• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.333-346
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to identify factors that influence depression for low-income elderly who live at home from the International Classification of Functioning model (ICF). Methods: The subjects were 205 elderly people living at home in two public health centers located in metropolitan cities. Subjects were divided according to their depression scores, which were measured using the GDS-short form, including normal, risk, and depression groups. Each variable was consistent with factors of the ICF model, including health condition, individual factors, environmental factors, body function, activities, and participation. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. ANOVA, $x^2$, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Multinomial logistic regression with IBM SPSS 21.0 were used for analysis of the data. Results: Statistically significant differences were observed among normal, risk, and depression groups regarding personal factors. Gender, education level, numbers of diseases, perceived health, life satisfaction, and social support were identified as the variables that had a significant impact on depression of low-income elderly living at home. Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that there is a need for construction and implementation of strategies that strengthen life satisfaction and social support in order to lower depression of low-income elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.147-157
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to investigate factors affecting perceived financial burden of medical expenditures. Method: The participants were 2,024 inpatients who were enrolled in a survey on the benefit coverage rate of the National Health Insurance in 2006. The collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA-test, Mann-Whitney-test, Kruskal-Wallis-test, Chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: The crucial factors for perceived financial burden were age, job, equivalence scale, ratio of annual family income vs medical expenditure, and private health insurance. Perceived financial burden was higher for people who were older, who were unemployed, whose medical expenditures were high compared to annual family income, whose index of family equalization was low and for those who had no private health insurance. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate a demand for system reform that will enable management of no-pay hospital bills in the National Health Insurance to decrease the medical expense of people in the low-income bracket.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.173-201
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• 2017

This study examined the degree of socioeconomic deprivation in the areas of material hardship, health, housing, employment, and social network among people using debt relief programs. The sample, 209 individuals, was recruited from major agencies offering debt relief programs, including Seoul Bankruptcy Court, Credit Counseling and Recovery Service, and Seoul Welfare Foundation. Data were collected through in-person interviews in 2016. The sample was compared in terms of the level of deprivation with the general population and the low-income group, extracted from the Korea Welfare Panel Study. The debtors group demonstrated a substantially higher level of deprivation on all the dimensions examined. For example, the proportion of people who suffered from hunger was 37.8% in the debtors group compared to 6.7% in the low-income group. The proportion of people who had suicidal ideation in the last 12 months was 57.9% compared to 19.2% in the low-income group and 2.7% in the general population. The level of deprivation was different by chapter choice of consumer bankruptcy. Policy and practice implications of the results were discussed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2002

Housing is a central place fur elderly and it can be influenced to the quality of life for them. Most low income elderly has much problems on their housing. It needs to be developed for more various ones which considered in the way of their economic and physical conditions. This case study was aimed to supply (or a basic data for developing a housing for tow income elderly through the analysis of elderly housing of Melbourne in Australia. This study evaluated two types of government housing and five types of community housing available to elderly People on low income allowing them to live independently. Results of the research were as follows. 1) High rise apartment living was differentiated from other housing types. Such accommodation had drawbacks, for example it made the elderly difficult to get along with neighbours. 2) Community housing had more various types of housing than government housing and was aimed at encouraging community interaction between residents. Some community housing residents joined the management of the housing committee. As a result, it made the elderly very confident and promoted a good relationship between them and young generations. 3) The strength of community housing was that the elderly could choose the place to live within the community which was familiar to them. 4) The managers in broth government housing and community housing had many roles as adviser and mediator for residents as well as managing the complex. 5) A policy of housing for low income elderly is changing now from management by government appointees to one governed by the community 6) Most elderly prefer to live close to facilities such as medical and shopping centers and convenient transportation and wished to remain in their familiar community as long as possible.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.335-356
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• 2013

Physical resources are central to coping with economic hardships for people in low-income, yet life experiences such as resource loss and gain and their relationships with a sense of well-being received scarce attention. Thus this study investigated levels of loss and gain of physical resources, economic stability and well-being of 254 adults who participated in welfare-to-work programs; correlations and paths among these variables; and direct and indirect effects of economic stability by structural equation modeling. Major results were: first, the levels of resource loss and gain were below a moderate level and the level of gain was significantly higher than the loss level. Second, in the relationships with both economic stability and well-being, resource loss showed negative correlations, while resource gain showed significantly positive correlations. Third, the negative direct effect of resource loss either on the economic stability or on the well-being respectively was significant and the indirect effect on well-being through economic stability was also significant. Finally, the direct effect of resource gain on either economic stability or well-being was significant; and the indirect effect of resource gain on well-being was also significant. Thus in both models for resource loss and gain, the indirect effect of economic stability was significant, which supports partial mediation model. Based on these results, implications for social work practice and research were examined, particularly for enabling social work practice to utilize information regarding resource loss and gain, economic stability, and a sense of well-being that were embedded in the community life of people in low-income.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2004

