Korean Women's Development Institute

BackgroundThe major drawback of a cohort study design is the loss to follow-up, which increases selection bias and threatens external validity, particularly in online surveys. It is important to identify factors beyond population or demographics that influence nonresponse rates in cohort studies.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the nonresponse rate and associated factors over a 10-year follow-up period among female participants in the Korea Nurses’ Health Study using data from the initial and subsequent surveys.MethodsThe Korea Nurses’ Health Study recruited 20,613 female nurses in 2013 using simple random sampling. The participants were followed up 10 times through 2022. We identified the demographic, work-related, survey-related, and psychological characteristics of nonresponding nurses during the 10-year follow-up and compared them with those who continued to participate. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression models were used for the analysis.ResultsThe nonresponse rate of the follow-up surveys from the 2nd to the 11th survey varied between 25.5% (5258/20,613; second survey) and 61.2% (12,620/20,613; sixth survey). The influence of age, education, and the usability of survey websites on nonresponse lasted up to the 11th survey. Nurses in their 20s were less likely to respond to the follow-up surveys than those in their 30s. Those who had an associate degree and neutral feelings about the usability of the survey websites were less likely to respond to the follow-up surveys than those who were satisfied with the initial survey. The influence of geographical region, hospital size, and psychological factors—including stress, fatigue, and sleep disturbance—was evident from the second to the sixth survey.ConclusionsWhen designing and recruiting female nurse participants for community-based cohort studies, researchers should consider the factors that influence nonresponse and adopt tailored strategies based on demographic characteristics. In addition, improving the usability of survey websites is recommended to reduce nonresponses at follow-up in cohort studies involving female participants.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2024048

In this study, Korean time-use survey data for coupled households is analyzed to show that unpaid work time is endogenous in its relationship with paid work time because the views of traditional gender roles affect gender disparity in unpaid work time. The data not only includes time allocation between husbands and wives but also their views of traditional gender roles within their households, and this information can represent gendered social norms that can potentially explain the distribution of unpaid work between husbands and wives. The control function model is estimated to identify the tradeoff between unpaid work time and paid work time by solving the endogeneity problem. The results of this study show that wives’ unpaid work is likely to be affected by gendered social norms and that the effect can be larger for those having children. In addition, only in the case of wives, unpaid work time is found to be negatively associated with whether to work full-time, showing that wives’ burden of unpaid work could prevent them from working full time. The results indicate that it is crucial to recognize the need to change gendered social norms to address an asymmetric division of unpaid work between husbands and wives.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence suicidal ideation and attempts among Korean women, using longitudinal data. Data from wave 4 (n= 7227), wave 5 (n= 6892), and wave 6 (n= 6632) of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families collected on 2012, 2014, and 2016 were subjected to Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis. Number of cases for suicidal ideation was 4.7% of the total cases (n= 20,751) between wave 4 through 6; number of cases for suicidal attempts was 5.7% of the cases from suicide ideation (n= 979). Depressive feelings, bad or worst health, and increased stress had significant impacts on suicidal ideation (χ2= 1867.84, p< .001; χ2= 983.61, p< .001; χ2= 884.01, p< .001) and suicidal attempts (χ2= 5.36, p< .05; χ2= 11.19, p< .01; χ2= 7.46, p< .05; χ2= 6.21, p< .05) over time, respectively. From the Cox regression analysis, non-marital status (OR = 2.50, CI = 1.40-4.48) and having more than two children (OR = 2.55, CI = 1.18-5.51) compared to not having children were identified as predictors for suicidal attempt. Although the negative effect of number of children on suicidal attempts conflicts with previous evidence, socially determined mother roles and the significance of children should be considered in culturally sensitive terms when interpreting our findings.

In finding the effect of after‐tax wage rate on work hours, the main difficulty is the endogeneity of after‐tax wage rate that equals ‘one minus average tax rate’ times wage rate. To overcome this endogeneity problem, we take advantage of jumps in the marginal income tax rate, which is a regression discontinuity (RD) idea. This RD, in turn, makes the average income tax rate ‘kink‐continuous’, which is a regression kink (RK) idea. We provide a simple economic model resulting in the RD and RK features, explain how to implement RK in practice, and then apply our methods to Korean male data. Our main RK‐based labour supply elasticity estimate 7.16% turned out to be insignificant with t‐value 1.52, but it is much larger than most estimates in the literature. This may be attributed to, among other things, the facts that the RK instrument is unique, that RK identifies only the local elasticity at the kink point and that RK requires large data as regression derivatives are estimated.

Objective: To examine the prevalence of actual and perceived overweight and to compare the mediating effect of perceived overweight on the relationship between actual overweight and suicidal ideation among young Korean women between 2001 and 2005. Methods: Data were gathered from the 2001 and 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys involving a nationally representative sample of young women (568 in 2001 and 385 in 2005) aged 20–29 years. Results: Over the 5-year period, the prevalence of actual overweight (body mass index ≥23 kg/m 2 ) and perceived overweight increased by 10.5% and 22.8%, respectively. The discrepancy between actual and perceived body weights was much wider in 2005 than in 2001. After controlling for covariates (age, marital status, educational attainment, employment status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and regular exercise), overweight women were more likely to think about suicide than their normal-weight counterparts in both periods. However, in both periods, the association between overweight and suicidal ideation became nonsignificant when perceived weight was considered. In both periods, a self-perception of overweight was associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation, but the association was much stronger in 2005 than in 2001. Conclusion: This study suggests a need for educational programs or effective treatments to help young women who perceive themselves as overweight to reduce the potential risk of suicidal ideation in later life. Keywords: body mass index, perceived body weight, body weight, body image, suicidal ideation

Individual level differentials between migrants and nonmigrants are examined to ascertain the likelihood of return migration to a prior residence based on characteristics at the time of departure from place of origin. Analysis focuses on comparisons of Hispanics, blacks and whites, examining the odds of return migration by education, employment status, marital status, home ownership, length of residence, gender, age, and migration interval. The 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) is utilized to identify 13,798 preliminary migrations that may be followed by at least one return migration. Findings indicate a sharp decline in propensity to return migrate as length of absence from origin increases. Regardless of length of time since the preliminary migration, both blacks and Hispanics are more likely to return migrate than are whites. Individuals who resided at place of origin for longer periods before leaving had strikingly higher odds for return migration.

This study examines parents’ perspectives on their children working on their family dairy farms in Wisconsin. The objective of this focus group study is (1) to gain insights on why children work on their family farms, (2) to identify those benefits that parents perceive that they and their children gain from their children working on-farm, (3) to determine the concerns that parents have about their children working, (4) to identify ways to improve the safety of children on family farms, and (5) to understand how US agricultural policy impacts family decisions to use their children’s labor on their farms. The two focus groups reveal that fathers and mothers have different concerns and different perceptions regarding the benefits gained from having their children work on farms. The findings suggest that in response to US agricultural policy, parents are increasingly reliant upon their children’s labor. Children work the longest hours on economically stressed farms.