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International Journal for Equity in Health
Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research

Discrimination-related health inequality and role of social capital among marriage migrant women in South Korea

Author: Chang-O Kim

Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

This study aimed to evaluate whether social capital could alleviate health inequality against racial discrimination and identify the critical nature of social capital that generates health inequality differences within the social context of South Korea.

Methods

Using the data of the 2009 National Survey of Multicultural Families, a nationally representative sample in which 40,430 foreign wives participated, the concentration index (CI) was used to measure the discrimination-related inequalities in self-rated health and was decomposed into contributing factors.

Results

The results showed a significant concentration of poor self-rated health unfavorable to foreign wives who were highly discriminated (CI 0.023, standard error [SE] 0.001, p < .001). However, when the CIs were assessed among the subgroups of different social capital, no discrimination-related inequality in health was observed among the group of linking social capital (CI 0.008, SE 0.008, p .332). The total differential decomposition method showed two major factors that generate differences in health inequality between the groups of non-linking and linking social capital: protest against discrimination (35.8 %); experiences of discrimination (28.3 %).

Conclusions

The present results indicated that linking social capital can be a useful resource of health resilience factor that equalizes discrimination-related health inequality among marriage migrant women in South Korea. This study provides additional evidence that social capital needs to be placed in its political context.
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Metadata
Title
Discrimination-related health inequality and role of social capital among marriage migrant women in South Korea
Author
Chang-O Kim
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
International Journal for Equity in Health / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0464-z

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