• 한국보건간호학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.162-173
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• 2009

Purpose: This study investigated the health and socioeconomic status of single-parent and partnered families, and examined the intersection between sex and single-parent status focusing on inequalities of health and socioeconomic status. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using the data from the nationally representative 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A total of 14,827 respondents had custody of their own children and other family members (13,943 were coupled families and 891 were single-parent). Results: Our result indicate that single-parent had poorer health status and were more likely to have lower educational attainment, lower household income, no home ownership and be unemployed. However, the association between single-parent status and socioeconomic and health inequality were in divergent ways according to sex. The most socioeconomically disadvantaged were single-parent women. Inequalities in health differ markedly by sex but vary little according to single-parent status. Conclusions: An uneven distribution of socioeconomic resources might help us to understand why single-parent, both women and men, have worse health than parents who live together. Previously recognized sex gap with regard to health status also might help us to understand the difference in health between single-parent men and single-parent women found here.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.2231-2238
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• 2014

This study investigated how self-rated health and socioeconomic status are associated with behaviour of cancer survivors regarding desire for information. For this association, we compared survivors who did not seek information about cancer with those who did. We examined how sociodemographic, socioeconomic, cancerrelated, and health information factors are associated with self-rated health (SRH) by health information seeking/avoiding behavior in a survey of 502 post-treatment cancer patients. In the information seeking group, all four factors exhibited significant relationships with SRH. SRH values were significantly high for women (p<0.05), non-Hispanic White (p<0.05), and educated (p<0.01) participants, and for those who had high self-efficacy to use health information by themselves (p<0.01). Furthermore, in the information avoiding group, not only were there no significant relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and SRH, but there were negative associations between their attitude/capacity and the SRH. In terms of communication equity, the promotion of information seeking behavior can be an effective way to reduce health disparities that are caused by social inequalities. Information avoiding behavior, however, does not exhibit a negative contribution toward the relationship between SRH and SES. Information seeking behavior was positively associated with SRH, but avoiding behavior was not negatively associated. We thus need to eliminate communication inequalities using health intervention to support information seeking behavior, while simultaneously providing support for avoiders.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.38-52
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• 2022

Since older people are traditionally considered disadvantaged when it comes to Internet use, it is useful to examine whether older individuals use the Internet for health information seeking (HIS). This study aims to investigate digital inequalities in terms of Internet use by older population for HIS in the European region. As methods, we applied secondary data analysis (of Eurostat data) to investigate the influence of age, educational level, sex, and countries' wealth. Cluster analysis combined with multidimensional scaling was used to find out those countries exhibiting similarities in older people's online HIS. The main results are: Older individuals do not equally use the Internet in general and for HIS in particular. Older Internet users with higher level of education and of the female sex are more likely to use the Internet for health information.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제40권6호
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• pp.422-430
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• 2007

The socioeconomic inequalities in health have recently become an important public health concern in South Korea, and the issue has gained increasing attention from many South Korean researchers due to the increasing income inequality and Widening social polarization following its economic crisis in the late 1990s. However, despite the mounting literature on health inequalities published in recent years, the history of research on health inequality in South Korea is premature in comparison to the long histories in several Western countries. Understanding the historical background underlying the issue of health inequality research may aid in establishing and accumulating scientifically solid evidence in South Korea. It may also direct the South Korean research community to develop research agendas that are. more politically and academically appropriate for South Korean society. This paper describes the historical development of health inequality research in the West and introduces several important issues contributing to the advancement of health inequality research. Specifically, the major studies conducted before and after the UK Black Report are presented. In addition, the history and current status of health inequality research in South Korea are documented and evaluated. Finally, several research agendas for the quantitative and qualitative improvement of health inequality research in South Korea are proposed.

• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.216-230
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• 2021

Objective: Taking action on health inequalities starts with the production of information laying out the problems of inequalities, but Korean society has no national database to view related data at a glance. This study aimed to compare Korean national database with the Public Health Profile (PHP), a health inequality database of the UK. Methods: Data were collected from the websites of government and relevant organizations in the both countries between March and August 2020, which was updated in August 2021. Two themes including Co-occurring substance misuse and mental health issues in mental health and INteractive Health Atlas of Lung conditions in England were selected for comparison in terms of data accessibility, data usability and data visualization. Results: The British PHP is being served on a web-based platform, Fingertips. The data collected at the regional level were presented on 31 health inequality themes. The data are displayed at a level that can be compared between comparable communities, and visualized into various tables and figures. Comparable Korean data were scattered in several themes and websites, and mostly provided as a 17 administrative region base, which was too vast to make a meaningful comparisons. Conclusion: The findings proposed several considerations which could be useful for establishing a database of health inequality in the Korean society.

