Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct 28;52(Suppl 4):iv162-iv169.
doi: 10.1093/ageing/afad120.

Effective service coverage of long-term care among older persons in South Korea

Ja-Ho Leigh  1   2 , Hyejin Lee  3   4 , Jaehong Yoon  1   2 , Eun-Jeong Han  5 , Eunok Park  6 , Tong Ryoung Jung  7 , Jotheeswaran Amuthavalli Thiyagarajan  8 , Zee-A Han  9   10
Affiliations

Effective service coverage of long-term care among older persons in South Korea

Ja-Ho Leigh et al. Age Ageing. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Global population aging, and the accelerated increase in the number of oldest-old adults, over 80 years, has implied a heightened need for long-term care (LTC). We aimed to provide a theoretical care cascade of LTC services to assess publicly funded LTC (Analysis 1) and to investigate the association between the use of LTC insurance (LTCI) and unmet care needs among older people (Analysis 2) in South Korea.

Methods: Analysis 1 used data from the eighth wave (2020) of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), the 2020 National Health Insurance Service LTCI Statistical YearBook and the 2020 National Awareness Survey of LTCI. The care cascade consisted of the target population, service contacts, coverage and outcomes. Analysis 2 used the fifth to eighth waves of KLoSA, and LTCI analysis was based on three groups: not aware, aware but do not use and aware and use. Unmet care needs were defined as the absence of help among older people with care needs.

Results: Among 8,489,208 people aged 65 or older in 2020, 1,368,148 (16.1%) were estimated to want care. Of these, 62.7% (N = 857,984) had LTCI service contact and 807,067 (94.1%) of those had used LTCI services in the past year (Analysis 1). Older people who were aware and used LTCI were less likely to report unmet activities of daily living (ADL) (prevalence ratio (PR): 0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18-0.66) or unmet instrumental ADL (IADL) needs (PR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.17-0.43) than those who were not aware (Analysis 2).

Conclusions: This article provides a theoretical cascade to assess LTC provision in South Korea and a preliminary model for other countries. Korea's LTCI is associated with reduced unmet ADL and IADL needs.

Keywords: activities of daily living; global trends; long-term care; medical aid; older people.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cascade of health gain through LTCI for older people wanting care.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. World Health Organisation . Decade of Healthy Ageing: Plan of Action. Switzerland: WHO, 2020. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/decade-of-healthy-ageing-plan-of....
    1. World Health Organization . Framework for Countries to Achieve an Integrated Continuum of Long-Term Care. Switzerland: WHO, 2021.
    1. Cesari M, Sumi Y, Han ZAet al. . Implementing care for healthy ageing. BMJ Glob Health 2022; 7: e007778. 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007778. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE): Guidance for Person-Centred Assessment and Pathways in Primary Care. Switzerland: WHO, 2019: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-FWC-ALC-19.1.
    1. Korean Statistical Information Service . Future Population Estimation. Korea: Statistics Korea, 2022. https://kosis.kr/eng/.

Publication types