IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v67y2008i6p988-1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors

Author

Listed:
  • Chun, Heeran
  • Khang, Young-Ho
  • Kim, Il-Ho
  • Cho, Sung-Il

Abstract

This study examines and explains the gender disparity in health despite rapid modernization in South Korea where the social structure is still based on traditional gender relations. A nationally representative sample of 2897 men and 3286 women aged 25-64 from the 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was analyzed. Health indicators included self rated health and chronic disease. Age-adjusted prevalence was computed according to a gender and odds ratios (OR) derived from logistic regression. Percentage changes in OR by inclusion of determinant variables (socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral) into the base logistic regression model were used to estimate the contributions to the gender gap in two morbidity measures. Results showed a substantial female excess in ill-health in both measures, revealing an increasing disparity in the older age group. Group-specific age-adjusted prevalence of ill-health showed an inverse relationship to socioeconomic position. When adjusting for each determinant, employment status, education, and depression contributed the greatest to the gender gap. After adjusting for all suggested determinants, 78% for self rated health and 86% for chronic disease in excess OR could be explained. After stratifying for age, the full model provided a complete explanation for the female excess in chronic illness, but for self rated health a female excess was still evident for the younger age group. Socio-structural factors played a crucial role in accounting for female excess in ill-health. This result calls for greater attention to gender-based health inequality stemming from socio-structural determinants in South Korea. Cross-cultural validation studies are suggested for further discussion of the link between changing gender relations and the gender health gap in morbidity in diverse settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Chun, Heeran & Khang, Young-Ho & Kim, Il-Ho & Cho, Sung-Il, 2008. "Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 988-1001, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:6:p:988-1001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00282-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arber, Sara & Cooper, Helen, 1999. "Gender differences in health in later life: the new paradox?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 61-76, January.
    2. Green, Carla A & Pope, Clyde R, 1999. "Gender, psychosocial factors and the use of medical services: a longitudinal analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(10), pages 1363-1372, May.
    3. Lahelma, Eero & Arber, Sara & Kivelä, Katariina & Roos, Eva, 2002. "Multiple roles and health among British and Finnish women: the influence of socioeconomic circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 727-740, March.
    4. Backhans, Mona C. & Lundberg, Michael & Månsdotter, Anna, 2007. "Does increased gender equality lead to a convergence of health outcomes for men and women? A study of Swedish municipalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1892-1903, May.
    5. Umberson, Debra, 1992. "Gender, marital status and the social control of health behavior," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 907-917, April.
    6. Macintyre, Sally & Hunt, Kate & Sweeting, Helen, 1996. "Gender differences in health: Are things really as simple as they seem?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 617-624, February.
    7. Bird, Chloe E. & Rieker, Patricia P., 1999. "Gender matters: an integrated model for understanding men's and women's health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 745-755, March.
    8. Lahelma, Eero & Martikainen, Pekka & Rahkonen, Ossi & Silventoinen, Karri, 1999. "Gender differences in illhealth in Finland: patterns, magnitude and change," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-19, January.
    9. Macintyre, Sally & Ford, Graeme & Hunt, Kate, 1999. "Do women 'over-report' morbidity? Men's and women's responses to structured prompting on a standard question on long standing illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 89-98, January.
    10. Denton, Margaret & Walters, Vivienne, 1999. "Gender differences in structural and behavioral determinants of health: an analysis of the social production of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1221-1235, May.
    11. Strazdins, Lyndall & Bammer, Gabriele, 2004. "Women, work and musculoskeletal health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 997-1005, March.
    12. Gijsbers van Wijk, Cecile M. T. & Kolk, Annemarie M. & van den Bosch, Wil J. H. M. & van den Hoogen, Henk J. M., 1995. "Male and female health problems in general practice: The differential impact of social position and social roles," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 597-611, March.
    13. Denton, Margaret & Prus, Steven & Walters, Vivienne, 2004. "Gender differences in health: a Canadian study of the psychosocial, structural and behavioural determinants of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 2585-2600, June.
    14. McDonough, Peggy & Walters, Vivienne, 2001. "Gender and health: reassessing patterns and explanations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 547-559, February.
    15. O'Neill, June & Polachek, Solomon, 1993. "Why the Gender Gap in Wages Narrowed in the 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 205-228, January.
    16. Arber, Sara, 1991. "Class, paid employment and family roles: Making sense of structural disadvantage, gender and health status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 425-436, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Trevor Peckham & Noah Seixas & A. B. de Castro & Anjum Hajat, 2022. "Do Different Patterns of Employment Quality Contribute to Gender Health Inequities in the U.S.? A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Takahashi, Shuko & Jang, Soong-nang & Kino, Shiho & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2020. "Gender inequalities in poor self-rated health: Cross-national comparison of South Korea and Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    3. Woohyun Yoo, 2022. "Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in South Korea: Moderating Role of mHealth Technologies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Hiyoshi, Ayako & Fukuda, Yoshiharu & Shipley, Martin J. & Brunner, Eric J., 2014. "Health inequalities in Japan: The role of material, psychosocial, social relational and behavioural factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 201-209.
    5. Yeon‐Hwan Park & Smi Choi‐Kwon & Kyung‐Ae Park & Minhee Suh & Young‐soon Jung, 2017. "Nutrient deficiencies and depression in older adults according to sex: A cross sectional study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 88-94, March.
