Housing insecurity and health among people in South Korea: focusing on tenure and affordability

Abstract Objectives Housing is one of the social determinants of health, and the evidence of its impact in this area has been increasingly expanded. However, in spite of its importance, there have been few studies to investigate an association between housing and health in Korea. Our study aimed to investigate housing tenure and affordability and their effects on health outcomes in Korea. Study design We selected 9456 participants from the 10–11th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study, after excluding missing variables. Housing tenure and affordability were chosen as independent variables, and depressive symptoms and self-rated health were selected as dependent variables. Methods Logistic regression was implemented to investigate the association between housing tenure/affordability and health outcome, and all covariates such as sex, age, and household income were adjusted. Results Compared with homeowners, renters are more likely to have depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08, 1.47) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.19–1.61). Also, health effects of housing unaffordability were observed differently by tenure, showing that the likelihood of having depressive symptoms (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.15, 2.13) and poor self-rated health (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.06) is significantly high among renters who reported unaffordability. Conclusion This study could provide evidence of housing as a determinant of health by showing that both housing tenure and affordability are significantly related to health outcomes.