About half of the people in Gyeonggi Province are older than 35. Among the middle-aged and elderly people, they were found to have more serious social isolation than other age groups. Accordingly, the Gyeonggi Research Institute proposed the establishment of a multidimensional support system and an integrated system for them.
The Gyeonggi Research Institute released a report titled "It is time to pay attention to the underprivileged middle-aged people" based on the "Gyeonggi Residents' Quality of Life Survey" of 15,000 households and 33,677 people in the province from Sept. 22, 2020 to Nov. 15, 2022.
According to the report, the population of middle-aged people (35-49 years old) in the province is 3.297 million (24.3%) and the elderly (50-64) is 3.268 million (24.1%). Their proportion is 48.4% of the province's total population, which is close to half and is the most populous group.
In the case of middle-aged people in the province, there were many economic concerns, with 18.5% of middle-aged people saying they were worried about preparing for their children's education, followed by 18.2% for housing expenses and 17.7% for household debt, credit card debt, and debt guarantees. The elderly had the highest response rate with 20.6% of income instability, followed by 17.6% for living expenses for retirement and 12.9% for children's marriage funds.
Moreover, the response that there was no place to receive economic help was also high among the middle-aged. In the case of the elderly, 4 out of 10 (43.3%) were the highest, and 18.6% of the elderly men and 10.7% of the women said they could not receive any economic, physical, or emotional help, which was higher than other age groups.
The Gyeonggi Research Institute analyzed that such economic instability also affected mental health. Depression levels differed depending on whether or not they were employed and gender, with 9.65 points for the middle-aged, higher than that of the male employed (6.98 points), and the difference between the male employed (6.27 points) and the male unemployed (8.65 points) was large.
Based on the results of the survey, the Gyeonggi Research Institute cited job problems for middle-aged people, lack of economic help for the elderly, and social isolation as important issues. In addition, middle-aged people are likely to experience problems related to family and social relationships, so they need to pay attention to them and need intensive management for single-person households.
Expanding the target of the middle-aged support plan, establishing a complex support system, finding customized jobs for the middle-aged, providing education, and strengthening financial support for the vulnerable, active intervention to restore family relationships and prevent social isolation, establishing an integrated system and establishing a multi-dimensional support system between centers are therefore necessary.
Yoo Jeong-Kyun, a researcher, said, "Job and social networks also have an important impact on mental health. "It is time to make efforts to establish an integrated system so that we can support each other in connection with each other," he said.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
(Picture from Unsplash)
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