J Agric Med Community Health.  2009 Jun;34(1):67-75.

Health Status and Medical Utilization of Women in Rural Area

• Shin HC
• Kang JY
• Park WS
• Kim SA

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to examine health inequality for gender and region in Korea. Especially it focused on health status such as disease prevalence and medical utilization of rural women.
METHODS
Data from the Korea national health and nutrition survey in 2001 were used. The final sample size was 37,108 individuals with age 20 and over. This study applied the logistic regression for nominal variables such as disease prevalence and unmet care needs and with the regression for continuos variables such as the length and costs of medical services.
RESULTS
Rates of disease prevalence and unmet care needs for chronic disease in rural area are higher than those in middle cities and big cities, and regional differences of those for women are more than those for mens with controlling ages. There could be interaction effect with region and sex.
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that health policy maker should take consider of special status of rural women who are in health inequality.

Keyword

Women; Rural health; Health status; Health service needs; KNHANES

MeSH Terms

Chronic Disease
Female
Health Policy
Humans
Korea
Logistic Models
Male
Nutrition Surveys
Prevalence
Rural Health
Sample Size
Socioeconomic Factors