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In this study, I analyze how household labor is divided between wives and husbands in three East Asian countries, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. In explaining the persistent gender differences in the time spent on housework, two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the relationship between women's relative earnings and the time they spend on housework: the resource bargaining hypothesis and the gender display hypothesis. These two hypotheses are usually considered to be competing, but recent comparative studies have revealed that the extent to which women's relative earnings affect the sharing of housework with their husbands is moderated by societal factors, particularly social policies and the level of gender inequality in the labor market. This paper adds another contextual factor: the dependence on family ties. The result shows that gender display, that is, the curvilinear relationship between women's 'relative earnings' and the time they devote to housework, is strong in all three countries. However, the interaction between the dependence on family ties and women's relative resources was significant in Taiwan, where the gender display pattern was observed only among couples co-residing with parents; among couples not co-residing with parents, the relationship between women's relative resources and housework was close to the pattern predicted by the resource bargaining hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. A decision matrix for identifying drugs for which pharmacogenetic drug monitoring (PDM) provides the greatest benefit in a Korean setting is described. Summary. We developed a decision matrix including the ethnic frequency of clinically relevant polymorphic cytochrome P-450 (CYP) enzymes, and the metabolic profiles and adverse drug reactions of drugs. Using the developed decision matrix based on the population allele frequencies of CYP enzymes, we identified potential candidates for PDM among the most commonly used drugs at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH). Collectively, 17 of these drugs were largely metabolized by at least one polymorphic CYP enzyme. Pharmacogenetic information was used to identify CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6 as the major CYP enzymes of clinical importance for pharmacologic effect and safety in Koreans. The frequencies of poor and intermediate metabolizers among Koreans were 0% and 2.3–12% for CYP2C9, 12% and 42% for CYP2C19, and 0.44% and 28% for CYP2D6, respectively. The frequency of ultrarapid metabolizers of CYP2D6 was 2.28%. The decision matrix and pharmacogenetic information were used to identify seven drugs for PDM: warfarin, glimepiride, diazepam, amitriptyline, nortriptyline, codeine, and oxycodone. This approach can be applied to other institutional hospitals or other ethnic populations and would be helpful for advancing pharmacy practice. Further work is required to assess the practical and potential clinical relevance of pharmacogenetic variations on drugs of interest before the implementation of PDM. Conclusion. A decision matrix helped identify drugs for which PDM provides the greatest potential benefit at one Korean hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]