Who Wants to Enter a Long‐Term Care Facility in a Rapidly Aging Non‐Western Society? Attitudes of Older Koreans Toward Long‐Term Care Facilities

Abstract

To estimate future demand for institutional long-term care (LTC) by Koreans, the intention to use LTC facilities was estimated, and the underlying influencing factors were explored. Data from the Korean National Survey of LTC Need in the Elderly compiled in 2001 were used, and 1,850 people aged 65 and older who were classified as the targets for LTC in the survey and for whom complete data were available were sampled. The following influencing variables were selected based on Anderson's service-use model: demographics, social structural factors, family and community resources, and felt and assessed needs. The result shows that, of all the participants, 18.8% intended to use LTC facilities. A stronger intention was related to younger age, Christian religion, fewer children, lower family income, higher chronic comorbidity, and more education. The rapid industrialization of Korea has lead to a transition from the traditional family-centered mode of caregiving to a nontraditional one, but the intention to use LTC facilities is still lower than in Western developed countries. Regarding family resources, the effect of extended families comprising three or more generations is not as significant as expected, but children continue to be regarded as the main resources for LTC. The recent introduction of nontraditional religions to Korea has had a positive effect on intention to use LTC facilities, suggesting that cultural factors influence their use.

Intention to Use Long-Term Care Facilities: Differences beween Korean Pre-elderly and Korean Baby-boomers

“…Tradtitonally Koreans have shown a heavy reliance on informal care provided by family members (Kim and Kim 2004). Due to the emphasis on filial obligation in Confucianism (Koh and Koh 2008), adult children are expected to take care of their old parents in exchange for the care that they received as children.…”

Association between human resources and risk of hospitalisation in end-stage renal disease outpatients receiving haemodialysis: a longitudinal cohort study using claim data during 2013–2014

“…1 Naturally, health problems related to ageing, such as chronic diseases, have become more prevalent compared with past centuries, leading to a gradual increase in the usage of healthcare due to diabetes and hypertension, as well as problems related to such diseases (hypertension: 27.3% and diabetes: 7.7% among those >30 years of age in 2013). 2 One of these related diseases is chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is defined as a progressive loss of kidney function and generally causes neurological, cardiovascular and digestive symptoms, as well as anaemia or haemorrhage, and in severe cases, death.…”

A structured review of long-term care demand modelling

“…Within this category of papers we can identify two distinct categories -those which aim to relate aggregate demand and cost of LTC with socioeconomic variables and those which aim to understand the type and or level of LTC consumed by an individual patient. In the case of the former class of papers, such factors include: prevalence rates of disease (Macdonald & Cooper, 2007); rates of mortality (Comas-Herrera, Whittenberg, Pickard, & Knapp, 2007); cultural attitudes towards care of the elderly (Kim & Kim, 2004); future patterns of care and general improvements in the level of health (Karlsson M. , Mayhew, Plumb, & Rickayzen, 2006); and living status (Martikainen, et al, 2009). In the latter class of papers, factors identified include: proximity to death (Murphy & Martikainen, 2010) (Weaver, Stearns, Norton, & Spector, 2009) (De Meijer C. , Koopmanschap, Bago D'Uva, & Van Doorslaer, 2011); type and no of diagnoses (Huang, Lin, & Li, 2008); level of disability (De Meijer C. A., Koopmanschap, Koolman, & Van Doorslaer, 2009) (Imai & Fushimi, 2011); and marital status (Woo, Ho, Yu, & Lau, 2000) (Wong, Elderkamp-de Groot, Polder, & Van Exel, 2010).…”