Socioeconomic Disparities in Behavioral Risk Factors and Health Outcomes in the Republic of Korea

Abstract:     
Background: Few studies have examined socio-economic disparities in health and behavioral risk factors in Asian countries and in South Korea, specifically.

Methods: We investigated the relationship among socioeconomic position (education, income and occupation) and subjective and objective health outcomes and behavioral risk factors and compared results from both 1998 and 2005, in the Republic of Korea. We examined data from a nationally representative stratified random sample of 4,213 men and 4,618 women from the 1998 and 8,289 men and 8,827 women from the 2005 Korean Health and Nutrition Survey respectively.

Results: Controlling for behavioral risk factors (smoking, drinking, obesity, exercise, and sleeping), those in lower socioeconomic positions had poorer health outcomes in both objective and subjective measures; differences were especially pronounced among women. A socioeconomic gradient for education and income were found for both men and women for morbidity and self-reported health status, but the gradient was more pronounced for women. The odds ratios (OR) of higher morbidity for illiterate vs. college educated females in 1998, was 5:1 and 2:1 for females in the lowest income quintile vs. the highest. The differential decreased in 2005 to 3:1 and 2:1, respectively. The OR of lower self-report health status for illiterate vs. college educated females in 1998 was 3:1 and 1.6:1 for females in the lowest income quintile vs. the highest and was 3.3:1 and 2.3:1 in 2005, respectively.

Conclusions: Among Korean adults, men and women in lower socioeconomic position as denoted by education and income and somewhat less by occupation, experience significantly higher levels of morbidity and lower self-reported health status even after controlling for standard behavioral risk factors. Disparities were more pronounced for women as compared to men. Efforts to reduce health disparities in South Korea require attention to the root causes of socioeconomic inequality and to gender differences in the impact of socioeconomic position on health.

Keywords: socioeconomic position, morbidity, subjective health measure, behavioral risk factors, health disparities, the Republic of Korea

JEL Classifications: I10, I12

Working Paper Series