Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation between health behavior and public health center utilization among lower income families who earned half of the average Korean family income. The cross-sectional descriptive survey research we conducted was a nationwide randomization sampling among lower income families. The data was collected from July 12 to August 7, 1999 and the total sample was 5,819 household members (1,735 households). There were three major findings according to these studies. 1. In health behaviors, 26.5% of respondents had a health examination. Among them, 41.5% were in a poor condition of health. In health promotion behaviors, only 37.3% of respondents were doing activities for health maintenance or promotion. 2. In the results of the public health center utilization for the past year, 57.4% of respondents visited one or more times. In addition, 46.2% of respondents wanted to use a visiting nursing service. 3. In the results of multiple logistic regression, we found that less education, larger family size, and medicaid affects more utilization of public health center. In addition, older age, living without a spouse, less education, larger family size, lower family income, and public health center usage affects requests for the visiting nurse service.