Health Policy Manag.  2021 Sep;31(3):335-343. 10.4332/KJHPA.2021.31.3.335.

A Keyword Network Analysis on Research Trends in the Area of Health Insurance

• Lee SJ
• Lee SH

• KMID: 2525757
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4332/KJHPA.2021.31.3.335

Abstract

Background
The purpose of this study was to extract the major areas of interest in health insurance research in Korea, and infer policy agendas related to health insurance by analyzing research keywords.
Methods
For this study, 2,590 articles were selected from among 7,459 academic papers related to health insurance published between January 1987 and December 2018, which were looked up using the Research Information Sharing Service (RISS). Keyword extraction and keyword network analysis were performed using the KrKwic, KrTitle, and UCINET software.
Results
First, the number of studies in the area of health insurance continued to increase in all government terms, and it was not until after the 2000s that the subjects of health insurance researches were diversified. Second, degree centrality showed that ‘medical expenditure’ and ‘medical utilization’ were consistently high–ranking keywords regardless of the government in power. Aging and long-term care insurance-related keywords were ranked higher in the Lee Myung-bak government, Park Geun-hye government, and Moon Jae-in government. Third, betweenness centrality showed the same high ranking in key topics such as medical expenditure and medical utilization, while the ranking of key keywords differed depending on the interests and characteristics of each government policy.
Conclusion
We confirm that health insurance as a research topic has been the main theme in Korean health care research fields. Research keywords extracted from articles also corresponded to the main health policies promoted during each government period. Efforts to systematically investigate policy megatrends are needed to plan adaptive future policies.

Keyword

Health insurance; Medical insurance; Research trend; Keyword network analysis