Perceived neighborhood characteristics and the health of adult Koreans

Abstract

This study examines the role of the perception of neighborhood quality with respect to its influence on adult health in Korea. Employing the Quality of Korean Life Survey 2001, we found that the extent to which respondents perceive their neighborhood quality selectively affects the health of adult Koreans. That is, how individuals are satisfied with overall neighborhood characteristics, with neighborhood safety and with relationships to neighbors is considerably and significantly associated with self-rated and emotional health status among Koreans, net of individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Although not statistically significant, the same direction of effect is found for daily activity limitation status, which may have been significant if a larger sample size were considered. This study also demonstrates that most individual demographic and socioeconomic risk factors are associated with health in a pattern consistent with that generally found in most Western societies, with the exception of the effect of education on psychological aspects of health. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.