Development of Health Inequality Indicators and Health Inequality Monitoring in Korea

Abstract

To heighten the health of the entire population, improving the health of each individual is most important. But no less important is the effort to reduce health inequalities between population groups. The United Kingdom and other European countries have long recognized that the problem of health inequality exists not only between countries but also between regions and different population groups within a country and have exerted efforts to develop policies to deal with the issue. Continuous monitoring of health inequalities has been the most basic and important part of those efforts. As in other countries, the efforts to reduce health inequities in Korea should start with measures to raise social wareness of the problem. This health inequality report offers the most basic, yet essential, information required for the development of policy to eliminate health disparities between regions and population groups in the country.