Effect of Elderly Care Policy Transition: Focusing on the Impact of Customized Care Services for the Elderly on Life Satisfaction

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether customized elderly care services implemented in 2020 to support lives of the elderly with mild dementia had intended effects on service users. A survey of elderly people who had used customized elderly care services for at least 18 months was carried out in 25 districts of Seoul, the capital city of Republic of Korea. Using structural modeling, this study confirmed the impact of support-type and participation-type customized care services for the elderly on life satisfaction, which included activities of daily living, social network, and self-care as dual mediation variables. Results revealed that the support-type service had an impact on life satisfaction via the mediation of activities of daily living and social network as well as via the dual mediation of self-care. The elderly’s activities of daily living and social network had a positive impact on self-care, with self-care having a positive impact on life satisfaction. The most important variable influencing life satisfaction was discovered to be social network, followed by support-type service, activities of daily living, and self-care. The social network variable in particular was found to have the greatest influence on self-care. However, the use of participation-type services had no direct or indirect impact. It had no significant mediation impacts on activities of daily living, social network, self-care, or life satisfaction either. These findings might be attributed to limited contact activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sub-level program characteristics, and implementation errors. Based on these findings, practical policy recommendations are made to ensure that customized elderly care services can be established as an effective elderly care community service as originally intended.