Trust on doctor, social capital and medical care use of the elderly.
Using data from a survey sample of people 65 years of age and older living in Seoul and Chuncheon, Korea, this paper assesses whether the level of social capital affects elderly individuals' use of medical care. As an econometric model, Heckman's Sample Selection model and the 2SLS method were used to control the endogeneity problem of patient's trust on doctors. The results of our estimations indicate that the level of social capital exerts a positive effect on elderly individuals' use of medical care indirectly, via its positive effect on the level of trust in doctors.
Department of Food and Resource Economics, College of Life Science, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. jylimecon@korea.ac.kr
Jae-Young
JY
Lim
Hyun-Hoon
HH
Lee
Yeon-Hee
YH
Hwang
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017059:Models, Econometric; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D035502:Trust