Citation

Seok H, Yoon JH, Lee W, Lee JH, Jung PK, Roh J, Won JU. J. Korean Med. Sci. 2016; 31(2): 164-170.

Affiliation

Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.; Institute for Occupational Health, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.; Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.; Incheon Workers' Health Center, Incheon, Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Korean Academy of Medical Science)

DOI

10.3346/jkms.2016.31.2.164

PMID

26839467

PMCID

PMC4729690

Abstract

We aimed to examine whether there is a correlation between the health recovery of industrial accident victims and their perceived socioeconomic status. Data were obtained from the first Panel Study of Worker's Compensation Insurance, which included 2,000 participants. We performed multivariate regression analysis and determined the odds ratios for participants with a subjectively lower socioeconomic status and for those with a subjectively lower middle socioeconomic status using 95% confidence intervals. An additional multivariate regression analysis yielded the odds ratios for participants with a subjectively lower socioeconomic status and those with a subjectively upper middle socioeconomic class using 95% confidence intervals. Of all participants, 299 reported a full recovery, whereas 1,701 did not. We examined the odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) for participants' health recovery according to their subjective socioeconomic status while controlling for sex, age, education, tobacco use, alcohol use, subjective state of health prior to the accident, chronic disease, employment duration, recovery period, accident type, disability status, disability rating, and economic participation. The odds of recovery in participants with a subjectively lower middle socioeconomic status were 1.707 times greater (1.264-2.305) than that of those with a subjectively lower socioeconomic status. Similarly, the odds of recovery in participants with a subjectively upper middle socioeconomic status were 3.124 times greater (1.795-5.438) than that of those with a subjectively lower socioeconomic status. Our findings indicate that participants' perceived socioeconomic disparities extend to disparities in their health status. The reinforcement of welfare measures is greatly needed to temper these disparities.

Language: en