Abstract
Lower household income is associated with poorer self-reported health status, especially in the elderly. Considering the importance of subjective health in this fragile population, it would be worthwhile to explore the physical and mental health factors that may help to predict good or poor self-rated health (SRH) status. We first described three main categories (individual, physical, and psychological) between low-income seniors with good and poor SRH. Next, statistically significant physical and mental health factors affecting poor SRH were identified. In this study, original data from the 2017 National Survey of Older Persons in South Korea were analyzed. People aged 65 years and over with low household income were eligible. A total of 1405 men and 2945 women (n = 4350) were enrolled, and less than half of participants (47.5%, n = 2066) belonged to the poor SRH cohort. We applied individual variable-adjusted models and found that poor SRH was significantly associated with ADL limitation (odds ratio (OR): 2.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.11–4.01), IADL limitation (OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 1.52–2.13), malnutrition (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.53–2.04), and depression (OR: 3.65, 95% CI: 3.10–4.31) on logistic regression analysis. Our findings suggest that limited ADL/IADL, poor nutrition, and depression need to be emphasized to improve subjective health status in low-income adults. Early recognition and timely intervention might help them to live better and happier, ultimately relieving social healthcare burdens.
Highlights
In this era of worldwide aging, the rapidly increasing number of the aged population unavoidably results in personal, national, and global healthcare issues
In 2020, our national health and welfare expenditure for this special population was KRW 12 trillion, which was equivalent to 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) [2]
To assess the physical and mental health factors influencing the risk of poor self-rated health (SRH), we introduced the four individual variable-adjusted models as stated above
Summary
In this era of worldwide aging, the rapidly increasing number of the aged population unavoidably results in personal, national, and global healthcare issues. In 2020, our national health and welfare expenditure for this special population was KRW 12 trillion, which was equivalent to 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) [2] Another hot topic of the present time is the phenomenon of economic polarization resulting in health inequality among members of society. We live in a ‘looks equal but not equal’ community where individual health status depends on socioeconomic backgrounds such as education and household income despite the help from the social welfare system. When it comes to senior adults, this social problem gets even worse. It was found that people with low income levels have poorer functional/physical capability and worse psychological well-being [3]
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