노령인구에서의 소득 수준에 따른 코로나19의 의료서비스 이용량에 대한 영향 비교분석

초록

This paper analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected healthcare service utilization differently across income levels among the elderly population. To this end, we constructed an elderly population panel using data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study (2017–2022) and classified the elderly population into tertiles based on their average equivalized personal income over the period. We then created two panel datasets for the lowest and highest income tertiles. Using four indicators of healthcare service utilization, we estimated fixed-effects panel Poisson regression models separately for the two income groups, including a COVID-19 pandemic dummy variable and control variables for healthcare needs and income. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the number of health check-ups and outpatient visits among the elderly population, with this negative effect being statistically significantly larger among the low-income group. In contrast, for hospitalization-related indicators, the pandemic did not have a statistically significant effect on either income group. However, the decrease in the length of hospital stays was significantly larger for the low-income group. These findings sugge st that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the equity of healthcare utilization deteriorated for health check-ups, outpatient services, and hospitalization services. This, in turn, raises concerns about a further decline in health equity among the elderly population in the long term. Given that these disparities in healthcare access are likely driven by income differences, it is essential to conduct a more precise diagnosis and evaluation of the underlying causes to develop effective policy measures for improvement.

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