Structural Modeling of Health Concern, Health Practice and Health Status of Koreans

Lee, Soon Young; Sohn, Myong Sei; Nam, Chung Mo

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among the health concern, health practice and health status of Koreans. This study utilized the data from Korean individuals(1,304 male and 1,495 females), whose ages were between 20 and 59. The data were analyzed using SAS version 6.04 and LISREL version 7.13. The analytic methods for the study were chi-square analysis and covariance structural analysis. The results of the study were as follows. (1) There were significant positive relationships between health concern level and health practice index, and between health practice index and self-perceived health status. (2)There were negative relationships between practice index and chronic illness, and between health practice index and acute illness only in female. (3) Based on the findings, the structural model of the health concern, health practice, health status and socioeconomic variables was established and then the covariance structural analysis was used. The higher educational level and economic status were, the higher the health concern was. And urban residents were much more concerned with their health than rural residents. The more persons were concerned with health, the more they did health practices. And the more the health practice was, the higher the health status was. The younger the persons were and the higher the health status of one's family was, the higher the health status was. In female, the higher the economic status was, the higher the health status was.