• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.391-400
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• 2005

Objective : This study examined the socioeconomic differentials for the health and health related behaviors among South Korean middle school students. Methods : A nationwide cross-sectional interview survey of 3,449 middle school second-grade students and their parents was conducted using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method. The response rate was 93.3%. The socioeconomic position indicators were based on self-reported information from the students and their parents: parental education, father's occupational class, monthly family income, out-of-pocket expenditure for education, housing ownership, educational expectations, educational performance and the perceived economic hardships. The outcome variables that were measured were also based on the self-reported information from the students. The health measures included self-rated health conditions, psychological or mental problems, the feelings of loneliness at school, the overall satisfaction of life and the perceived level of stress. The health related behaviors included were smoking, alcohol drinking, sexual intercourse, violence, bullying and verbal and physical abuse by parents. Results : Socioeconomic differences for the health and health related behaviors were found among the eighth grade boys and girls of South Korea. However, the pattern varied with gender, the socioeconomic position indicators and the outcome measures. The prevalence rates of the overall dissatisfaction with life for both genders differed according to most of the eight socioeconomic position indicators. All the health measures were significantly different according to the perceived economic hardship. However, the socioeconomic differences in the self-rated health conditions and the psychosocial or mental problems were not clear. The students having higher socioeconomic position tended to be a perpetrator of bullying while those students with lower socioeconomic position were more likely to be a victim. Conclusions : The perceived economic hardships predicted the health status among the eighth graders of South Korea. The overall satisfaction of life was associated with the socioeconomic position indicators. Further research efforts are needed to explore the mechanisms on how and why the socioeconomic position affects the health and health related behaviors in this age group.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.138-150
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• 2010

Objectives: There are at least three conceptual models for the effects of the childhood social environment on adult health: the critical period model, the social mobility model, and the cumulative risk model. However, few studies have investigated all three different models within the same setting. This study aims to examine the impact of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic positions and intergenerational social mobility over the life course on the health in adulthood based both on the critical period model and the social mobility model. Methods: This study was conducted on 9583 adults aged between 25 and 64 years old and they were the respondents to the Korea Welfare Panel Study (2006). A multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out, using the critical period model and the social mobility model out of the life course approaches, to look into the impact of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic positions and intergenerational social mobility on the health status in adulthood. Results: Household income and occupation out of the adulthood socioeconomic position indicators had an independent influence on the adulthood health status. The childhood socioeconomic position indicators, except for the place of childhood residence, affected the adulthood health status even after adjustment for the adulthood socioeconomic position. The effect of intergenerational social mobility was also statistically significant even after adjusting for the adulthood socioeconomic position, but it became insignificant when the childhood socioeconomic position was additionally adjusted for. Conclusions: Adulthood health is indeed affected by both the childhood and adulthood socioeconomic positions as well as intergenerational social mobility. This result shows that a life course approach needs to be adopted when dealing with health issues.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.30-38
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• 2006

Objectives: We examined whether the neighborhood socioeconomic position predicts the smoking rates after adjusting for individual socioeconomic position indicators. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2001 Seoul Health Indicators Survey. The neighborhood socioeconomic position was the residential distribution of the high class (power elites), as measured by the location quotients (LQ) for each administrative dong (district). A high LQ denotes a high neighborhood socioeconomic status. The individual socioeconomic position included education, occupation and income. Age-adjusted smoking rates according to the LQ level were computed with the direct method. The total number of subjects in this study (26,022 men and 28,007 women) was the reference. A multilevel logistic regression analysis was conducted with the individuals at the first level and the neighborhoods at the second level to estimate the odds ratios of smoking with 95% confidence intervals. Results: For men, the age-adjusted smoking rates increased with a decrease in the LQ. For women, the relationship between the age-adjusted smoking rate and the LQ was not clear. The odds of smoking for both genders were greater among those subjects with lower incomes and lower education. The manual occupational class had greater odds of smoking than the non-manual class for the males, while the odds ratio of smoking among females with a manual occupation tended to be lower than those females with a non-manual occupation. For the males, the LQ levels independently predicted smoking after adjustment for individual income. However, this relation between the LQ and smoking in males was explained by full adjustment for the individual socioeconomic position indicators (education, occupation and income). Conclusions: A low level of neighborhood socioeconomic position was associated with higher smoking rates among the men residing in Seoul. This association between the neighborhood socioeconomic position and smoking in men was explained by the individual socioeconomic position. Anti-smoking efforts to reduce geographical inequality in smoking should be directed at reducing the smoking rates between the individuals with different socioeconomic backgrounds in the metropolitan city of Seoul, South Korea.

