The higher the income, the longer the healthy life? A research team led by Yoon Seok-joon, a professor at Korea University School of Medicine, analyzed health insurance data from 2008 to 2020, the Yonhap News Agency reported Friday, a study of income levels and health equity trends such as“Healthy life expectancy” in South Korea shows that the healthy life expectancy of the highest income group is 74.88 years, 8.66 years longer than the lowest-income group (66.22 years) .
A healthy life is a time when illness or disability is eliminated from the life expectancy, meaning a time when life is painless and healthy. The results showed that the healthy life expectancy of South Koreans increased from 68.89 years in 2008 to 71.82 years in 2020, an increase of 2.93 years. In terms of sex, healthy life expectancy for women in 2020 was 73.98 years, 4.55 years longer than for men (69.43 years) .
Of particular concern is that the higher the income level, the longer the healthy life span. Based on health insurance contributions, the team divided income into five groups to compare and analyze. The results showed that the highest-income group had a healthy life expectancy of 74.88 years, that’s 8.66 years longer than the lowest-income group’s 66.22 years.
In addition, because life expectancy is increasing faster than healthy life, the time spent in an“Unhealthy state” has also increased. Simple calculations show that the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy widened from 11.94 years in 2008 to 12.73 years in 2020. Based on the findings, the research team stressed that priority should be given to groups with shorter healthy lives and strategies should be developed to address health inequalities.