Changes in mortality after the recent economic crisis in South Korea (original) (raw)
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Impact of economic crisis on cause-specific mortality in South Korea
2005
Background Economic changes can be powerful determinants of health. In the late 1990s, South Korea experienced a steep economic decline. This study examines whether the massive economic changes affected trends in all-cause and cause-specific mortality in South Korea. Method Midyear population estimates of 5 year age groups (denominators) and death certificate data (numerators) from the National Statistical Office of Korea were used to compute cause-specific age-standardized mortality rates before and after the economic crisis. Results All-cause mortality continued to decrease in both sexes and all age groups during the crisis. Cerebrovascular accidents, stomach cancer, and liver disease contributed most to this decline. A remarkable decrease in transport accident mortality rates was also observed. The most salient increase in mortality was suicidal death. Mortality from homicide, pneumonia, and alcohol dependence increased during the economic crisis, but these accounted for a small proportion of total mortality. Conclusions Short-term mortality effects of the South Korean economic crisis were relatively small. It appears that any short-term effects of the economic decline were overwhelmed by the momentum of large declines in causes of death such as stroke, stomach cancer, and liver disease, which are probably related to exposures with much longer aetiological periods. However, this study focused on rather immediate mortality effects and follow-up studies are needed to elucidate any longer-term health effects of the South Korean economic crisis.
Bulletin of The World Health Organization, 2003
Objective To examine and quantify the impact of the recent economic crisis on morbidity and medical care utilization in the Republic of Korea. Methods 22 675 people from 6791 households and 43 682 people from 12 283 households were questioned for two nationwide surveys that took place in 1995 and 1998, respectively. A separate sample pretest-posttest design was used and we conducted χ 2 test and logistic regression analysis after controlling for the maturation effect of the morbidity and medical care utilization. Findings The morbidity rates of chronic disease and acute disease increased significantly by 27.1% and 9.5%, respectively, whereas the utilization rates of outpatient and inpatient services decreased by 15.1% and 5.2%, respectively. In particular, the pace of decline in the utilization rate of outpatient services varied depending on the type of disease: morbidity rates for mental and behavioural disorders were 13.7%; for cardiovascular disease, 7.1%; and for injury, 31.6%. Conclusion After the Republic of Korean economic crisis, the morbidity and medical care utilization rates changed significantly but the degree of change depended on the type of disease or service. The time-dependent relationship between the national economy and the morbidity and medical care utilization rates needs to be further investigated.
International Journal for Equity in Health, 2012
Backgrounds This study examines social inequalities in life expectancy and mortality during the transition period of the Korean economic crisis (1993–2010) among Korean adults aged 40 and over. Methods Data from the census and the national death file from the Statistics Korea are employed to calculate life expectancy and age-specific-death-rates (ASDR) by age, gender, and educational attainment for five years: 1993, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. Absolute and relative differences in life expectancy and Age-Specific Death Rates by educational attainment were utilized as proxy measures of social inequality. Results Clear educational gradient of life expectancy was observed at age 40 by both sexes and across five time periods (1993, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). The gradient became notably worse in females between 1993 and 2010 compared to the trend in males. The educational gradient was also found for ASDR in all five years, but it was more pronounced in working age groups (40s and 50s) t...
Exploring Mortality Rates for Major Causes of Death in Korea
The Open Public Health Journal, 2019
Background:The trends and patterns of the mortality rates for causes of death are meaningful information. They can provide a basis for national demographic and health care policies by identifying the number, causes, and geographical distribution of deaths.Objective:To explore and analyze the characteristics of the mortality rates for major causes of death in Korea.Methods:Some common data analysis methods were used to describe the data. We also used some visualization techniques such as heat maps and line plots to present mortality rates by gender, age, and year.Results:Our analysis shows the crude mortality rates have continually decreased over the last 25 years from 1983, though they have increased slightly since 2006. In addition, the top eight causes of death accounted for 80% of all Korean deaths in 2015. During the period 2005-2015, the leading cause of death was cancer in male and circulatory diseases in female. The trend for respiratory diseases shows a steep upward trend in...
The impact of economic crisis on health-care consumption in Korea
Health Policy and Planning, 2001
This study uses urban household income-expenditure survey data, national health insurance claims data, and public health centre surveys to examine the impact of economic crisis on the consumption of health services in Korea. The analysis shows that the health-care consumption of Korean households has been adversely affected by the recent economic crisis, as measured by amount of expenditure on health. Distributional implications for health sector use are also found. Whereas the use of medical services by upper income groups is only slightly affected by the economic crisis, lower income groups are spending relatively less on medical services. Of all households, unemployed households are hit hardest by the crisis. Analysis shows that for all households, the rate of expenditure decrease is relatively higher for drug expenditure than for expenditure on medical services. That is, facing declining income, people cut their spending in the area where the need is non-essential or less inevitable.
