The Effect of Social Capital on Medical Care Use by the Elderly : The Concept of Health Congruence

It is widely known that the medical cost for the elderly severely threatens the stability of national health insurance system. We investigated the impact of social capital on the medical care use by the elderly. The concept of health congruence, the conformity between objective and subjective health status, was used as a mediator affected by the social capital, and determines the medical use of the elderly in turn. Respondents from HAPS (Hallym ageing panel study) data were separated into healthy and unhealthy group by their objective health status, and subdivided into congruent (good and poor health realist) and incongruent (good health pessimist and poor health optimist) group by whether their health congruence had been achieved. After controlling for socioeconomic, health-related, and supplier-related variables, health congruence turned out to influence the efficiency of medical care use regardless of the health status, and social capital improves healthy elderly’s health congruence, which prevents unnecessary visit to medical institutions. Nevertheless, we should thoroughly take the level of social capital and features of subject into consideration before adopting social capital as a policy instrument aimed for the elderly.