우리나라 중.노년 인구의 건강상태: 주관적 건강상태의 국가간 비교연구 시론 = Self-Rated Health Status of Korean Older People: An Introduction for International Comparative Studies

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study analyzes differences of self-rated health status between Korea and three European countries. Self-rated health status is highly correlated with objective health status such as chronic diseases and ADL(Activities of Daily Living)/IADL(Instrumental Activities of Daily Living), but it is also influenced by individual attitude or belief about health. Therefore, differences of self-rated health status among countries are determined by the combination of (1) differences of objective health status and (2) socio-cultural characteristics affecting individuals' attitude and belief. Using 'Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA 2006)' and 'Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE 2004)', we found that Korean older people are more likely to feel negatively on their health status than their European counterpart. The findings are explained in two different ways. First, how strongly the objective health status affects on the subjective health status varies among countries. Korean older people with chronic diseases are more likely to evaluate their health status negatively because of the diseases than their European counterparts do. Second, after controlling the effects of the objective health condition, the subjective health status of Korean older people is still lower than that of the European elderly.