Determinants of Health in Korea: A Comparative Analysis among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries / 보건행정학회지

BACKGROUND: This study aims to utilize Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data to identify macroscopic determinants of health at national level and to utilize it in health policy development through comparison and analysis with Korea. METHODS: The potential years of life lost (PYLL) were used as dependent variables and 19 indicators were selected as health determinants to be independent variables based on the results of previous studies. Data analysis was done using SAS ver. 9.4 package (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) and model used in technical statistics concerning PYLL by countries, multi-linearity test between independent variables and OECD economic studies were modified and used. RESULTS: From 1994 to 2012, the average PYLL for OECD countries was 4,262.9 years, the highest in Estonia and the lowest in Iceland. As a result of the analysis using the fixed effect model, the significant variables affecting PYLL were four variables: gross domestic product, nitric oxide, tobacco consumption, and number of doctors. The health determinants that had more influence on the PYLL of Korean people compared to other OECD countries were tobacco consumption, calorie consumption, fat intake and total health expenditure. CONCLUSION: In order to effectively reduce unnecessary deaths, we must continue to strengthen our smoking policy and nutrition policies such as calorie and fat intake. It is necessary to prevent the increase of total health expenditure due to the increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases and to strengthen the public health aspect.

Research on the Promotion Effect of Basic Medical Insurance on Household Consumption / 中国卫生经济

Objective: To study the impact of basic medical insurance on household consumption. Methods: According to the panel data of the east, central and west regions from 2002 to 2011, time and entity fixed effect model (Two-way FE) is established to test the relationship between the basic medical insurance and household consumption. Results: The basic medical insurance has significant positive effects on consumption, the consumption increased 10%, 16% and 19% in regions of East, Middle and West, respectively. Conclusion: The construction and improvement of the social medical insurance system improve the growth of the consumption, and the government should enhance the security, and consider the regional differences at the same time.

Workers' Compensation Insurance and Occupational Injuries

OBJECTIVES: Although compensation for occupational injuries and diseases is guaranteed in almost all nations, countries vary greatly with respect to how they organize workers' compensation systems. In this paper, we focus on three aspects of workers' compensation insurance in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries - types of systems, employers' funding mechanisms, and coverage for injured workers - and their impacts on the actual frequencies of occupational injuries and diseases. METHODS: We estimated a panel data fixed effect model with cross-country OECD and International Labor Organization data. We controlled for country fixed effects, relevant aggregate variables, and dummy variables representing the occupational accidents data source. RESULTS: First, the use of a private insurance system is found to lower the occupational accidents. Second, the use of risk-based pricing for the payment of employer raises the occupational injuries and diseases. Finally, the wider the coverage of injured workers is, the less frequent the workplace accidents are. CONCLUSION: Private insurance system, fixed flat rate employers' funding mechanism, and higher coverage of compensation scheme are significantly and positively correlated with lower level of occupational accidents compared with the public insurance system, risk-based funding system, and lower coverage of compensation scheme.

Analysis of the fixed effect model by relative operating characteristic curve / 中国药理学通报

The principle of the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve, along with constructing curve, a cutoff value between therapeutic and non-therapeutic concentration, formula for calculation, and statistic analysis, was introduced. Illustrated by an example, ROC was an important tool in analysis of the fixed effect model. It can beapplied to determine the relationship between a blood concentration and its action, probability of certain concentration producing therapeutic action, and high or low limit of therapeutic window, etc.