Original ArticleEmergency department utilization among people with disabilities in Korea
Section snippets
Data source
The data used in this study were obtained from the Korean Health Panel Survey (KHPS). The KHPS is a nationally representative panel survey with a principal aim of providing baseline information about healthcare spending and utilization in Korea.20 The KHPS has been conducted annually in South Korea since 2008 by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) and the National Health Insurance (NHI) organization, using computer-assisted personal interviewing.20 The study population
General characteristics according to people with and without disabilities
Table 1 shows the general characteristics of the study population from the KHPS data. Regarding socioeconomic characteristics, the disability group was more likely to be male, of older age, and less educated; have a lower household income; and be MA recipients. As for health status and healthcare utilization, the disability group was more likely to have a chronic disease (88.4% in the disabled vs 54.2% in people without disabilities), have taken medications for long time (13.8% vs 10.8%), and
Discussion
Disability is a challenge for both individuals and society. Disabilities can result in additional problems by limiting access to healthcare services.24, 25, 26 The barriers, such as physical barriers, prohibitive costs, and limited availability of services,27 can further influence the health status of people with disabilities, and may eventually lead to worsening socioeconomic conditions and socioeconomic expenses for the society.
In case of the U.S. there has been a growing concern about the
Conclusion
We confirmed that people with disabilities in South Korea visit the ED more frequently than do people without disabilities. These results could be related to access to care, their complex health conditions, or disability itself. In particular, ED visits due to ACSCs was significantly higher among people with disabilities than among people without them, which could be evidence of a system failure in primary care. Health authorities should consider strengthening the primary care system to avoid
Conficts of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding source
This work was supported by the gs1:National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2017R1C1B2002663).
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These authors contributed equally as the first authors of this study.