Considerations for Housing Conditions and Neighborhood Resources in Promoting Health Statuses Among Korean Adults

Background: Large numbers of research have documented meaningful associations between housing conditions, local environment and public health. In spite of the increasing interests in the quality of housing conditions and local environments and the effect they have on health statuses of the habitants, most social science studies have controlled for such factors. Additionally, current literature is insufficient to draw any implications about Korean adults' perceived health in relation to these factors. This study examined associations between housing conditions, neighborhood quality, and self-rated health among Koreans adults with a nationally representative data set.

Methods: This study examined the Korean adults' (self-rated) health statuses by integrating individuals' age, gender, marital status, education level, household income, housing type, crowdedness, quality, and availability of neighborhood resources into the secondary data analysis of 14,426 adults aged 19 and older. Data used in the study is the first wave of the two longitudinal data of 18,856 nationally representative samples from the 2005 Korean Welfare Panel Study (KWPS). T-tests and F-tests were conducted to determine any differences in self-rated health among Korean adults. A multiple regression model examined the relationships between individual SES, housing conditions, neighborhood quality and self-rated health among Korean adults.

Results: The proposed model explained 38 percent of the variance of health in Korean adults. Findings suggest that being younger at age, male, married, having higher education level, higher income, not living in public rental house, living in higher quality housing, and having greater availability of neighborhood resources were associated with higher self-rated health status [F (15, 14174) = 590.99, p<.001].

Conclusion/Discussion: Findings show significant associations between housing conditions, neighborhood quality, and self-rated health among Korean adults. People living in public rental housing or living in lower quality housing were more likely to report poorer health. In addition, people who live in the deprived neighborhood with lack of neighborhood resources (e.g., hospitals, schools, transportation systems, libraries and parks) were more likely to report poorer health. Their perceived health status may be explained by individuals' ability to attain quality housing or the stigma attached to living in low income neighborhood. This can also be understood as direct contribution of resources that enable or suffice health promoting behaviors. Overall, the findings provide evidence to suggest important considerations for improving housing conditions and neighborhood availability of resources in promoting health among Korean adults, beyond focusing on personal factors such as education level or income.