• 농촌의학ㆍ지역보건
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.36-51
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• 2012

'건강 플러스 행복 플러스 사업'은 경상남도의 높은 표준화사망률을 감소시키고 지역 간 건강불평등을 완화하기 위하여 표준화사망비가 구조적으로 높은 40개 읍면동을 대상으로 수행되는 사업이다. 본 사업은 영국의 헬스 액션 존 사업의 방법론을 기반으로 하여 참여, 파트너쉽, 자원의 집중을 사업의 기본 원칙으로 설정하고 2010년부터 시작되었으며 2017년까지 진행될 예정이다. 총 사업비는 56억원이며, 2010년에는 17개 읍면동, 2011년에는 12개 읍면동, 2012년에는 11개 읍면동에 사업이 개시되었거나 개시될 예정이다. 2010년 사업의 경우, 사업대상지역인 17개 읍면동에 예산이 배정되었고, 관련 수단 및 지역 차원의 사업진행 틀을 만드는 과정을 거쳤다. 또한 사업대상지역의 건강결정요인을 파악하기 위하여 지역 사회조사를 실시하였으며 사업에 대한 교육훈련지원 및 기술지원을 위하여 교육훈련지원단과 사업운영지원단이 설치되었다. 그 결과 사업 인력들과 코디네이터에 대한 교육이 실시되었으며, 사업대상지역에는 사업팀과 사업추진위원회가 결성되었다. 지역사회조사 이후에는 지역사회조사결과 보고회를 통하여 지역의 건강결정요인과 건강수준을 지역주민들과 함께 공유하였으며 최종적으로 사업 관련 주민자치조직인 건강위원회가 17개 읍면동에서 출범하였다. 본 사업은 지역사회 참여 및 파트너쉽의 구축과 관련하여 아직 해결해야 될 과제들이 많으나 원칙에 근거한 사업이 지속적으로 진행될 수 있다면 경상남도의 건강불평등 완화를 통한 표준화사망률 감소 및 사업대상지역 주민들의 안녕 수준 향상에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.41-49
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• 2020

Background: We performed this study to investigate the inequalities in site-specific cancer incidences among workers across different occupations in Korea. Methods: Subjects included members of the national employment insurance. Incident cancers among 8,744,603 workers were followed from 1995 to 2007. Occupational groups were classified according to the Korean Standard Occupational Classification. Age-standardized incidence rate ratios were calculated. Results: We found that men in service/sales and blue-collar occupations had elevated rates of esophageal, liver, laryngeal, and lung cancer. Among women, service/sales workers had elevated incidences of cervical cancer. Male prostate cancer, female breast, corpus uteri, and ovarian cancers, as well as male and female colorectal, kidney, and thyroid cancer showed lower incidences among workers in lower socioeconomic occupations. Conclusions: Substantial differences in cancer incidences were found depending on occupation reflecting socioeconomic position, in the Korean working population. Cancer prevention policy should focus on addressing these socioeconomic inequalities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.267-275
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• 2005

Evidence on the relation of socioeconomic position (SEP) with health and illness is mounting in South Korea. Several unlinked studies and individually linked studies (longitudinal study) showed a graded inverse relationship between SEP and mortality among South Korean males and females. Based on the mortality relative ratios by occupational class reported in the published papers of South Korea and western countries, the magnitude of the socioeconomic inequality in mortality in South Korea seems to be similar to or even greater than that in western industrialized countries. A potential contribution of health related selection, health behaviors and psychosocial factors to explain this socioeconomic inequality in mortality was discussed. It was suggested that early life exposure measures would demonstrate a greater ability to explain socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality than the above pathway variables in South Korea. This is based on the cause-specific structure of mortality among the South Korean population who have a relatively greater proportion of stomach cancer, hemorrhagic stroke, liver cancer and liver disease, and tuberculosis, which share early life exposures as important elements of their etiology, than western countries. However, the relative contribution of early and later life socioeconomic conditions in producing socioeconomic inequality in health may differ according to the outcome, thus remains to be investigated.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한예방의학회 2005년도 하계심포지움
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• pp.87-104
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• 2005

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.679-690
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Concerns about regional disparities in heathy eating and nutritional status among South Korean adults are increasing. This study aims to identify the magnitude of regional disparities in diet and nutritional status among Korean adults who completed the 2017 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). SUBJECTS/METHODS: The participants were a nationally representative sample of Korean adults aged 19 years and older from the 2017 KNHANES (n = 6,126). We employed the svy commands in STATA to accommodate the complex survey design. The relative concentration index (RCI), absolute concentration index (ACI) and index of disparity were used to measure regional nutritional inequalities. RESULTS: Overweight and obese adults were more prevalent among the poor than among the rich in urban areas (RCI = -0.041; P < 0.05), while overweight and obese adults were more prevalent among the rich than among the poor in rural areas of South Korea (RCI = 0.084; P < 0.05). Economic inequality in fruit and vegetable intake ≥ 500 g per day was greater in rural areas than in urban areas in both relative size (RCI = 0.228 vs. 0.091, difference in equality = 0.137; P < 0.05) and absolute size (ACI = 0.055 vs. 0.023, difference in equality = 0.032; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides useful information identifying opposite directions in the relative concentration curves between urban and rural areas. Adult overweight/obesity was more prevalent among the poor in urban areas, while adult overweight/obesity was more prevalent among the rich in rural areas. Public health nutrition systems should be implemented to identify nutritional inequalities that should be targeted across regions in South Korea.