More than 75% of low-income households have chronically ill household members...the highest number of high blood pressure
Jan 17, 2025
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This is the result published in the "2024 Korean Welfare Panel Survey and Analysis Report" by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Seoul National University Institute for Social Welfare.
As a result of the research team's analysis of health conditions as of December 31, 2023, 43.00% of all household members answered that they had chronic diseases. By income group, 37.15% of general households and 75.53% of low-income households included household members with chronic diseases. Both low-income and general households accounted for a large proportion of fighting and taking medications for more than six months, especially 72.63% of all low-income households answered that there are household members who have chronic diseases that fight and take medications for more than six months.
As a result of a survey of household heads for chronic diseases, 58.72% of all household heads had chronic diseases. When categorizing the income group, the proportion of household heads who responded with chronic diseases was 84.05% for low-income households and 51.18% for general households, showing a big difference of about 32 percentage points (p). In particular, 81.72% of household heads in all low-income households were found to have chronic diseases that fight and take medications for more than six months.
Specifically, as a result of identifying the diseases of all household members, 53.19% of all household members on the panel were found to be suffering from diseases. Excluding other diseases, high blood pressure (12.06%) was the most common type of disease, followed by diabetes (5.72%), arthritis, low back pain, sciatica, and disc (5.56%). Comparing the rate of illness by income group, 41.35% of household members in general households were sick, while 77.18% of household members in low-income households were sick, which was about 1.8 times higher in relatively low-income households. In terms of major disease names, both low-income households (25.61%) and general households (9.62%) had the most hypertension. There was a difference of more than 5%p in high blood pressure, arthritis, low back pain, sciatica, disc, and diabetes between low-income and general households.
On the other hand, the report found that health problems of family members were the biggest cause of family conflict rather than economic difficulties.
As a result of the analysis, 54.85% cited 'health of household members' as the biggest cause of family conflict, except for households (53.81%) who answered that there was no particular difficulty'. Debt or card debt, etc. 'economic difficulties' came in second with 18.19%, followed by 'employment and unemployment of household members' with 8.34%. It was followed by 'children education or behavior'(4.7%), 'housing-related problems'(4.15%), 'children's marriage problems'(3.74%), 'relationship between household members'(2.92%), others (2.17%), 'family violence'(0.08%), and 'home run'(0.07%).
By income group, 61.12% of low-income households (with a median income of 60% or less) were considered the most important cause of family conflict, showing a slight difference from ordinary households (43.39%). The response that 'economic difficulties' was the cause of family anxiety was also 20.17% of low-income households, which was higher than that of ordinary households (16.93%).
The research team emphasized the need for customized welfare services and health care programs for low-income families and said it is necessary to establish a social support system to reduce conflicts between families.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
