KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

This study investigated health state change from social status change after two times of economic crisis(1988, 2008 year) in Korea, based on a gender-perspective. Lack of recognition that men and women could have different health status, resulting from the difference of social status between men and women after the economic status, is still existing. This contributed to finding a few past studies on the topic above. Therefore, this study tried to find out the association between social status change and health status change after economic status, based on a gender-perspective. This study used a panel survey called Korean Labor Income Panel Study to do so. The method of the study capitalized both quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. Using logistics, Keplan-Meier, and Cox regression analysis, we tracked the change of social status and health condition between 1988 and 2007. The variables in the statistical model included subjective health condition, socio-economic status, sex, income, subjective social class, periods, marital status, satisfaction of economic condition in the family and family relationship, smoking habit etc. We also interviewed 12 female subjects about how their change of health condition occurred after the economic crisis. For speaking of main findings, this study found out from the person-level data set that women's health condition turned to the worst when their social status changed to the lowest class under the poverty. On the other hand, we found that men's heath condition turned to the worst when their social status stayed in poverty. It should be also noted that this study found from the person-period data set that women are more likely to lower survival rate of changing to worse and the worst health condition than men when their income reduced after first economic crisis, they have lower social class, and family income satisfaction went worst. More specific reasons why women have been more subjected to the change of social environments after the economic crisis than men were shown well from the interview results of this study. We found that women could suffer from all kinds of worse social environments changed from the economic crisis such as reduction of satisfaction in their family relationship, divorce, loss of employment status of their spouse or themselves, stress resulted from both work in their working place and care for their children and the elderly in their home, etc. Therefore, this study suggested many kinds of polices related to better health safety net for the poor class, particularly for women belonging to the poor class.