Self-rated health and its determinants in Japan and South Korea

Abstract

Objective: To compare self-rated health and its determinants between Japanese and South Koreans.

Study design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2496 and 1576 adults (aged ≥20 years) in Japan and Korea, respectively, who completed the 2010 East Asian Social Survey.

Methods: Ordinal logistic regression was conducted to identify significant factors for self-rated health in the two nations.

Results: Japan has a lower level, and a smaller variance, of self-rated health than Korea. This study confirmed traditional results by finding that socio-economic status, daily activity and physical exercise had positive effects on self-rated health; and chronic disease, overweight/obesity and smoking had negative effects on self-rated health. In addition, this study found that: middle-aged (40s/50s) Japanese have lower self-rated health than younger (20s/30s) Japanese; living with a spouse has a negative impact on self-related health in both Japanese and Koreans in their 20s/30s; and mental factors (i.e. happiness, hopelessness and mental health problems) have a greater impact on self-rated health in Japanese than in Koreans, whereas the reverse is true for physical health problems.

Discussion: This study found that many health dynamics depend on the unique context of each nation. Moreover, this study may help to inform the direction of future research on self-rated health and its determinants in other Asian nations.

Keywords: Comparative analysis; Japan; Korea; Self-rated health.