Have lifestyle factors led to perceiving a higher level of stress? Implications for mental health policies from an econometric analysis for South Korea

ABSTRACT

Stress is actually considered as a common aspect of modern life. If stress becomes permanent, it can interfere with individuals’ job, family life and health. Lifestyle variables have often been neglected by the relevant literature in explaining self-perceived stress. Using individual data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) for the year 2005, we carried out an econometric analysis based on ordered probit models. The results demonstrate that self-perceived stress, indeed, the assessment of its intensity, might differ according to factors as gender and lifestyle. Overall, quality of life might improve by modifying individuals’ attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-perceived stress
• well-being
• ordered probit models
• Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (KNHANES)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. South Korea has a higher depression experience rate (12.4%) than the developed countries such as Switzerland (4.0%), Denmark (7.8%) and the Netherlands (6.9%) (Cho et al., 2015).

2. The advantage of Likert scales consists in their simplicity; on the other hand, this constitutes their main limitation as well, since Likert scales do not account for other important factors, such as individual characteristics and health conditions that may exacerbate or reduce the level of perceived stress.

3. For further details about the design of the KNHANES survey, see the webpage https://knhanes.cdc.go.kr/knhanes/eng/index.do.

4. EQ-5D is a standardized instrument developed by the EuroQol Group as a measure of health-related quality of life, that can be used in a wide range of health conditions and treatments. The EQ-5D includes a descriptive system, that comprises five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The EQ-5D can be used as a self-reported quantitative measure of health outcome that reflects a patient’s own judgement.

5. More recently, Kwok-Kei et al. (2015), after controlling for potential endogeneity, find that obesity causes stress but this effect differs for men and women. In particular, weight gain is associated with stress for females.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a special research grant from Seoul Women's University (2018).

Notes on contributors

Lara Gitto

Lara Gitto (PhD, MSc) is health economist and researcher in Health Economics and Public Economics. She has been working at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and within research groups of national and international relevance. She is qualified as Associate Professor in “Public Economics”. Her research focus, among other topics, on quality of life, management of chronic diseases, health expenditure and financing. She has been member of the Scientific Board of the Italian Association of Health Economics (AIES) and is currently auditor of the Association and  member of other scientific societies. She is author of more than one hundred of studies published in peer-reviewed journals and is referee for many international and national scientific journals.

Yong-Hwan Noh

Yong-Hwan Noh received his Ph.D in Economics from Iowa State University in2005. He has worked as a professor at the Department of Economics of Seoul Women's University since 2007 after working for the Korea Development Institute and Bank of Korea. Among his academic interests are Industrial Organization, Social Welfare Economics and Microeconometrics. He was aneditor in chief of Journal of Korean Economic Studies, and is an editorial board member of Journal of Health and Social Studies.

Antonio Rodríguez Andrés

Dr. Antonio Rodríguez Andrés has been taking up academic positions asassociate professor of Economics at different international universities: Denmark, Colombia, Spain, Chile, Morocco, and Cyprus. He is currently asenior researcher at VŠB Technical University of Ostrava. His research focuses on quantitative methods, applied health economics, and law and economics. He has published in international refereed journals. He is also currently on the international advisory board of The Economic and Labour Relations Review. He has been teaching in several subjects within Economics, Econometrics, and Statistics.