Japan and Korea follow a unique trend in which, despite reporting two of the highest life expectancies (LEs) among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the proportion of people with good self-rated health (SRH) is disproportionately low. We sought to explain this high-LE-low-SRH paradox by examining associations among LE, the prevalence of good SRH, and healthcare utilization. Our hypothesis was that countries with more frequent healthcare use would demonstrate poorer SRH and that SRH would not show a meaningful association with LE among developed countries. This study extracted data from Health at a Glance 2017 by the OECD for 26 countries with valid and comparable information on LE, SRH, and the number of doctor consultations per capita. Correlations among LE, good SRH, and number of doctor consultations per capita were analyzed. The number of annual doctor consultations per capita and the prevalence of good SRH were closely correlated (correlation coefficient=−0.610); excluding outliers produced a higher correlation coefficient (−0.839). Similar patterns were observed when we replaced good SRH with poor SRH. Meanwhile, the correlation coefficient between annual per capita doctor consultations and LE was quite low (−0.216). Although good SRH is closely related to better LE at the individual level, this was not true at the national level. Frequent use of healthcare in Japan and Korea was strongly correlated with poorer SRH, without any meaningful correlation with LE.
Delivery of Health Care ; Developed Countries ; Japan ; Korea ; Life Expectancy ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Prevalence ; Referral and Consultation ; Republic of Korea

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity in Korea is continuously increasing, and there are several international studies that suggest obese populations are not likely to wear seatbelts when driving a car. Even though the rate of seatbelt use in Korean adults is 79.8%, which is much lower than 94% for OECD countries, no studies have been conducted related to this particular issue in Korea. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and seatbelt use in Korea where BMI standards, laws, cultures, and social conventions totally differ from those of western countries.METHODS: This study was conducted on 8,556 drivers, aged 19 or older, using raw data from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013–2015). A stratified and cross-sectional analysis was used to figure out seatbelt use rates according to BMI, and a multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds ratio (OR) of seatbelt use by BMI groups.RESULTS: Increase in BMI resulted in a decrease in seatbelt use. The extremely obese group particularly had much lower rates of seatbelt use compared to other groups. After adjusting other variables, only the extremely obese group had much lower rates of seatbelt use (OR 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.53–0.87).CONCLUSION: Seatbelt use rates according to BMI had no significant differences between the non-obese group, the overweight group, and the obese group. However, the extremely obese group had a tendency to not wear seatbelts when driving a car.
Adult ; Body Mass Index ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Nutrition Surveys ; Obesity ; Odds Ratio ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Overweight ; Prevalence

Colon cancer is one of the three most common cancers in both men and women in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Approximately one-quarter of colon cancer patients have a metastasis at the time of diagnosis, and systemic therapy is used in many of them as a first line therapy. In addition to existing cytotoxic drugs, target therapy has been introduced in colon cancer and immunotherapy has shown clinical benefits in the treatment of metastatic colon cancer. The purpose of this review was to briefly summarize the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for systemic therapy in colon cancer with special reference to targeted agents and novel agents.
Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development

This study investigated the healthcare status of South Korea and member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). By employing the position value for relative comparison index, healthcare status was measured through the following components: demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost. Statistical analysis was conducted through the Mann-Kendall test from analyzing trends from 2000 onwards. Results showed that while Korea, on average, scores higher than the OECD average in most of the investigated components, it is below average in certain indexes including primary care and mental health care. Considering the various health issues that have been raised about these indexes, it is important these components be improved upon by policy-makers.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Policy ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Primary Health Care

This paper aims to demonstrate current health expenditure (CHE) and National Health Accounts of the years 2018 constructed according to the SHA2011, which is a manual for System of Health Accounts (SHA) that was published jointly by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Eurostat, and World Health Organization in 2011. Comparison is made with international trends by collecting and analyzing health accounts of OECD member countries. Particularly, scale and trends of the total CHE financing as well as public-private mix are parsed in depth. In the case of private financing, estimation of total expenditures for (revenues by) provider groups (HP) is made from both survey on the benefit coverage rate of National Health Insurance (by National Health Insurance Service) and Economic Census and Service Industry Census (by National Statistical Office); and other pieces of information from Korean Health Panel Study, etc. are supplementarily used to allocate those totals into functional classifications. CHE was 144.4 trillion won in 2018, which accounts for 8.1% of Korea's gross domestic product (GDP). It was a big increase of 12.8 trillion won, or 9.7%, from the previous year. GDP share of Korean CHE has already been close to the average of OECD member countries. Government and compulsory schemes' share (or public share), 59.8% of the CHE in 2018, is much lower than the OECD average of 73.6%. ‘Transfers from government domestic revenue’ share of total revenue of health financing was 16.9% in Korea, lower than the other social insurance countries. When it comes to ‘compulsory contributory health financing schemes,’ ‘transfers from government domestic revenue’ share of 13.5% was again much lower compared to Japan (43.0%) and Belgium (30.1%) with social insurance scheme.
Belgium ; Censuses ; Classification ; Gross Domestic Product ; Guanosine Diphosphate ; Health Expenditures ; Healthcare Financing ; Japan ; Korea ; National Health Programs ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Social Security ; World Health Organization

