Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to analyze health service utilization, and its related factors in low income families who earned half of the average Korean household income.
METHODS
This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey study in which a nationwide randomization sampling technique was used. The data were collected from July 12 to August 7, 1999, and the total sample size was 5,819 individuals, belonging to 1,753 households.
RESULTS
1) In the utilization of health services for the last 3months, the pharmacy was the type of service that was the most utilized (32.0%), and the health center was the one that was the least utilized (10.3%). About 29 % (29.2%) of the respondents could not utilize the health service at all, and 19.8% of the respondents terminated their medical treatments half way to completion because of financial difficulty (89.4%). 2) Analysis of the data using logistic regression showed that living with spouse, level of education, occupation, and income had statistically significant effects on health service utilization.
CONCLUSION
The parameters of health care policies are equity and efficacy for health status, and the health service utilization by low income families. The conclusive resolution for these is the improvement of public health centers for an increased utilization rate of their services.