Abstract
This study compared persons with disabilities with those without disabilities in terms of health services utilization and examined the factors associated with the use of inpatient hospital services. Data on a sample of 4040 older adults (65+ years of age) from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing were used. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis was performed examining sample characteristics of participants with and without disabilities and factors significantly associated with health services utilization. This study showed that the elderly with disabilities used significantly more inpatient hospital services than the elderly without disabilities. As expected, poor health was clearly the most influential factor explaining the use of inpatient hospital services. The second most influential factor in determining use of medical services is disability. Persons with disabilities had a twofold or more increase in the odds of using inpatient hospital services. Likewise, the person with chronic condition had also an additional twofold increase in risk for medical services due to the chronic condition. Chronic conditions were clearly the third influential factor explaining the use of inpatient hospital services. Finally, females were a small margin more likely to use inpatient hospital services than males.
Highlights
IntroductionIn the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea), the entry of baby-boomers born between 1955 and 1965 into old age is a social policy issue
In the Republic of Korea, the entry of baby-boomers born between 1955 and 1965 into old age is a social policy issue
The present study focuses on cross-sectional analyses, using the 2008 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing which was conducted with Korean men and women aged 45 years or older
Summary
In the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea), the entry of baby-boomers born between 1955 and 1965 into old age is a social policy issue. It is because Korean society is aging faster than any other country as the “baby boomers” grow older. Despite the fact that disability is increased with the aging of the entire population, there has been a paucity of reliable and representative data on disability issues of Koreans [4,5]. Since timely healthcare is somewhat limited in access, the disease becomes aggravated and people with disabilities have unnecessary hospitalization [6]. It is necessary to compare persons with disabilities with those without disabilities in term of health services utilization from the consumers’ point of view
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