238287 Prevalence of Chronic Diseases, Status of Health Behaviors and Medical Service Utilization among Female Workers

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Sang-A Kim, PhD , Department of Silver Welfare, Dong Seoul College, Sungnam-si, South Korea
In Han Song, PhD, LCSW , Graduate School of Social Welfare, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Junghee Wang , Graduate School of Social Welfare, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Yun Kyung Kim, MA , Graduate School of Social Welfare, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Woong-Sub Park, MD, PhD , Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Kwandong University, Gangneung-si, South Korea
Background:

Despite the increasing number of female participation in employment, blue-collar women have been exposed to higher health risk. This study is to describe the prevalence of chronic diseases, health behaviors, and medical service utilization of female blue-collar workers.

Methods:

Data were derived from the 2001 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES). The sample was made up of 37,108 male and female participants aged 20 or over selected nation-wide by probability sampling from Korea. This study applied the logistic regression for nominal variables such as disease prevalence and health behaviors and with the regression for continuos variables such as the length and costs of medical services.

Results:

In general, women's prevalence of chronic illness and uncured rate were significantly higher than male, and especially female blue-collar workers had the highest prevalence, uncured rate, unhealthy status, and perceived stress. However, the medical care cost was the lowest in female blue-collar workers.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest that female blue-collar workers were more likely to experience health problems, and that despite the highest health risk, health service is not effectively utilized, and health policy maker should take consider of special status of female blue collar workers who are in health inequality.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Occupational health and safety
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe in detail the prevalence of chronic diseases, health behaviors, and medical service utilization of female blue-collar workers. Articulate the relationship between women's health status and occupational status. Discuss health disparities among female blue-collar workers.

Keywords: Women's Health, Occupational Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I designed the research, collected the data, analyzed the data, and wrote the abstract with other authors
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.