자연휴양림 이용자의 의료비 감소효과에 관한 연구

A Study on Medical Expenses Reduction of the Natural Recreation Forests User

This study conducted a survey as to the natural recreation forest users’ socioeconomic characteristics, medical expenses, and number of hospital visits to determine the effectiveness of using natural recreation forests in reducing medical expenses. To do this, data were collected from the users of 14 natural recreation forests around the nation in 2013; then, 927 valid questionnaires were analyzed. 54.1% of the respondents felt the reduction in medical expenses due to health improvement through the use of natural recreation forests; the number of hospital visits per year decreased by an average of 5.8 times after using natural recreation forests; and the yearly average medical expense reduction amounted to 130,162 won. Given the effectiveness in reducing medical expenses for 11,614,000 natural recreation forest users in 2012, the effectiveness in reducing medical expenses was estimated to be approximately 1.5 trillion won on a yearly basis.