Professors from Seoul National University Hospital announced the results of a large-scale study on 2,200 adults on the 27th that examined the difference in subjective health status and socioeconomic and demographic factors before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. The research team surveyed 2,200 adults twice in 2018 and 2021 on physical health, mental health, social health, and spiritual health. Physics health indicates normal physical strength of human, mental health indicates stress coping ability, social health means social function and interpersonal ability, and spiritual health means engagement in volunteer and religious activities.
As a result of questioning the subjective health status of the survey participants, the response that "health status is the best or very good" decreased significantly in both post-COVID-19 mental health (38.71% in 2018, 35.17% in 2021), and social health (42.48% in 2018 and 33.28% in 2021). In addition, the research team conducted a statistical analysis after examining items such as socioeconomic factors including final education, household monthly income, employment status, and demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, residence, and religion.
Consequently, the socio-economic factors that increased their influence on low mental and social health after the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before COVID-19 were household monthly income and final education. The influence on mental health with an insufficient monthly household income of less than 4.3 million won per month has increased since the COVID-19 epidemic, from about 1.8 times in 2018 to about 2.4 times in 2021. Household monthly income of less than 4.3 million won per month has increased from about 1.7 times in 2018 to about 2.5 times in 2021. The impact of high school graduation or subsequent final education on "social health" has increased from about 2.3 times in 2018 to about 2.6 times in 2021. The research team explained that the risk of subjective health deterioration for the mental and social health of people with low household monthly income or low education level increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Yoon of the Department of Psychiatry at Seoul National University Hospital said, "The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a great threat to people's daily lives as well as to their health and economic safety". She further claimed that this study will implement policies to improve the mental and social health of socially and economically vulnerable people after COVID-19. To conclude, COVID-19’s impact was beyond the medical field; its negative impact on mental and social health was profound and its impact is significantly related to socioeconomic status. Such research let us know that helping socially vulnerable people is important not just for economic support, but it actually helps them to stop the vicious cycle starting from the economic difficulties.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
Reference:
Newsis. “코로나19 이후 경제력·학력 따른 건강 불평등 악화.” 공감언론 뉴시스, Newsis, 27 Oct. 2022, https://newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20221027_0002063754&cID=13101&pID=13200.
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