(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Among recipients of medical subsidies provided by the government, the number of men diagnosed with mental illnesses was more than double the number of women.
The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service carried out assessments of 389 medical institutions that charged hospitalization fees for psychiatric treatment to subsidy recipients from January to June 2019.
Among 75,695 recipients subject to the assessment, 52,572 were men (69.5 percent), outstripping the number of female recipients (23,123, 30.5 percent) by a factor of 2.3.
A total of 62,786 recipients were between the ages of 40 and 70, comprising 83 percent of the entire group.
Roughly half of the recipients were found to be suffering from schizophrenia, a mental illness that involves delusion, auditory hallucination, and abnormal verbal and physical behavior, warranting drug treatment.
Alcohol and drug addiction (26.5 percent) were also common among the recipients.
Among patients suffering from either schizophrenia or alcohol/drug addiction, 38.8 percent had revisited a medical institution less than 30 days following their discharge from the hospital.
Looking at patients suffering from schizophrenia only, 42.6 percent revisited hospitals less than 30 days after being discharged.
The median number of days that patients spent in medical institutions following re-hospitalization was 91 days for schizophrenic patients and 62 days for alcohol/drug addicts, surpassing the OECD average of 49 days and 16 days, respectively.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
