47.3% of Jeonnam Residents Anxious About 'New Infectious Diseases'... Impact of COVID-19

Jeonnam Province Announces 2020 Social Survey Results

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] It was found that 47.3% of Jeonnam residents are anxious about new infectious diseases due to the impact of COVID-19.

Jeonnam Province announced on the 8th that it conducted the "2020 Social Survey" to understand residents' lifestyles and policy demands.

This survey was conducted from August 21 to September 11 of last year, targeting 19,116 households in 22 cities and counties.

The survey covered 30 questions in 12 areas including household/family, society/welfare, community and social participation, conducted via mail, phone, or household visits. The margin of error is ±1.1% at a 95% confidence level.

As a result of the survey, the number of medical institutions increased by 22 (0.8%) to 2,826 compared to 2018. Although the number of visits by the main users, the elderly, increased, satisfaction with medical services decreased.

The main reasons for dissatisfaction with medical services were "waiting time for consultation and hospitalization" at 19.5%, "insufficient treatment results" at 15.3%, and "lack of specialized medical personnel" at 12.4%, in that order.

This was analyzed as reflecting residents' awareness hoping for improvements in the poor medical environment, such as responding to increased medical demand due to super-aging and expanding essential infrastructure.

In the income and consumption sector, the consumption item that residents felt most burdened by was food expenses (34.5%), which increased by 4.9 percentage points compared to the previous year. Urban areas felt a higher burden for housing costs, while rural areas felt a higher burden for health care expenses.

The youth support policies desired by residents were "employment counseling and placement" at 25.3%, followed by "job-seeking activity allowance support" at 13.8%, "start-up support" at 11.8%, and "housing cost support" at 11.7%.

There is a need for tailored strategies to expand youth jobs, including strengthening customized job-seeking activity support such as employment counseling and placement, expanding youth employment welfare (housing, living welfare, etc.), supporting vocational training and education, and improving industrial complex conditions.

Regarding policies to solve childcare issues, "expansion of childcare cost support" was the highest at 27.1%, followed by "expansion of national and public childcare facilities" at 21.9%, and "improvement of the quality level of childcare services" at 17.8%.

In the environmental sector, due to abnormal climate with frequent typhoons from August to October, when 56.7% of total rainfall is concentrated, it was found urgent to prepare preventive water management measures, especially in areas with heavy rainfall such as Gwangyang, Yeosu, and Gurye.

Regarding overall social safety, 40.5% of local residents perceived it as relatively safe, but the perception of anxiety about new infectious diseases due to COVID-19 increased by 33.6 percentage points from 2018 to 47.3%.

Additionally, residents' satisfaction with life scored 6.5 out of 10, maintaining the same level as last year despite the difficult times caused by COVID-19.

Detailed survey results can be found on the Jeonnam Provincial Government website.

Myeong Changhwan, Director of Planning and Coordination Office of Jeonnam Province, said, "The results of this social survey will be usefully utilized as basic data for the province's policy formulation and implementation," and added, "We will do our best to implement policies that can improve the quality of life of residents based on the survey results."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.