Currently, the South Korean Government does not provide sickness benefits from the National Health Insurance, which is different from most other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. The sickness benefit guarantees a part of lost income due to injuries or diseases. The purpose of this study is to propose a sickness benefit scheme for South Korea. To this end, we compare health care systems, sickness benefit schemes, and delivery systems of those in Germany, Japan, and Sweden, focusing on the seven categories: management authority, object, level of payment, duration of payment, qualification requirements, connection with paid sick leave of workplace, and financial resources, and as to delivery system, the six categories: the number of procedures, transferring document between institutions, whether or not utilizing electronic reporting system, applicant, and administrative convenience. Based on the implications derived from the case study, we propose the sickness benefit scheme and its delivery pathway and other details for South Korea. This study is first to propose the sickness benefit for health insurance in Korea with its level of details. More studies should follow with case studies of other countries, as well as productive debates to build a feasible and sustainable sickness benefit system in South Korea.
Delivery of Health Care ; Germany ; Insurance, Health ; Japan ; Korea ; National Health Programs ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Sick Leave ; Sweden

After the announcement of Moon Jae-in Government's plan (Moon's Care) for Benefit Expansion in National Health Insurance in August 2017, it is necessary to monitor the effects of the policy, especially household out-of-pocket payments (OOP). This paper aims to observe the current status and trend of OOP in Korea. Current health expenditure (CHE) was 144.4 trillion won in 2018, which accounts for 8.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) increased 9.7% from the previous year. Although GDP's share of CHE has been close to the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the public fund's share was 59.8% of the total in 2018, which was lower than the OECD average of 73.5%. OOP's share was 32.9% in 2018, which decreased from 37.4% in 2008. The share of OOP of non-covered services was 20.0% in 2018, which decreased from 22.9% in 2008. The share of cost-sharing with third-party payers was 12.9% in 2018, which decreased from 14.5% in 2008. The OOP of non-covered services was significantly decreased in hospital and inpatient curative care, but the OOP of non-covered services was significantly increased in the medical clinic. The effect of Moon's Care was not showed in OOP through the results of 2017 and 2018, but further monitoring is needed because the Moon's Care is progressing and the observational period is short.
Family Characteristics ; Gross Domestic Product ; Health Expenditures ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Insurance, Health, Reimbursement ; Korea ; Moon ; National Health Programs ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development

BACKGROUND: Since 2003, Korea has consistently shown the highest suicide rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and suicide remains the major cause of death. In particular, men are 2–3 times more likely to commit suicide than women, which called the ‘gender paradox of suicide.’ The areas with frequent suicide have spatially clustered patterns because suicide with a social contagion spreads around the neighborhood. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to estimate the hotspot areas of age-standardized male suicide mortality from 2008 to 2015. The second was to analyze the relationship between the hotspot areas and the regional characteristics for study years. METHODS: The data was collected through the Korean Statistical Information Service. The study areas were 227 si · gun · gu administrative districts in Korea. The hotspot area was used as a dependent variable. Socio-demographic variables (number of marriages per 1,000 population, number of divorces per 1,000 population, and urbanization rate), financial variables (financial independence and social security budget), and health behaviors (EuroQol-5 dimension [EQ-5D], and depression experience rate) were used as independents variables. RESULTS: The hotspot areas were commonly located in Gangwon-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Chungceongbuk-do. According to the results of panel logit regression, the number of divorces per 1,000 population, social security budget, and EQ-5D were statistically significant variables. CONCLUSION: The results of hotspot analysis showed the need for establishing a prevention zone of suicide using hotspot areas. Also, medical resources could be considered to be preferentially placed in the prevention zone of suicide. This study could be used as basic data for health policymakers to establish a suicide-related policy.
Budgets ; Cause of Death ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Depression ; Divorce ; Female ; Gangwon-do ; Geographic Information Systems ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Information Services ; Korea ; Male ; Marriage ; Mortality ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Residence Characteristics ; Social Security ; Suicide ; Urbanization

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is known as one of the most important ambulatory care sensitive conditions. This study purposed to assess the status of continuity of care (COC) and diabetes-related avoidable hospitalizations (DRAHs) of a group of middle- and old-aged patients and to observe the relationship of the two elements by the two age groups. METHODS: This study utilized the National Health Insurance Service's National Sample Cohort data and the subjects are diabetes patients of 45 and over, classified into two groups of ‘middle-aged’(45–64 years) and ‘old-aged’(≥65 years) patients. The dependent variable was DRAHs, which was defined in accordance with the definition of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development “Health Care Quality Indicators” project. COC, as an independent variable, is measured by the COC index in this study. Two-part model (multi-variate and multi-level analyses) was utilized. RESULTS: Factors associated with the status and the number of DRAHs differed by each age group. Meanwhile, the two-part model showed that higher COC was associated with a lower risk of preventable hospitalizations in both middle- and old-aged groups. CONCLUSION: Study findings can provide health policy insights and implications in order to strengthen the primary care system for further improvement of diabetes management, especially for middle- and old-aged groups.
Ambulatory Care ; Cohort Studies ; Continuity of Patient Care ; Health Policy ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; National Health Programs ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Primary Health Care

In early 2018, the National Action Plan for Preventing Suicide was announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and related ministries. The Action Plan presents a realistic goal of reducing suicide mortality to two-thirds of the present level, which would make it 1.4 times higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average (in contrast to current circumstances, in which it is 2.4 times higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average). Several public and private organizations are engaged in various suicide prevention activities. However, it is crucial for a seamless network to be formed, including government organizations, medical institutions, private organizations, and religious organizations. In medical settings, it is imperative that clinicians assess patients' risk of depression or suicide and arrange for a referral service. We need to connect modern social trends with classical mental health treatment modalities by using technologies such as smartphones and the internet. Strategies for research and development and for actual implementation must be established. Suicide prevention requires the active cooperation of not only mental health professionals, but also all physicians and health professionals. Experts in philosophy, sociology, economics, religion, and anthropology must also collaborate to find ways of affirming the importance of human life.
Anthropology ; Depression ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Internet ; Loneliness ; Mental Health ; Mortality ; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Philosophy ; Referral and Consultation ; Smartphone ; Sociology ; Suicide