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“Until recently, Japan and South Korea were among the few countries that used centralized systems of grading disability based on medical criteria to determine eligibility for state assistance and benefits. These systems help explain the relatively lower numbers of officially recognized disabled people in both countries, which at 6 to 7 percent of each population is far below other OECD countries. It took a 1,842-day sit-in in a Seoul subway station for Korean disability rights advocates to persuade their government to replace this system in 2019 with one that assesses individual needs and situations, such as rural versus urban. Japan still uses the grading system.”
Source: Celeste L. Arrington; Disabled People’s Fight for Rights in South Korea and Japan. Current History 1 September 2021; 120 (827): 233–239. doi: doi.org/10.1525/curh.2021.120.827.233
“In South Korea (hereafter “Korea”), registered individuals with disabilities accounted for 2.4% of the total Korean population in 2001, which gradually increased to 4.9% in 2016. Since 2013, more than 40% of the registered disabled people in Korea are aged 65 or older [2].”
Source: Bahk, J., Kang, H. Y., & Khang, Y. H. (2019). The Life Expectancy Gap between Registered Disabled and Non-Disabled People in Korea from 2004 to 2017. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(14), 2593. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142593
“The life expectancy difference between non-disabled and disabled people decreased between 2004 and 2017. The decreased trends were found in both men and women (see Supplementary Table S3). The average life expectancy gap among men and women combined was 18.2 years during the study period, and decreased from 20.4 years in 2004 to 16.4 years in 2017. This decline occurred in both men and women. The life expectancy gap between disabled and non-disabled men ranged from 13.8 years to 18.9 years (average of 16.5 years during the study period), while the gap between disabled and non-disabled women ranged from 15.7 years to 21.8 years (average of 18.6 years during the study period). The life expectancy gap between disabled and non-disabled people was larger in women than in men. Between 2004 and 2017, women with disabilities showed higher life expectancies than men with disabilities (Table 1). The difference in life expectancy between disabled men and disabled women was 3.9 years in 2017 (see Supplementary Table S3 for more detailed results).”
Source: Bahk, J., Kang, H. Y., & Khang, Y. H. (2019). The Life Expectancy Gap between Registered Disabled and Non-Disabled People in Korea from 2004 to 2017. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(14), 2593. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142593
“Although disabilities themselves could lead to excess mortality, it is also possible that other factors, such as poverty, socioeconomic disadvantages, poor health behaviors associated with disabling conditions, psychological distress, less social support, and limited access to health care services might also contribute to the greater mortality among those with disabilities than among non-disabled people. The prevalence of chronic diseases has been found to be higher in people with disabilities than in people without disabilities [18]. People with a mental or physical impairment had a higher smoking rate than an age- and sex-matched random sample from the general population [19], although health-related behaviors varied across types of disabilities [20]. Pregnant women with disabilities were found to be more likely to receive inadequate prenatal care than non-disabled pregnant women [21]. Several Korean studies have suggested that people with disabilities are prone to experience poverty, deprivation of human rights, social isolation, and discrimination [22,23,24]. A recent annual report on national disability statistics showed various aspects of socioeconomic disadvantages among disabled people in Korea [2]. In 2017, 58.5% of people with disabilities had an education below the middle school level, while 75.3% of non-disabled people had received a high school education or higher [2]. The proportion of economically active disabled people of working age was 38.9% in 2017, which was 24.9% point lower than that of the total Korean population [2]. More than 30% of households with disabled people were in poverty, as defined by a disposable income below 50% of the national median equivalized income in 2016. This poverty rate was twice the overall poverty rate in Korea [2].”
Source: Bahk, J., Kang, H. Y., & Khang, Y. H. (2019). The Life Expectancy Gap between Registered Disabled and Non-Disabled People in Korea from 2004 to 2017. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(14), 2593. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142593
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Page last updated Sept. 11, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.
