• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore ways to define the concept of health inequality. Methods: The concept analysis process by Walker and Avant was used to clarify the meaning of health inequality. Results: Defining attributes of health inequality included differences in health status between individuals or groups, infringement of fundamental rights to health, unfair use of medical services, and social discrimination. The antecedents of health inequality included differences in demographic characteristics (age, gender, education, occupation, residential location), limitations in accessibility to health care, and social exclusion. Consequences of health inequality were increased costs for medical care, decreased health-related quality of life, and lack of ability to cope with health problems resulting in crisis situations, increases in morbidity and mortality, and shortening of life span. The concept was clarified through presentation of model, borderline, related, and contrary cases. Conclusion: Results of this study can be used to guide the direction of future studies through concept analysis in which conceptual attributes in the context of health inequality are examined. Also, based on the result of this study, development of standardized tools to measure health inequality is recommended as well as development of educational programs to reduce health inequalities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2008

Objectives : Despite various government initiatives, including the expansion of national health insurance coverage, health inequality has been a key health policy issue in South Korea during the past decade. This study describes and compares the extent of the total health inequality and the income-related health inequality over time among Korean adults. Methods : This study employs the 1998, 2001 and 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANESs). The self-assessed health (SAH) ordinal responses, measured on a five-point scale, resealed to cardinal values to measure the health inequalities with using interval regression. The boundaries of each threshold for the interval regression analysis were obtained from the empirical distribution of the EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) valuation weights estimated from the 2005 KNHANES. The final model predicting the individuals' health status included age, gender, educational attainment, occupation, income, and the regional prosperity index. The concentration index was used to measure and analyze the health inequality. Results : The KNHANES data showed an unequal distribution of the total health inequality in favor of the higher income groups, and this is getting worse over time (0.0327 in 1998, 0.0393 in 2001 and 0.0924 in 2005). The income-related health inequality in 2005 was 0.0278, indicating that 30.1% of the total health inequality can be attributed to income. Conclusions : The findings indicate there are health inequalities across the sociodemographic and income groups despite the recent government's efforts. Further research is warranted to investigate what potential policy actions are necessary to decrease the health inequality in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.263-287
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• 2021

Researches on inequality in Korean society has been sporadically conducted in various areas. In this study, research trend related to inequality was analyzed through basic statistical analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and main path analysis using articles related to inequality from Korea citation index. In basic statistical analysis, key authors, journals, and articles are identified. In co-occurrence analysis, income inequality, educational inequality, welfare inequality, and policy on inequality were identified as main topics. Main path analysis showed two research trends after 2004. One was research trend on economic inequality, and the other was on health inequality and social structural inequality.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.81-94
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors affecting cancer mortality inequality in Busan according to demographic characteristics identified based on the region's mortality data including cancer incidence and mortality rates, ultimately helping the region improve its existing health policies and establish a more effective cancer prevention policy. To achieve this purpose, this researcher surveyed data about all persons who died in Busan from 2006 to 2009. Data were analyzed with an SPSS 18.0 program using descriptive statistics, Chi-Square(${\chi}^2$), and Logistic Regression analysis. Findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, in Busan, men were about two times higher in cancer mortality rate than women. Second, persons who died of cancer in Busan were significantly different from one another in terms of demographic characteristics, especially, age, marital status, and job. Third, factors affecting cancer mortality inequality in Busan included such demographic characteristics as gender, age at the time of death, marital status, educational background, and job.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.520-534
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• 2018

This study was conducted to understand the conceptual definition and characteristics of health inequality. To accomplish this, we analyzed data collected from 14 participants as well as from available literature regarding health inequality using the hybrid model introduced by Schwartz-Barcott and Kim. We categorized health inequality into nine attributes in three dimensions. These dimensions included "target", "precede", and "result," corresponding to the target, cause and consequence of health inequality, respectively. Specifically, we define health inequality as individuals, families, communities, socio-economic, or geographically distinct demographic groups that are treated unfairly and result in several problems such as loss of quality of life, reduction of survival rate, or aggravation of a disease due to (i) poor treatment by a hospital (ii) irregular meals, (iii) desperate need for work (for money), (iv) expensive medical care costs, (v) qualitative differences in medical care by regional groups (vi) the lack of knowledge regarding disease (vii) and inadequate health care because of lack of time. As a result of this unfair treatment, human rights violation occurs. The major contribution from this paper is that we provide a guideline for establishing strategies to reduce health inequality by identifying the concept of health inequality. Based on this study, we recommend development of an educational program to reduce health inequalities.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.565-575
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• 2019

