Decomposing Income-Related Inequalities in Self-Reported Depression and Self-Rated Health Among Married Immigrants in South Korea.

Jihyung Hong,Jaehee Lee

doi:10.3390/ijerph16101869

Abstract

Health inequalities among immigrant minorities have been under-researched in South Korea. This study, therefore, measured the extent of income-related inequalities in self-reported depression and self-rated health (SRH) among married immigrants in South Korea and decomposed them into sociodemographic determinants using data from the 2015 National Survey of Multicultural Families (n = 15,231). The mean age of this sample was 37.8 years (SD = 10.8) and the mean duration of residence was 10.1 years (SD = 7.4). Eighty-five percent were female, and of these, 86.5% were from low/middle-income countries. Of these married immigrants, 34.6% reported experiences of depressive symptoms in the past year, and 9.5% reported their current health to be poor or very poor (weighted). The results also indicated substantial pro-rich health inequalities with the Erreygers concentration index of −0.1298 for self-reported depression and that of −0.1231 for poor SRH. Socioeconomic positions, reflected in income, subjective social status, and employment status, alongside satisfaction with a spouse, appeared to have much greater contributions to the overall inequality than demographics and type of migration. These findings suggest that social welfare policies and programmes can play important roles in reducing health inequalities that are ‘avoidable and unnecessary’ among married immigrants in South Korea.

Highlights

International migration, often economically motivated, has been increasingly common across the globe over the past decades
The results indicate that longer duration of residence, being middle-aged, living in rural areas, higher satisfaction with spouses, higher income, and higher subjective social status were associated with a lower probability of depression
The present study provided evidence supporting substantial pro-rich inequalities in the prevalence of self-reported depression and poor self-rated health (SRH) among married immigrants in South Korea

Summary

Introduction

International migration, often economically motivated, has been increasingly common across the globe over the past decades. The number of international migrants worldwide has reached 258 million in 2017, up from 173 million in 2000 [1]. The number of foreigners/immigrants has rapidly increased over the past two decades, rising from 308,339 (48.0% for long-term residents) in 1998 to 2,180,498 (72.6%) in 2017 [2]. While this rapid increase has been highly driven by work-related immigration (composed mainly of non-professional foreign workers and overseas Korean workers), marriage immigration has made a considerable contribution. Marriage immigrants accounted only for 1.6% of all marriages in 1993 but 7.9% in 2017 [3]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion