The findings of this study provide important information on the health status and predictors
of health services utilization among older Koreans. Although there were no statistically
significant differences in self-rated poor health among men and women in the logistic
regression analysis, this study indicated that more women (29.3%) than men (14.5%) rated
their health as poor or very poor. This may be explained by the fact that women who grew up
in traditional patriarchal families may have been socialized to place the needs of other family members before their own, which may have hindered them from seeking medical services
[17]. The result of this study supports this explanation, i.e., older Korean women were less
likely than their counterparts to have used physician and/or traditional Korean medical
practitioner services (Table 3). More specifically, men were much more likely to have visited
a doctor than women. They were also two times more likely to have used traditional Korean
medicine than women. Health status was lower among those who had lower income, those
who had primary education and persons of older age. These findings support other research
[18,19] that demonstrates the importance of sociology-economic status in self-reported poor
health. The study by Laroche [18] shows that age seems to be a significant explanatory
variable, suggesting that health deteriorates as one gets older. The study by Lim et al. [19]
indicates that lower incomes and educational attainment are linked to bad health.
Respondents with chronic conditions were twice as likely to have self-rated poor health as
residents without a chronic condition. This result is consistent with the study that found a
relationship between self-reported poor health and chronic conditions