• 보건교육건강증진학회지
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• 제33권5호
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• pp.93-105
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• 2016

Objectives: This study was to examine the independent and mediating effect of socioeconomic position and social relationship on depression. Methods: The study analyzed the data from the 2014 Korea Welfare Panel Study(n=9,172) using descriptive statistics, Kendall's rank correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and the Sobel test. Results: Much of the connection between parental socioeconomic position and respondent depression was explained by respondent educational attainment in men but was not in women. A large portion of the association between educational attainment and depression was explained by type of household and satisfaction with social relationship among men. The effect of educational attainment on depression was fully mediated by type of household among women. The effect of type of household on depression was partly mediated by satisfaction with social relationship in men and women. Lastly, educational attainment, type of household and satisfaction with social relationship had an independent association with depression among men, but educational attainment was not statistically significant among women. Conclusions: Our study illuminated the importance of the independent and mediating effect of parental and respondent socioeconomic position and social relationship in the production of depression for South Korean adults.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제40권5호
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• pp.404-410
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• 2007

Objectives: Due to the assumptions of homogeneity as well as challenges in the socioeconomic position of the elderly, they have been relatively neglected in studies of health inequalities. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the social inequalities in preventive services among elderly men and women. Methods: Data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 342 men and 525 women aged 65 and over collected during the 2001 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Age adjusted proportions and logistic regression were used to identify the social patterning of preventive services among elderly Koreans using various social position indicators. Results: The findings of this study generally supported the presence of social gradients in preventive services among the Korean elderly. The likelihood of using the service becomes progressively higher with social position. Educational level, income, and self-rated living status were significantly associated with increased medical checkups and cancer checks. In addition, logistic regression detected educational inequalities only among older women receiving BP checks. After being stratified based on health status and chronic disease status, social disparities still existed when educational level and self-rated living status were considered. Among unhealthy individuals, place of residence was observed as a barrier to medical checkups. Conclusions: This study demonstrated strong and consistent associations between socioeconomic position and preventive services among the elderly in Korea. The results indicate that public health strategies should be developed to reduce the barriers to preventive services encountered by the elderly.

• 보건교육건강증진학회지
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.61-70
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• 2016

Objectives: It has been well documented that people on the lower socioeconomic position are significantly more likely to smoke cigarettes. The purposes of this study were (a) to identify a potential difference of socioeconomic factors, and (b) to compare a smoking rate, one of the most representative health behavior between people with/without disabilities after the controlling socioeconomic factors. Methods: The Korea Panel Survey of Employment for People of Disabilities (2012) and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (2012) were employed for calculating the smoking rates of persons with/without disabilities. Results: The results demonstrated that the socioeconomic position indicators (education, occupation and household equivalent income) of persons with disabilities were lower than persons without disabilities. The smoking rates of the persons with/without disabilities were 35.9% and 19.0% respectively before propensity score matching. After propensity score matching with the socioeconomic factors, however, ATT of people with disabilities was 0.201 which is lower than ATT of people without disabilities (0.227). Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the socioeconomic level of persons with disabilities is important to improve the smoking rates and health level regardless of their disabilities.

