Gum-Ryeong Park1, Youn Jung2. 1. Department of Health Care Policy Research, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Sejong City, Republic of Korea. 2. Department of Health Care Policy Research, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Sejong City, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: yj224@kihasa.re.kr.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Housing is one of the social determinants of health, and the evidence of its impact in this area has been increasingly expanded. However, in spite of its importance, there have been few studies to investigate an association between housing and health in Korea. Our study aimed to investigate housing tenure and affordability and their effects on health outcomes in Korea. STUDY DESIGN: We selected 9456 participants from the 10-11th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study, after excluding missing variables. Housing tenure and affordability were chosen as independent variables, and depressive symptoms and self-rated health were selected as dependent variables. METHODS: Logistic regression was implemented to investigate the association between housing tenure/affordability and health outcome, and all covariates such as sex, age, and household income were adjusted. RESULTS: Compared with homeowners, renters are more likely to have depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08, 1.47) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.19-1.61). Also, health effects of housing unaffordability were observed differently by tenure, showing that the likelihood of having depressive symptoms (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.15, 2.13) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.06) is significantly high among renters who reported unaffordability. CONCLUSION: This study could provide evidence of housing as a determinant of health by showing that both housing tenure and affordability are significantly related to health outcomes.
OBJECTIVES: Housing is one of the social determinants of health, and the evidence of its impact in this area has been increasingly expanded. However, in spite of its importance, there have been few studies to investigate an association between housing and health in Korea. Our study aimed to investigate housing tenure and affordability and their effects on health outcomes in Korea. STUDY DESIGN: We selected 9456 participants from the 10-11th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study, after excluding missing variables. Housing tenure and affordability were chosen as independent variables, and depressive symptoms and self-rated health were selected as dependent variables. METHODS: Logistic regression was implemented to investigate the association between housing tenure/affordability and health outcome, and all covariates such as sex, age, and household income were adjusted. RESULTS: Compared with homeowners, renters are more likely to have depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08, 1.47) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.19-1.61). Also, health effects of housing unaffordability were observed differently by tenure, showing that the likelihood of having depressive symptoms (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.15, 2.13) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.06) is significantly high among renters who reported unaffordability. CONCLUSION: This study could provide evidence of housing as a determinant of health by showing that both housing tenure and affordability are significantly related to health outcomes.
Authors: Hongpeng Guo; Yang Yang; Chulin Pan; Shuang Xu; Nan Yan; Qingyong Lei Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-06-21 Impact factor: 4.614