Objectives: In this study, both subjective and objective levels of oral health were used to identify the relationship between oral health inequalities. Methods: Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey data from 2013 to 2015 were combined to create an analysis plan. Oral health questions categorized as subjective oral health conditions and oral health-related diseases used dental tissue disease status as data measured by the Community Periodical Index(CPI) and decayed, missing, filled teeth(DMFT) experience. Other data on oral health behaviors such as toothache experience, the frequency of toothbrush use, chewing problems, oral examination status, and unmet dental care needs were classified and analyzed according to the socioeconomic level. Data were analyzed using frequency and cross analyses, and the statistical significance level was set at 0.05. Results: It was found that higher the economic and educational level, better was the subjective oral health, lower the CPI, lower the experience of toothache, higher the frequency of toothbrush use, lower the number of people having chewing problems, and higher the frequency of oral checkups. Conclusions: Oral health inequality exists among social classes. It is suggested that continuous research and efforts be carried out to promote oral health while considering socioeconomic and educational levels. Further, active government efforts will be needed to address polarization by social class.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2012

Objectives: This study examined the trends in gender disparity in the self-rated health of people aged 25 to 64 in South Korea, a rapidly changing society, with specific attention to socio-structural inequality. Methods: Representative sample data were obtained from six successive, nationwide Social Statistics Surveys of the Korean National Statistical Office performed during 1992 to 2010. Results: The results showed a convergent trend in poor self-rated health between genders since 1992, with a sharper decline in gender disparity observed in younger adults (aged 25 to 44) than in older adults (aged 45 to 64). The diminishing gender gap seemed to be attributable to an increase in women;s educational attainment levels and to their higher status in the labor market. Conclusions: The study indicated the importance of equitable social opportunities for both genders for understanding the historical trends in the gender gap in the self-reported health data from South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.117-142
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• 2012

This research attempts to explain the influence of educational level inequalities on self-rated health and depression of the elderly. Also, we are focusing whether there is a mediating effect of social support between educational level inequalities and self-rated health depression of the elderly. The data was collected from July, 30 to August, 15, 2009. 631 persons who live in Gangnam-Gu area over 60 years of age were recruited. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and multiple regression were employed using SPSS 12.0. The result of this study shows that educational level inequalities have a influence on the self-rated health and depression. It is also verified that social participation variable has a partial mediating effect between educational level inequalities and mental health(self-rated health and depression). This study carried out a positive linear relationship between educational level and health: the higher education, the better the health. And also, the results present the importance of developing adequate intervention programs for the elderly having low educational level to improve social participation and to enhance mental health(self-rated health and depression).

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.320-326
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• 2018

As the United Nations announced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the world changed its development goals from focusing on efficiency to equity. As a result, in the health sector, universal health coverage (UHC) has become one of the main issues. This paper reviews and discusses on future direction and issue of official development assistance program for developing countries. Korea International Cooperation Agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on Korea International Cooperation Agency's mid-term health strategy 2016-2020 developed on participation program with stakeholder including governments, civil society partner organizations, and educational institutions. The SDGs expands non-communicable diseases, UHC, and global health security from the existing Millenium Development Goals health sector. Progress toward UHC underpins the achievement of all other targets under SDG Goal 3. Progress in reducing health inequality across the life course is drawing on overall data and from specific target. In order to achieve SDG 3, a multi-disciplinary approach, convergence between IT and u-health of this development, is desirable.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.611-632
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• 2016

Solutions for elderly health issues need to be found that take into account not only a medical perspective, but also interactions with social conditions such as socioeconomic status. With this in mind, this study aims to understand how socioeconomic status leads to health inequalities for the elderly. Specifically, this study investigates the mediating effects of socioeconomic status(income and education levels), health activities as an intermediary of the three dimensions of physical health(medical health, functional health, subjective health), accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network. To test the research model, a secondary data analysis was conducted on the 2014 National Survey of Senior Citizens. The participants of the study were 10,451 elderly men and women aged 65 and above. To test the mediated model, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted following the procedures suggested by Baron and Kenny(1986). In addition, a Sobel test was conducted to test the mediated model's significance. According to the analysis, the effects of income and educational levels on the health of the elderly were not the same. Additionally, different results were found depending on health dimensions. However, the overall direction of the results showed that the socioeconomic status of the elderly creates health disparities, and health behaviors, accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network had significant mediation effects between socioeconomic status and physical health. Study findings especially worth noting are as follows: education was shown to have a stronger effect on health than income; effects of social integration factors such as social participation were highlighted; and significant mediating effects on the accessibility of medical facilities remained even after taking residential area into account. Results of this study shed light on health inequality mechanisms due to socioeconomic conditions and the need to find alternatives to alleviate these problems.