Discrimination-related health inequality and role of social capital among marriage migrant women in South Korea.

Chang-O Kim

doi:10.1186/s12939-016-0464-z

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate whether social capital could alleviate health inequality against racial discrimination and identify the critical nature of social capital that generates health inequality differences within the social context of South Korea.MethodsUsing the data of the 2009 National Survey of Multicultural Families, a nationally representative sample in which 40,430 foreign wives participated, the concentration index (CI) was used to measure the discrimination-related inequalities in self-rated health and was decomposed into contributing factors.ResultsThe results showed a significant concentration of poor self-rated health unfavorable to foreign wives who were highly discriminated (CI 0.023, standard error [SE] 0.001, p < .001). However, when the CIs were assessed among the subgroups of different social capital, no discrimination-related inequality in health was observed among the group of linking social capital (CI 0.008, SE 0.008, p .332). The total differential decomposition method showed two major factors that generate differences in health inequality between the groups of non-linking and linking social capital: protest against discrimination (35.8 %); experiences of discrimination (28.3 %).ConclusionsThe present results indicated that linking social capital can be a useful resource of health resilience factor that equalizes discrimination-related health inequality among marriage migrant women in South Korea. This study provides additional evidence that social capital needs to be placed in its political context.

Highlights

IntroductionRegarding the perspective of social determinants of health, racial discrimination is one of the important structural factors that produces health inequalities along racial and ethnic lines
This study aimed to evaluate whether social capital could alleviate health inequality against racial discrimination and identify the critical nature of social capital that generates health inequality differences within the social context of South Korea
36.9 and 26.9 % of female marriage migrants were classified as bonding and bridging social capital, respectively, and 34.0 % reported that they did not participate in any association

Summary

Introduction

Regarding the perspective of social determinants of health, racial discrimination is one of the important structural factors that produces health inequalities along racial and ethnic lines. There is growing evidence that perceived discrimination is associated with lower levels of physical and mental health, poor access to quality healthcare, and certain health behaviors across several immigrant groups [1]. These effects may be cumulative, rather than transient, because individual experiences of day-to-day discrimination are rooted in the structural process of ‘othering,’ which locates individuals differentially within the ethnoracial hierarchy [2]. Income, expenditure, or proxy measure of wealth were widely used to measure the

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