Culture Impacts Health in Korea
As Korea flourishes in a generation of greater life expectancies with a sustainable economy, a healthy traditional diet, universal healthcare and aid from the government, South Korea is not without flaw. South Korea has a very tight and deep-rooted culture of Confucius values with strict gender norms, gender inequalities, workplace bullying, academic stress that leads to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression that has been shown to result in substance abuse disorders such as alcoholism, smoking, and recreational drugs. This webpage has discussed nutritional influences in Korea's healthy traditional diet and gastronomic culture HERE. This webpage has discussed mental health and suicide HERE. Occupational: Workplace bullying and its link to mental health disorders and substance abuse has been discussed in a corporate context, HERE, but is not limited to corporate employees.
Healthy Diet Promotion
Korea has a large presence and pride in their diet, being among the lowest in the OECD for obesity at 4% (OECD, 2020). Local governments hold public educational health events through diverse methods and the Korean Dietetic Association provide nutritional education through seminars, obesity camps, nutritional services at local health centers and additional information online to promote the traditional Korean diet (Skolnik, 2020). The traditional Korean diet consists of low fat and high vegetable foods (Skolnik, 2020).
OECD. (2020). Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat - Korea Key Facts. https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/obesityandtheeconomicsofpreventionfitnotfat-koreakeyfacts.htm.
Skolnik, R. L. (2020). Global health 101. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying has been and still is a major social stressor in Koreans due to gender inequalities, sexual harassment, and discriminatory means of beauty standards, work ethic, and a harsh hierarchy in Korea’s workforce. Many do not report harassment and bullying due to the lack of legal framework to protect workers. It is a large player in progressing alcoholism in Korea where alcohol is a buffer for colleagues and a way to bond.
South Korea has finally passed a law in July of 2019 that is putting an end to workplace bullying. The definition of workplace harassment has been very confusing for Korean employers and has needed clarification from the government (Yonhap, 2019). Yonhap (2019) from the Korean Herald stated that, “under the new law, workplace harassment is defined as an act of incurring physical or mental suffering or a worsening of the work environment by employers or workers using their status or power to behave beyond the scope of working norms.” If retaliatory actions are taken, employers can face up to three years of jailtime and a hefty fine of 30 million KW ($25,423 USD), but there are no stipulations about punishment for the perpetrator. A lot of major companies have been compliant to the new law and have provided employees education about workplace bullying to ease the confusion. However, more work is needed to enforce these regulations because of the fear and lack of rules against perpetrators making victims reluctant to report.
Yonhap. (2019). Workplace anti-bullying law takes effect. The Korea Herald. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190716000146.
The Effect of a Mental Health Promotion Program on Korean Firefighters
Won, G. H., Lee, J. H., Choi, T. Y., Yoon, S., Kim, S. Y., & Park, J. H. (2020). The effect of a mental health promotion program on Korean firefighters. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66(7), 675–681. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020920918
Cited above is an article written by a group of researchers with the goal of assessing the results of mental health promotion in Korean firefighters in a province of South Korea. South Korea continues to carry a strong stigma in mental illnesses and fails to provide mental health services in primary care (WHO, 2011). While universal health care allows mental health services to be accessible and affordable, Korea’s stigma against mental health concerns discourage its citizens to reach for the help they may need (Mcdonald, 2011).
As mentioned above, occupational stress is not limited to the corporate world. Firefighters among other emergency frontline workers, experience a great deal of stress from PTSD that can lead to other forms of mental illnesses. These workers are at a higher risk to developing PTSD, anxiety, and depression that can result in substance abuse disorders and suicide as a means of coping in a society where mental health wellness is not well supported.
The mental health promotion program used in their study was developed to identify and act on high risk firefighters with self-assessments, general education, individual counseling, brief intensive counseling for those at high risk, and a post evaluation. Unsurprisingly, 94.5% of participants were male that had at minimum a college degree and were married with an average age of 40.75 (Won et al., 2020). However, participants of brief intensive counseling had a different demographic with younger, single women. Data from the before and after the program showed meaningful improvements in rating scales including the PTSD Checklist (PCL), Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck’s Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-K) shown in the table below Won et al., 2020). It was shown that those who participated in brief intensive counseling experienced significant change in the scales mentioned.
