Public interest in the essential medical care system is increasing. Among them, pediatric medical care is different from adult medical care, so it is more important to secure medical expertise and complete the medical service delivery system. However, the declining birthrate and shortage of pediatricians are threatening the pediatric medical system. The declining birthrate has led to a decline in overall healthcare utilization among children. While there has been a recovery in pediatric healthcare spending since COVID-19, the recovery has been slower in general hospital-level medical institutions, where critically ill pediatric patients are treated. In addition to the weakening of the pediatric specialty medical care system, there is also a fragmented medical service delivery system without a consistent patient referral system. In an effort to overcome these limitations, the government announced the Essential Pediatric Medical Initiative. This study identifies seven limitations of the initiative and suggests alternatives.

This study examines measures to promote the efficient management and utilization of health and welfare survey data produced by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA). This study suggests establishing a strategy for survey data management, detailed criteria for survey data management, and enhancing the transparency and accessibility of the survey data.

This study examines measures to promote the efficient management and utilization of health and welfare survey data produced by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA). This study suggests establishing a strategy for survey data management, detailed criteria for survey data management, and enhancing the transparency and accessibility of the survey data.

Digital health innovations have been rapidly implemented and scaled to solve health challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Digital health technologies can potentially improve healthcare access, utilization, and experience for people; at the same time, their development and use can reinforce, exacerbate, and even create health disparities. Applying a health equity lens to digital health innovations can help inform the equitable design and development of digital health tools. This study attempted to identify the digital determinants of health through empirical research based on the recently emerging theoretical framework and ecological model of digital health equity and sought a direction for improving digital health equity by synthesizing the main results. To confirm this, the Scoping Review was conducted. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched. A total of 434 studies were retrieved from 2016 to 2020, and a final 21 articles (4.8%) were identified by applying duplicate and exclusion criteria. The results are as follows. There is digital literacy, efficacy, and confidence at the individual level. At the interpersonal level, it is digital interdependence, and communication, balanced between the patient-tech-clinician relationship, the developer's pursuit of health equity value and understanding of health impact, and joint participation in app development. At the community level, these are community infrastructure, Internet broadband communication, integrated network infrastructure, health care infrastructure, and availability of digital resources. At the societal level, it is strengthening the governance of digital health. This study presents the Digital Health Equity Framework, which can be used to consider health equity factors. Digital determinants of health that can cause digital health inequality due to the adoption of app-based digital health technology were examined in multiple dimensions, such as individuals, interpersonal relationships, communities, and societal levels. In addition, policy directions were suggested to improve the equity of digital health. (e.g., Co-design of apps for access to digital health). In the future, it is necessary to develop a measurement-based approach to digital health equity and use these results to validate further and refine this model.

The concentration of particulate matter in Korea has decreased compared to a few years ago. However, the level ofparticulate matter in Korea still exceeds the WHO guideline. Inorder to reduce the health impacts from particulate matter exposure, it is necessary to continuously advance the related airpollution policies. This study recommends plans for advancingparticulate matter policies in Korea by comparing domesticand foreign policies and investigating effective strategies to improve health from particulate matter exposure.Firstly, the association between particulate matter exposureand mortality risk was evaluated using the latest particulatematter and mortality data provided by the Korean government.Next, policies and programs related to air pollution and particulate matter in Korea, U.S., and Canada were reviewed.The results showed that short-term exposure to low levels ofparticulate matter increases the risk of mortality. This association became stronger when estimated for sensitive groups suchas older adults and blue-collar workers.CDC, EPA, and Health Canada have established several airpollution programs. Especially, including particulate matter, they have provided the action plans to reduce the exposurefrom various air pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide,and carbon monoxide, which have become an issue lately.They also developed educational materials and programs targeting specific sensitive groups, such as school teachers, infants and asthma patients.As a result, we suggest that it is necessary to continue conducting the risk assessment research of low particulate matterexposure and developing related polices to protect healthbased on the research results. It is crucial to monitor fine particulate matter levels nationally, assess the current particulatematter response system’s ability to operate effectively in atimely manner, and identify any issues in each state ofimplementation. In addition, in order to deliver the previouslydeveloped guidelines and programs effectively, selecting effective media for delivering information for each sensitive groupsis needed. For specific sensitive groups such as infants and theelderly, it is important to provide air pollution education andprograms to their caregivers or relevant institutions effectively.Regular indoor air quality checks should also be conducted atkindergartens and nursing homes. Finally, the decrease in particulate matter concentration since the COVID-19 pandemichas led to an increase in the problem of ozone and related airpollutants. Therefore, along with the guideline for particulatematter, it is necessary to develop and promote common action plans that can be helpful to reduce the exposure to other airpollutants.

