ArticleBMC geriatrics2022
Health disparity and healthcare utilization inequity among older adults living in poverty in South Korea: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of the number of remaining teeth on the risk of frailty: a meta-analysis.Odontology · 2026Pooled it
- Socioeconomic disparities in age at entry into Korea's Long-Term Care Insurance: a descriptive analysis of 1.07 million adults, 2008-2022.BMC health services research · 2026Observational
- Income-Based Inequalities in Health System Performance in the US and South Korea.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Characteristics and asthma control status in the Korean Severe Asthma Registry-2: a real-world analysis.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Health status of poor, older urban adults compared with key health indicators from the 2023 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the Republic of Korea: a cross-sectional comparative study.Journal of Korean biological nursing science · 2026Article
- Medication Sharing Among Older Adults in South Korea: A Qualitative Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Income-related disparities in the value of health care in South Korea.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Timely accessibility to healthcare resources and heatwave-related mortality in 7 major cities of South Korea: a two-stage approach with principal component analysis.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundKorea has a two-tiered universal health security system: the wage-based National Health Insurance (NHI) program and government-subsidized Medical Aid (MA) program. Beneficiaries of the MA program belong to the lowest economic class. This study aims to investigate the association between economic status-defined as NHI or MA enrollment-and health disparity of older people aged ≥ 65 years in South Korea.
methodsThe claims records of 672,525 older age population from the 2017 Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-Adult Patient Sample were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of MA vs. NHI beneficiaries for prevalence for common geriatric diseases. Logistic regression and negative binomial regression were used to investigate the association between economic status and prevalence or healthcare utilization for each disease.
resultsMA beneficiaries showed significantly higher prevalence than NHI beneficiaries for seven out of nine diseases (aORs ranging from 1.18 to 1.95). The discrepancy in the prevalence between the two groups was highest among those aged 65-69 years (aORs: 1.34-2.94), and diminished as they got older (aORs: 1.05-1.67). MA beneficiaries had significantly more outpatient visits to treat six diseases (aORs: 1.07-1.28), and more hospitalization to treat seven diseases (aORs:1.08-1.73) than NHI beneficiaries.
conclusionThe higher prevalence of common geriatric diseases among MA than NHI beneficiaries confirms unfavorable health disparity in the elderly living in extreme poverty. Similar or higher healthcare utilization in treating the same conditions among MA beneficiaries suggests a low possibility of inequity for access to healthcare resources covered by the universal health security system due to poor economic status. Greater excess use of inpatient than outpatient care by MA beneficiaries implies that the condition of poor older adults might be more severe when diagnosed with the same disease.
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