Has the Health Inequality in Korea Been Widened after the Economic Crisis?

Introduction
Most studies have reported that health condition is negatively affected by the economic crisis. Korea affected by Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, finally the government requested to the International Monetary Fund for the emergency relief funds. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between self-rated poor health and employment status among people aged 40–59 in Korea, focusing particularly on its association with the Asian and the Global economic crisis. Although the study (Khang et al. 2005b) reported that the self-rated poor health in Korea was widened before and after the Asian economic crisis, this study explored the self-rated poor health of only the overall population and did not consider issues related to social stratification.
Results
Overall, trends in socioeconomic health inequalities in Korea still exist in education. But, the gap between regular and irregular employment status has notably narrowed after its peak in 2005.
Discussions
This study was one of the few approaches in Korea to evaluate health inequalities including the period of second economic crisis on self-rated poor health. On the future work, the suggestions mentioned on discussion need to be verified throughout long-term studies. We also regard to use another data like death rate or prevalence disease.