Health promotion interventions for employees can contribute not only to improving an individual’s health but also to improving the entire workplace’s productivity. The Korean government's 2nd Basic Plan for Mental Health and Welfare, which targets the entire population rather than just high-risk groups, emphasizes the importance of early intervention. Since the 2010s, the physical and mental damage experienced by emotional-laboring employees has steadily become an issue in Korea. The rise in emotional labor can be considered a rise in a mental health crisis, therefore a systematic response strategy is required. Even though the Emotional Laborer Protection Act(Article 41 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act) has been in effect since 2018, it is still necessary to have a mental health promotion strategy that goes beyond protecting employees from particular risk factors such as verbal abuse and assault by customers, which both considers risk and protection factors. Therefore, this research attempted to present a proactive and integrated mental health promotion plan for employees who engage in emotional labor. In this research, emotional laboring employees were defined as employees who serve customers face-to-face/non-face-to-face and were limited to those who were thought to perform low-skilled labor(product·food sellers, call center counselors, and telemarketers). Emotional labor can be defined to be the formalized expression of emotions which workplace wants, in order to achieve the organization's goals. Emotional labor can cause mental health problems such as fatigue, burn-out, stress, and depression. But adequate emotional control and social support can serve as regulatory factors which might prevent mental health problems. According to the employees’ health promotion guidelines presented by international organizations, industrial safety and health has recently converged into health promotion. Employee mental health promotion interventions should, according to the guidelines, 1) be combined with current industrial safety and health plans, 2) be proactive, 3) have multi-level and integrated approach, 4) be developed and implemented within a multi-agency collaborative system, 5) emphasize employee participation and employer’s role. We also reviewed the policies in foreign countries. In the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Germany, various organizations were collaborating in the whole policy process; to change workplace environment, advocate, implementing public campaign, and research. In France and Japan, some measures(e.g. regular mental health check-ups, placing health committee in the workplaces) were mandatory at workplaces to improve the mental health of employees. We reviewed the policies in Korea; the services of Workers' Health Centers, the implementation status of the Emotional Laborer Protection Act, the awareness-raising public campaign, the services of Emotional Labor Centers, the National Action Plan for Suicide Prevention Basic Plan for Mental Health and Welfare, and the Employee Assistance Program(EAP) of Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service. The results of the review are as follows; 1) the actual effect of the Emotional Labor Protection Act was low 2) there was an achievement of the awareness-raising campaign, and it is time to shift its target audience to business owners, 3) various organizations(subjects) in labor, management, and political sectors should cooperate to protect emotional laboring employees, and 4) the role of Workers' Health Centers should be strengthened. The following plan for emotional laboring employees were offered based on the study's findings. Activity 1: Regular mental health check-ups should be provided for employees at emotional labor(service industry) workplaces. Activity 2: Employees identified as high risk should be referred to institutions and get treatment(e.g. counseling). Activity 3: Education and programs should be provided to individual employees. Activity 4: The workplace-level protection measures should be implemented Activity 5: Risk assessment for elements related to mental health should be implemented. Activity 6: Actions(promotion and education) should be provided to the business owners to raise their awareness of employee mental health promotion. Activity 7: The establishment and operation of a network (partnership) for solving emotional labor problems are required. Activity 8: Actions to change the perception of customers and to lessen their verbal abuse and violence are required. Many contents of the plan proposed in this research can also be applied to mental health promotion of employees with many other occupations. Therefore, if the contents are modified to suit the occupational characteristics and working environments, the plan can be widely used. The policy suggestions related to the proposed plan are as follows. First, as the support within the national system, adding mental health items to the workplace health examination, and monitoring&strengthening Emotional Laborer Protection Act are required. Next, as the support at the local and regional levels, improving the support toward the employees through Workers' Health Centers, providing the referred services to mental health high-risk groups, providing budget supports for partnership building, and improving the evaluation system for network activities are needed. Last, as the support measures at workplace level, campaigns targeting business owners, and implementing strategies suited to workplace characteristics(e.g. reward for best practices, additional financial compensation for small businesses, etc.) that can activate protection measures are required.

This study is about improving the methodologies for social security financial projection. By reviewing domestic and foreign financial projection situations, it suggests that in order to set the correct direction for social security systems in the face of rapidly changing populations and economic conditions, financial projection methodologies need to be advanced. The study classifies and reviews three types of financial projection models that can be used for this purpose and presents a plan to improve the way financial projection has been combined without consistent standards. Furthermore, it argues that this plan is significant because it meets the leading practice of the OECD and allows for both macro and micro policy analysis.

This study examined national efforts to expand the certified electronic medical record (EMR) among small hospitals in five countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Australia, and Canada. The results of this study showed that the five countries have commonly invested in substantial incentives and provided education to expand the certified EMR among small hospitals. Although each country had different backgrounds and procedures for the certified EMR expansion, the common goal was to establish an inter-operable EMR system. This study suggests that the Korean government should consider providing financial incentives to small hospitals and closely collaborating with the EMR vendors in order to facilitate the process of converting existing systems to the new certified systems. Also, it is needed to increase perceptions of small hospitals about benefits of using the certified EMR system.

Grandparent caregiving is becoming common and plays an important role as one of the informal care in many countries. This study examines whether grandparent caregiving has a causal effect on grandparents’ health, cognitive functioning and satisfaction with life. To assess the causal effect, we estimate a fixed effects instrumental variable model by using the presence of a child aged 30-39 years and a married child as instruments. The estimation results reveal that grandparent caregiving has a positive effect. Grandparent caregiving is predicted to increase the probability of considering own health status as above average by 46.1%p, improve cognitive functioning by 10.256 points and overall satisfaction with quality of life by 20.047 points. In addition, the effect is noticeable among females as well as aged 55-74 years.