In order to investigate the differences of nutrient intakes by the economic status and different age groups and to identify the nutritional risk group and its specific nutrition problem, 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey were analyzed. The subject's numbers of 9,391 were classified into four classes such as low (14.2%), medium (37.2%), high (26.0%), and high above (22.6%) on the basis of the family monthly income and the 2001 Korean minimum cost of living according to the family size. Mean intakes of energy and all nutrients assessed by the RDAs, lipid-energy %, and MAR were increased as the economic status were going up. Na intake expressed per 1,000kcal was in reverse. Nearly a half(45.5%) of the low-income people seemed to take nutritionally inadequate diet in consideration with MAR values. Deficiencies of iron and even energy in the toddlers (1 to 2 years) of low-income class were of great concern. Adolescent age group has been observed that their calcium and iron intakes, and possibly energy, were appeared to be the most deficient among all the age groups regardless of the economic status. For the elderly in all the economic status except high-above class, calcium, vitamin A, and riboflavin were commonly deficient nutrients. Calcium deficiency was appeared throughout nearly all the ages except toddlers and all the economic classes. Even in the high-above class 57.3% took insufficient amount of calcium.

• 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.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2016

The definition of digital poverty has not been changed since it was used at the first digital divide survey in 2000s. The objective of this study is to reexamine and redefine digital poverty targets of digital divide survey. This study examines the present state for the target of the digital divide survey focusing on Disabilities, Low-Income and Elders and then redefines digital poverty for them. The results suggest to reexamine 15 types of disabilities by the revised the Disabled Welfare Law as digital divide targets, rather than limiting to physical, brain, hearing and visual disabilities. For the low-income target, people on the second-to-the bottom income bracket as well as those on basic welfare should be included as the target of low-income people for digital poverty. The age of the elder target for digital poverty should be adjusted to sixty-five or more in the era of aging population.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.506-519
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• 2022

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the associations of income, marital status, and health behaviors with hypertension in male and female over 40 years of age in the Korea. Methods: The data were derived from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES; 4851-302) which included 211 576 participants. To analyze the relationships of income, marital status, and health behaviors with hypertension in male and female over 40 years of age, multiple logistic regression was conducted with adjustments for these variables. Results: The prevalence of hypertension increased linearly as income decreased. The odds ratio for developing hypertension in people with an income of <0.5 million Korean won (KRW) compared to ≥6.0 million KRW was 1.55 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.25 to 1.93) in the total population, 1.58 (95% CI, 1.27 to 1.98) in male, and 1.07 (95% CI, 0.35 to 3.28) in female. The combined effect of income level and marital status on hypertension was significant. According to income level and marital status, in male, low income and divorce were most associated with hypertension (1.76 times; 95% CI, 1.01 to 3.08). However, in female, the low-income, married group was most associated with hypertension (1.83 times; 95% CI, 1.71 to 1.97). Conclusions: The results of this study show that it is necessary to approach male and female marital status separately according to income in health policies to address inequalities in the prevalence of hypertension.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-37
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• 2020

In the 2000s, financial exclusion of low-income people emerged as a major social problem in South Korea. Microcredit business was first introduced by NGOs to help the poor overcome poverty while the Korean government soon chose to initiate microcredit policies to assist financially marginalized low-income people as a key policy measure to alleviate social inequality and revitalize economy. Unlike the initial expectation that state intervention in microcredit industry would be more effective, the outcome has been much less impressive. This paper aims to examine the poor performance of state-led microcredit in South Korea during the period of Lee Myung-bak administration by employing the concepts of state autonomy and capacity. It finds that the state autonomy, a key characteristic of a developmental state, was high in the sense that the funds had been raised in the face of strong resistance from private financial institutions. Lack of state capacity such as low technocratic expertise and politicization of microcredit policy, however, turned out to be a major stumbling block to the state-led microcredit in South Korea. This study shows that although the Korean government still has strong willingness to intervene in the financial market even in the face of interest groups' opposition, the eventual success of state action largely depends on its capacity to effectively implement financial policies.