Cause-of-death statistics in the Republic of Korea, 2014
Journal of the Korean Medical Association, 2016
This article presents recent trends and statistical indicators related to mortality in the Republic of Korea by analyzing the 2014 cause-of-death statistics. Specifically, we assessed the number of deaths, the crude death rate, the ranking of causes of death, and trends in the death rate from the major causes of death. Causes of death were classified according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision, as recommended by the World Health Organization. In order to determine the ranking of causes of death, Statistics Korea used the selection list of 56 causes of death from the 80 causes of death list for tabulation mortality statistics recommended by World Health Organization to better fit the Korean situation. The 10 leading causes of death were, in order, cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, suicide, pneumonia, diabetes mellitus, chronic lower respiratory disease, liver disease, transport accidents, and hypertensive diseases. The top 10 causes of death accounted for 70.5% of all Korean deaths. The ranking of cancer types as causes of death was lung, liver, stomach, colon, and pancreatic cancer. Death rates for heart disease increased from the third in 2013 to the second leading cause in 2014 and the rank of pneumonia moved up from the sixth in 2013 to the fifth in 2014. The mortality rate due to stomach cancer has decreased continuously over time.. This finding may reflect changes in Korean society involving population structure, epidemiological patterns, and lifestyles, including dietary habits.
A closer look at the increase in suicide rates in South Korea from 1986–2005
BMC Public Health, 2009
Background Suicide rates have recently been decreasing on average among OECD countries, but increasing trends have been detected in South Korea, particularly since the 1997 economic crisis. There have been no detailed analyses about the changes of the suicide rates over time periods in Korea. We examined trends in both absolute and proportional suicide rates over the time period of economic development, crisis, and recovery (1986 – 2005) as well as in birth cohorts from 1924 to 1978. Methods We used data on total mortality and suicide rates from 1986 to 2005 published online by the Korean National Statistical Office (NSO) and extracted data for individuals under 80 years old. The analyses of the trends for 1) the sex-age-specific total mortality rate, 2) the sex-age-specific suicide rate, and 3) the sex-age-specific proportional suicide rate in 1986–2005 were conducted. To demonstrate the birth cohort effect on the proportional suicide rate, the synthetic birth cohort from 1924 to 1...
Changes in Contribution of Causes of Death to Socioeconomic Mortality Inequalities in Korean Adults
J Prev Med Public Health, 2011
Many empirical studies have reported socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in Korea. Although there are differences in the size and pattern of mortality inequalities depending on the cause of death, research results consistently show that the lower the socioeconomic position (SEP), the higher the risk of total mortality regardless of age and sex [1-5]. In 2005, the risk of death for 20-to 64-year-olds with an elementary school education or less was significantly greater than for those with an undergraduate education or more: 6.3 times higher among men, and 4.9 times higher among women [6]. In order to improve socioeconomic health inequalities, more aggressive strategic intervention is required, and various strategies are being tried in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands [7,8]. In Korea, since 2005, "enhancement of health equity" along with "extension of healthy life expectancy" has been suggested as an overarching goal of the Ministry of Health and Welfare based on a 2003 report titled Health Plan 2010 [9]. However, specific strategies or assignment selection are not sufficient to achieve this goal. In order to effectively decrease socioeconomic inequalities in mortality, it is important to acknowledge how much various causes of death contribute to the socioeconomic mortality inequalities [10-12]. Research on the contribution of causes of death to total inequalities in mortality can suggest a basis for specific intervention points. However, there are few studies that shed light on this topic [13]. Although a recent report did assess the contribution of causes of death to mortality inequalities in Korea, the study could neither include the entire Korean population nor address long-term tendencies [13]. In Western countries, many studies have investigated the contribution of causes of death to socioeconomic inequalities in mortality. Kunst et al. [12] showed that the contribution of ischemic heart disease was substantial in northern European countries such as England,
Safety and health at work, 2012
Previous studies on the vast increase in suicide mortality in Southeast Asia have indicated that suicide rates increase in parallel with a rise in unemployment or during periods of economic recession. This paper examines the effects of economic recession on suicidal rates amongst agriculture, fisheries, and forestry workers in Korea. Monthly time-series gross domestic product (GDP) data were linked with suicidal rates gathered from the cause of death records between1993-2008. Data were analyzed using generalized additive models to analyze trends, while a polynomial lag model was used to assess the unconstrained time lag effects of changes in GDP on suicidal rate. We found that there were significant inverse correlations between changes in GDP and suicide for a time lag of one to four months after the occurrence of economic event. Furthermore, it was evident that the overall relative risks of suicide were high enough to bring about social concern.
Understanding the contribution of suicide to life expectancy in South Korea
Demographic Research, 2016
BACKGROUND South Korea has the highest rate and highest rate of increase in suicide among developed countries. The suicide epidemic in Korea is an anomaly, and suicide rates are high for both men and women, with no signs of decreasing. Yet we do not know the extent to which suicide has reduced life expectancy in Korea. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether and to what extent the rapid increase in suicide has contributed to changes in Korean life expectancy, a key indicator of population health. METHODS We used a recently developed decomposition method that separates the contribution of suicide's effect on change in life expectancy into two parts: that due to change in the overall suicide incidence rate and that due to change in the mean age of suicide victims. RESULTS From 1995 to 2010, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years in Korea, with change in most causes of death contributing to its growth. We nonetheless find, as expected, that the rise in suicides reduced the increase in life expectancy from 1995 to 2010, so life expectancy in Korea is about 0.21 years lower than it would have been without the increase in suicides. Moreover, had the age of suicide victims remained stable, we project that Korea's life expectancy would be fully 0.70 years lower than it is.