• 한국노년학
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.1129-1145
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• 2008

본 연구는 노인우울증에 대한 사회경제적 지위의 영향력 뿐 아니라 근접요인으로써 건강행태의 영향력을 파악하여 보다 실천적인 함의를 제시하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 일 도시지역의 65세 이상 노인 964명의 자료를 분석에 사용하였고, 노인우울증 진단에는 단축형 노인우울척도(Short Form of Geriatric Depression Scale: SGDS)의 절단점 10점을 사용하였다. 본 연구에서 노인우울증의 유병율($SGDS{\geq}10$)은 22.2%(남성 18.4%, 여성 23.3%)로 나타났다. 로지스틱 회귀분석을 사용하여 노인우울증에 대한 위험요인을 살펴본 결과, 동거가족 수가 적을수록, 의료보호일수록, 교육수준이 낮을수록, 흡연을 지속하고 있을수록, 신체활동이 불충분할수록 노인우울증의 유병율이 유의미하게 높아지는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과를 바탕으로 볼 때 사회경제적 차이를 고려하여 노인우울증 개입을 위한 표적집단을 정해야 하고 더불어 우울증 예방을 위해서는 건강행태 특히 흡연이나 운동에 대한 지역사회 중심의 통합적 개입이 필요하다.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.1865-1871
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• 2015

While health information-seeking behavior as an indicator of health communication of patients including cancer survivors has been researched, few studies have focused on how socioeconomic position and media use combine to influence health-related information seekers. This study examined social characteristics of health information-seeking behavior taking into account an individual's socioeconomic position and their media use in Korea, a developed country. The data for this study came from a survey of 1,010 respondents drawn from a nationally representative sample in the Republic of Korea. We conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses for gender-specific effects. We found that men who reported high household income were one and half times more likely to seek health information than those with low income status. We also found that women who performed Internet searches by computer at home were almost two times more likely to seek health information than those who did not. Similar results were found for men as well. Our analyses revealed that socioeconomic position and media use are associated with health information-seeking behavior by gender. Studies on information seekers may bring us more effective health promotion and relevant intervention for people with chronic conditions including cancer survivors.

• 한국인구학
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.131-149
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• 2012

본 연구는 2000년 초반과 후반 우리나라의 출산결과와 영아사망에 대한 부모의 사회경제적 지위의 영향력 변화를 파악하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 통계청의 2001-2003년(T1), 2006-2008년(T2) 출생통계와 사망원인통계가 연계된 자료를 활용하였다. 출산결과는 정상아, 부당경량아, 부당중량아, 자궁내발육부전으로 분류하였으며, 영아사망은 생후 1년 이내 사망으로 정의하였다. 자료의 제약으로 인해 부모의 사회경제적 지위는 학력과 직종으로 국한하였다. 분석결과, 불량한 출산결과인 부당경량아와 자궁내발육부전 출생아의 영아사망 위험은 T1 보다 T2에 상대적으로 증가하였다. 이는 미숙아(재태연령 37주 미만), 저체중아(출생 시 체중 2,500g 미만) 중에서도 더 빨리, 더 작게 태어나는 출생아가 최근 증가함으로써 인구의 질이 더욱 악화되었음을 의미한다. 게다가 T1 대비 T2의 영아사망에 대한 모 연령이 지닌 영향력은 사라진 대신 부모의 사회경제적 지위가 지닌 영향력은 증가하여, 궁극적으로 사회계층 간 영아사망 불평등이 심화되고 있음을 의미한다. 부모의 사회경제적 지위에 따른 출산결과와 영아사망의 격차가 향후 어떻게 전개될지에 대한 지속적인 연구가 필요하다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제44권6호
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• pp.249-259
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• 2011

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze long-term trends in the contribution of each cause of death to socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality among Korean adults. Methods: Data were collected from death certificates between 1990 and 2004 and from censuses in 1990, 1995, and 2000. Age-standardized death rates by gender were produced according to education as the socioeconomic position indicator, and the slope index of inequality was calculated to evaluate the contribution of each cause of death to socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality. Results: Among adults aged 25-44, accidental injuries with transport accidents, suicide, liver disease and cerebrovascular disease made relatively large contributions to socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality, while, among adults aged 45-64, liver disease, cerebrovascular disease, transport accidents, liver cancer, and lung cancer did so. Ischemic heart disease, a very important contributor to socioeconomic mortality inequality in North America and Western Europe, showed a very low contribution (less than 3%) in both genders of Koreans. Conclusions: Considering the contributions of different causes of death to absolute mortality inequalities, establishing effective strategies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in mortality is warranted.