 6.1 times higher than those in other industries. The government should steadily expand the INCS, considering the enhanced quality of nursing services as well as high employment effects. It is recommended to expand the INCS, taking into account the availability of nursing personnel and the quality of employment.

Article XIII: "A Study on Research Trend of Woman-Related Articles in the Health and Social Welfare Review: Articles Published in the Years 1981~2020" by Son Yeonu & Kim Boreum

In this study, 153 woman-related studies published in the years 1981？2020 in the Health and Social Welfare Review were analyzed to identify the research trend. The research topics were classified into five categories based on keywords provided by authors: studies on pregnancy-childbirth and health have been continuously published and those on employment-income, marriage-family, and miscellaneous issues including social policies have reflected social changes. Topics classified by ecological system showed that studies were concentrated on micro/meso-level research; thus, macro-level research needs to be expanded. In comparative studies, there was a shift in focus from woman’s welfare to the gender perspective around the 2000’s. Most studies used secondary data produced by governments and international organizations and a large majority of studies used quantitative research methods, particularly regression analysis. Although the proportion of qualitative research using primary data has increased since 2011, the skewness toward quantitative researches has not changed.

Article XIV: "The Socioeconomic Heterogeneity and Welfare Policy Preference of Young Single-Person Households in South Korea" by Chae Byung Ju & Hwang Sun-Jae

Recently, welfare policies for young single-person households have been implemented. However, there policies lack consideration for the socioeconomic heterogeneity of young people. In this context, this study typified young single-person households by socioeconomic status and analyzed welfare policies preferred by each type. To this end, this study used a sample from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea and employed various statistical methods. Our analysis found the socioeconomic status of young single-person households to be heterogeneous, and they were classified into five types: “high-achieving”, “insecure”, “settled”, “alienated,” and “optimistic”. Not only did the sociodemographic characteristics vary by each type, but they also showed different preferences in seven welfare-policy types (employment, income, housing, safety, health, care, and culture). The findings suggest that not only is it important to consider the heterogeneity within the group in understanding today’s young single-person households, but it also needs to be actively reflected in the policy making and implementation processes in the future.

Article XV: "Logic Modelbased Evaluation of the Seoul-Type Paid Sick Leave Policy: An Early Appraisal" by Moon Daseul, et al.

The Seoul City Government has adopted the Seoul-Type Paid Sick Leave Policy (hereinafter Seoul Sick Leave) in 2019, which is the first publically-funded sickness benefit program adopted in the Republic of Korea. The Seoul Sick Leave protects the precariously employed and the dependent self-employed without paid leave for their income loss due to hospitalizations. The study aims to apply a logic model to evaluate the effectiveness and delivery process of a new social security program for workers without the sickness leave. The logic model for the Seoul Paid Sick Leave consists of design, inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes, and 17 indicators. The evaluation was conducted with complex social intervention methods using questionnaire surveys, and focus group interview, and by analyzing of administrative data of Seoul. All candidates, whether they were beneficiaries or not were satisfied with the program. The program were expected to help precarious workers maintain their livelihood and access medical service in right time. However, the application rate was low, which might be due to the low accessibility of the program’s strict eligibility criteria and limited popular recognition. Efforts should be made to improve accessibility of the program to better serve its target population. This study is meaningful in that it is the first study to evaluate the initial effect of the only public sickness benefit system in Korea.

Article XVI: "The Dynamics of Housing and Fertility by Parity: Focusing on Housing Costs, Housing Stability, and Housing Space" by Oh Shinhwee & Jang Insu

The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamics of housing and fertility by each parity focusing on housing costs, housing stability, and housing space. The main results were as follows; Firstly, the most likely tenure of housing was Jeonse (long-term rent with lump-sum deposit) until the second birth. Although housing stability is pursued, it is to choose and implement childbirth from securing or giving up a certain level of housing stability because home-ownership is very expensive and achieving it takes a long time. Behind this, there is a mechanism that delays childbirth (additional births) until housing stability is fully secured or the cost of housing is somewhat affordable. Secondly, the competitive relationship between housing costs and fertility was mainly found in the first birth, but the impact of debt on childbirth was inconsistent. It is understood that the cost-dispersion effect of the long-term repayment system of government’s housing financing loan. Finally, a tendency to expand the housing space according to the transition to childbirth was found, and there was no difficulty in transitioning to the second birth until the housing space was 85㎡ or less, which is the national housing size. What is noteworthy is that the progress of marriage and the first childbirth are not made only in a narrow area, but are even close to the upper limit of the size of national housing.