IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i4p2051-d747682.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Travel Time for Dental Care Services Based on Patient Preference in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Han-A Cho

    (Department of Dental Hygiene, Shinhan University, 95, Hoam-ro, Uijeongbu-si 11644, Korea)

  • Bo-Ra Kim

    (Department of Dental Hygiene, Namseoul University, 91, Cheonan-si 31020, Korea)

  • Hosung Shin

    (Department of Social and Humanity in Dentistry, Wonkwang University School of Dentistry, 460, Iksan-daero, Iksan-si 54538, Korea)

Abstract

This study analyzed patient preferences using travel time from residence to dental institution when selecting dental care services. We used data from the Korean Health Panel from 2008 to 2017 and analyzed each dental service episode. Since the distribution of travel time was skewed to the left, median travel time was analyzed. The association of travel time with services was analyzed via the population-averaged generalized estimating equation (GEE) with the Poisson family. The median of the average travel time per episode was longer for non-National Health Insurance (NHI)-covered services and shorter for NHI-covered services. The first quintile of low-income subjects traveled the longest for all services and utilized dental care the most. In the GEE analysis, travel time was approximately three times longer for implant treatment and gold inlay/resin fillings and >2 times longer for orthodontic care than for NHI-covered services. Patients residing in rural counties traveled for longer than residents of large cities. Income was statistically significant; however, the coefficient was close to zero. Travel time was related to the type of service and reflected patient preference. This was more prominent for expensive non-NHI-covered services than for NHI-covered services. The findings suggest patients’ subjective preferences for dental clinic selection are expressed as rational deliberation considering each individual’s situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Han-A Cho & Bo-Ra Kim & Hosung Shin, 2022. "Travel Time for Dental Care Services Based on Patient Preference in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-12, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2051-:d:747682
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2051/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2051/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jin-Sun Choi & Se-Hwan Jung, 2020. "The Impact of Expanded National Health Insurance Coverage of Dentures and Dental Implants on Dental Care Utilization among Older Adults in South Korea: A Study Based on the Korean Health Panel Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Hosung Shin & Eunsuk Ahn, 2018. "Does the regional deprivation impact the spatial accessibility to dental care services?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-11, September.
    3. Pilny, Adam & Mennicken, Roman, 2014. "Does Hospital Reputation Influence the Choice of Hospital?," Ruhr Economic Papers 516, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Kenneth L. Leonard & Gilbert R. Mliga & Damen Haile Mariam, 2002. "Bypassing Health Centres in Tanzania: Revealed Preferences for Quality," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 11(4), pages 441-471, December.
    5. Marco Varkevisser & Stéphanie Geest & Frederik Schut, 2010. "Assessing hospital competition when prices don’t matter to patients: the use of time-elasticities," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 43-60, March.
    6. Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole, 2005. "Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 22, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oshio, Takashi & 小塩, 隆士 & オシオ, タカシ & Kobayashi, Miki & 小林, 美樹 & コバヤシ, ミキ, 2009. "Regional income inequality and happiness: Evidence from Japan," PIE/CIS Discussion Paper 460, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Honora Smith & Christine Currie & Pornpimol Chaiwuttisak & Andreas Kyprianou, 2018. "Patient choice modelling: how do patients choose their hospitals?," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 259-268, June.
    3. Daniel Avdic & Tugba Bueyuekdurmus & Giuseppe Moscelli & Adam Pilny & Ieva Sriubaite, 2018. "Subjective and objective quality reporting and choice of hospital: Evidence from maternal care services in Germany," CINCH Working Paper Series 1803, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.
    4. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:529-556 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kruk, Margaret E. & Rockers, Peter C. & Mbaruku, Godfrey & Paczkowski, Magdalena M. & Galea, Sandro, 2010. "Community and health system factors associated with facility delivery in rural Tanzania: A multilevel analysis," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(2-3), pages 209-216, October.
    6. Georges Menahem, 2007. "The decommodified security ratio: A tool for assessing European social protection systems," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(4), pages 69-103, October.
    7. Abate, Gashaw T. & Dereje, Mekdim & Hirvonen, Kalle & Minten, Bart, 2020. "Geography of public service delivery in rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Clauss, Markus & Schnabel, Reinhold, 2008. "Distributional and behavioural effects of the German labour market reform," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(4), pages 431-446.
    9. Ikuo Ishibashi & Noriaki Matsushima, 2012. "Should Public Sectors Be Complements of Private Sectors?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(4), pages 712-730, December.
    10. Puck Beukers & Ron Kemp & Marco Varkevisser, 2014. "Patient hospital choice for hip replacement: empirical evidence from the Netherlands," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(9), pages 927-936, December.
    11. Mensen, Anne, 2022. "Concentration of hospital capacities and patients' access to care," Ruhr Economic Papers 952, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    12. Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (ed.), 2007. "Das Erreichte nicht verspielen. Jahresgutachten 2007/08 [The gains must not be squandered. Annual Report 2007/08]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 200708.
    13. Hugh Gravelle & Rita Santos & Luigi Siciliani & Rosalind Goudie, 2012. "Hospital Quality Competition Under Fixed Prices," Working Papers 080cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    14. Mr. Thomas Harjes, 2007. "Globalization and Income Inequality: A European Perspective," IMF Working Papers 2007/169, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Elaine Kelly & George Stoye, 2015. "New joints: private providers and rising demand in the English National Health Service," IFS Working Papers W15/22, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    16. Schmid, Andreas & Ulrich, Volker, 2013. "Consolidation and concentration in the German hospital market: The two sides of the coin," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 301-310.
    17. Martin, John P. & Whitehouse, Edward, 2008. "Reforming Retirement-Income Systems: Lessons from the Recent Experiences of OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 3521, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Chung, Woojin & Lim, Seungji & Lee, Sunmi, 2010. "Factors influencing gender differences in smoking and their separate contributions: Evidence from South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 1966-1973, June.
    19. Miles Corak & Christine Lietz & Holly Sutherland, 2005. "The Impact of Tax and Transfer Systems on Children in the European Union," Papers inwopa05/30, Innocenti Working Papers.
    20. Leonardo Gasparini & Leopoldo Tornarolli, 2015. "A review of the OECD Income Distribution Database," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(4), pages 579-602, December.
    21. Soroush Saghafian & Wallace J. Hopp, 2020. "Can Public Reporting Cure Healthcare? The Role of Quality Transparency in Improving Patient–Provider Alignment," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 71-92, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2051-:d:747682. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.