earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to analyse the factors of "non-official medical expenses" in Kyeongju, which are defined as the monetary costs that are used to improve health or to heal disease, but are not captured by the official medical expense statistic. The non-official medical expense includes the monetary expenditure associated with the underground transactions of medical goods and services, as well as traditional treatment which is not yet scientifically proven effective, including "alternative medical treatment". The data used in this study was collected by the survey on 600 individuals in Kyeongju area. Logit analysis shows that the experience of having disease in the past and the age are the most influential factors that increase the probability of having the non-official medical expenses. there is a tendency that the older people becomes the more dependent they are on the non-official medical treatment. The result of regression analysis indicates that the experience of having been hospitalized, sex, and income are the significant factors that explain how much people would spend on the non-official medical treatment.