    6. Jibum Kim & Jinkook Lee, 2010. "Disability of Older Koreans Evidence on Prevalence and the Role of Education from Five Data Sets," Working Papers WR-811, RAND Corporation.
    7. Xin Gao & Tieying Feng, 2020. "Public Pension, Labor Force Participation, and Depressive Symptoms across Gender among Older Adults in Rural China: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-13, May.
    8. Bo Kyong Seo & In Hyee Hwang & Yi Sun & Juan Chen, 2022. "Homeownership, Depression, and Life Satisfaction in China: The Gender and Urban-Rural Disparities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-13, November.
    9. Seung-Eun Cha & Ki-Soo Eun, 2014. "Gender Difference in Sleep Problems: Focused on Time Use in Daily Life of Korea," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 1447-1465, December.
    10. Belinda L. Needham & Soojung Kim & Erica Concors & Jeffrey J. Wing, 2017. "Trends in Gender Differences in Self-Rated Health in Korea: Evidence from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001-2012," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(5), pages 196-196, May.
    11. Yang, Seungmi & Khang, Young-Ho & Chun, Heeran & Harper, Sam & Lynch, John, 2012. "The changing gender differences in life expectancy in Korea 1970–2005," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1280-1287.
    12. Santosh Jatrana, 2021. "Gender differences in self-reported health and psychological distress among New Zealand adults," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(21), pages 693-726.
    13. Jibum Kim & Jinkook Lee, 2010. "Disability of Older Koreans Evidence on Prevalence and the Role of Education from Five Data Sets," Working Papers 811, RAND Corporation.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Duan-Rung & Chang, Ly-Yun & Yang, Meng-Li, 2008. "Gender-specific responses to social determinants associated with self-perceived health in Taiwan: A multilevel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(10), pages 1630-1640, November.
    2. Read, Jen'nan Ghazal & Gorman, Bridget K., 2006. "Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of race and ethnicity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1045-1065, March.
    3. Fritzell, Sara & Ringbäck Weitoft, Gunilla & Fritzell, Johan & Burström, Bo, 2007. "From macro to micro: The health of Swedish lone mothers during changing economic and social circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2474-2488, December.
    4. Roy, Kakoli & Chaudhuri, Anoshua, 2008. "Influence of socioeconomic status, wealth and financial empowerment on gender differences in health and healthcare utilization in later life: evidence from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1951-1962, May.
    5. Zunzunegui, Maria-Victoria & Alvarado, Beatriz-Eugenia & Béland, François & Vissandjee, Bilkis, 2009. "Explaining health differences between men and women in later life: A cross-city comparison in Latin America and the Caribbean," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 235-242, January.
    6. Lucky Singh & Perianayagam Arokiasamy & Prashant Kumar Singh & Rajesh Kumar Rai, 2013. "Determinants of Gender Differences in Self-Rated Health Among Older Population," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(2), pages 21582440134, May.
    7. Dona Ghosh & Jaydeep Sengupta & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2020. "Revisiting the Role of Gender in Health Taxonomy: Evidence from the Elderly in India," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 24(2), pages 104-133, June.
    8. Santosh Jatrana, 2021. "Gender differences in self-reported health and psychological distress among New Zealand adults," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(21), pages 693-726.
    9. Orfila, Francesc & Ferrer, Montserrat & Lamarca, Rosa & Tebe, Cristian & Domingo-Salvany, Antonia & Alonso, Jordi, 2006. "Gender differences in health-related quality of life among the elderly: The role of objective functional capacity and chronic conditions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2367-2380, November.
    10. Dahlin, Johanna & Härkönen, Juho, 2013. "Cross-national differences in the gender gap in subjective health in Europe: Does country-level gender equality matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-28.
    11. Steven G. Prus & Ellen Gee, 2002. "Gender Differences in the Influence of Economic, Lifestyle, and Psychosocial Factors on Later-life Health," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 76, McMaster University.
    12. Luis Miguel Bello-Lujan & Jose Antonio Serrano-Sanchez & Juan Jose Gonzalez-Henriquez, 2022. "Stable Gender Gap and Similar Gender Trend in Chronic Morbidities between 1997–2015 in Adult Canary Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Needham, Belinda & Hill, Terrence D., 2010. "Do gender differences in mental health contribute to gender differences in physical health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(8), pages 1472-1479, October.
    14. Weden, Margaret M & Astone, Nan M & Bishai, David, 2006. "Racial, ethnic, and gender differences in smoking cessation associated with employment and joblessness through young adulthood in the US," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 303-316, January.
    15. Patricia Gómez-Costilla & Carmen García-Prieto & Noelia Somarriba-Arechavala, 2022. "Aging and Gender Health Gap: A Multilevel Analysis for 17 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 1051-1069, April.
    16. Cecilia Benoit & Leah Shumka & Kate Vallance & Helga Hallgrímsdóttir & Rachel Phillips & Karen Kobayashi & Olena Hankivsky & Colleen Reid & Elana Brief, 2009. "Explaining the Health Gap Experienced by Girls and Women in Canada: A Social Determinants of Health Perspective," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(5), pages 1-13, November.
    17. Lasse Lybecker Scheel-Hincke & Sören Möller & Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen & Bernard Jeune & Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt, 2020. "Cross-national comparison of sex differences in ADL and IADL in Europe: findings from SHARE," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 69-79, March.
    18. Torsheim, Torbjørn & Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike & Hetland, Jorn & Välimaa, Raili & Danielson, Mia & Overpeck, Mary, 2006. "Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent subjective health in Europe and North America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 815-827, February.
    19. Koopmans, Gerrit T. & Lamers, Leida M., 2007. "Gender and health care utilization: The role of mental distress and help-seeking propensity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 1216-1230, March.
    20. Danan Gu & Yi Zeng, 2004. "Sociodemographic Effects on the Onset and Recovery of ADL Disability among Chinese Oldest-old," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 11(1), pages 1-42.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:6:p:988-1001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.