SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Cigarette smoking rates among men in their 30s have slumped by 19.5 percentage points over the past nine years amid steady declines among some other age groups, government data showed Thursday. The figure stood at 28.5 percent in 2024, compared with 48 percent in 2015, according to an annual [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s middle-aged population — once considered the backbone of the nation — is increasingly dying alone, as government attention and welfare programs remain focused on the young and elderly. According to data from the National Data Office and the National Assembly Research Service, 74.8 percent of the 21,897 [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — As Japan confronts the strains of a rapidly aging population with robots and digital care technologies, a new report is urging South Korea to follow suit and invest in “Age-tech” — a burgeoning industry combining artificial intelligence, robotics, and ICT to support the elderly. According to a study released [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Drinking and depression are on the rise among Seoul residents, with women also showing an increase in smoking over the past four years, according to a new report highlighting widening gender differences in public health. The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family said in its latest study, “Health Status of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s healthcare landscape is growing increasingly polarized as profit-driven clinics such as cosmetic surgery and dermatology offices multiply, while essential medical services like pediatrics and obstetrics continue to decline. According to data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service obtained by Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the National Assembly’s [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite repeated warnings, South Korea’s legal framework still fails to prevent unauthorized access to patients’ medical records, leaving sensitive information vulnerable to misuse. At the center of the concern is a glaring legislative gap: under current medical law, hospitals are only required to keep logs when electronic medical records [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s youth are facing mounting mental health challenges, with child and adolescent suicide rates climbing to their highest level in more than two decades, according to a government report released Wednesday. The “Child and Youth Quality of Life 2025” survey, published by the National Data Office, found that [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Suicide has overtaken cancer as the leading cause of death for South Koreans in their 40s, underscoring the intensifying pressures on the country’s core working-age population, according to new government data. Figures released by Statistics Korea show that South Korea’s overall suicide rate rose to 29.1 deaths per 100,000 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s pharmaceutical industry is bracing for fallout after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the widely used painkiller Tylenol could raise the risk of autism when taken during pregnancy, a claim experts say lacks scientific basis. At a White House press conference on September 22, Trump said studies [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — As medical reshuffling debates intensify in South Korea, critics warn that the absence of any legal or institutional mechanism for patients to verify doctors’ qualifications or disciplinary history is leaving the public vulnerable. Unlike lawyers and accountants at home, or doctors in the United States and Britain, physicians in [...]