Health Disparities Among Young Single-Person Households in South Korea

• In Event: 41009 - Singlehood and Mental Health

Abstract

Prior studies on living alone and loneliness have predominantly focused on health consequences for older adults. This study builds on that work by examining whether living alone is associated with poorer health outcomes for young adults (in their twenties and thirties) in South Korea, where the share of single-person households is rapidly growing.
Using 15 years of nationally representative data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study (KoWePS) and fixed effects regression analysis, this study examines the association between living alone and three health outcomes: self-rated physical health, mental health (depression symptoms), and hospital visits. Results show that young adults who are living alone are more likely to report poorer self-rated health outcomes, visit an outpatient clinic, and have more depressive symptoms than young adults who do not live alone. Furthermore, living alone has a more negative impact on women’s health than men’s, and employment serves as a stronger protective factor for men compared to women. Additional analyses from event history models provided substantively similar results: individuals living alone are more likely to experience worse physical health status and mental health, and this gap increases over time.
The findings suggest that South Korea's rapidly growing single-person household trend among young adults represents a significant public health challenge that will require targeted social policies, community-based interventions, and healthcare adaptations to address.

Author

• Bomi Kim, University of California-Santa Barbara