The Gaps in Health-Adjusted Life Years (HALE) by Income and Region in Korea: A National Representative Bigdata Analysis

Young-Eun Kim, Yoon-Sun Jung, Minsu Ock, Hyesook Park, Ki-Beom Kim, Dun-Sol Go and Seok-Jun Yoon
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Young-Eun Kim: Department of Big Data Strategy, National Health Insurance Service, 32 Geongang-ro, Wonju 26464, Korea
Yoon-Sun Jung: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Korea University, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Minsu Ock: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-Gu, Seoul 05505, Korea
Hyesook Park: Department of Preventive Medicine, Graduate Program in System Health Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, College of Medicine, 25 Magokdong-ro 2-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul 07804, Korea
Ki-Beom Kim: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Korea University, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Dun-Sol Go: Department of Health Care Policy Research, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Sejong 30147, Korea
Seok-Jun Yoon: Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-8

Abstract: This study aims to calculate the health-adjusted life years (HALE) by using years lived with disability (YLD) from the national claims data, as well as to identify the differences and inequalities in income level and region. The study was carried out on total population receiving health insurance and medical benefits. We calculated incidence-based YLD for 260 disease groups, and used it as the number of healthy years lost to calculate HALE. We adopted the insurance premium to calculate the income as a proxy indicator. For the region classification, we chose 250 Korean municipal-level administrative districts. Our results revealed that HALE increased from 2008 to 2018. HALE in males increased faster than that in females. HALE was higher in higher income levels. In 2018, the gap in HALE between Q1 and Q2, the lower income group, was about 5.57 years. The gap in females by income level was smaller than that in males. Moreover, the gap in HALE by region was found to increase. Results suggest that there is an inequality in YLD in terms of income level in Korea. Therefore, we need intensive management for the low-income group to promote HALE at the national level.

Keywords: health-adjusted life years; inequality; years lived with disability; income; region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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