Long-Lived Koreans Take Dim View of Their Own Health

Koreans take a dimmer view of their own health than any other people in the OECD, a survey suggests.

The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs compared life expectancy to subjective health self-assessment in the OECD in a report published last month. 

Only 35.1 percent of Korean respondents over 15 said they believe they are in good health, the smallest proportion in the OECD and just half the average of 69.2 percent. But Koreans' life expectancy is 81.8 years, higher than the OECD average of 80.5 years.

Korea and Japan are the only countries where fewer than 40 percent of respondents feel well. In Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. around 90 percent of respondents reported being fit as a fiddle.

Experts blame the mismatch on psychological and environmental factors. "Most Koreans have a long and busy working day and can't afford enough rest and sleep", said Yim Jae-joon at Seoul National University Hospital. "Quality of life is not great, which is why so many Koreans worry about their health too much".

The institute also pointed to a culture of understatement about how well one is doing generally. Choi Jae-wook at Korea University College of Medicine, said, "A surfeit of health information in the media distorts people's perception of their health".

But the report also shows that Koreans tend to underestimate how fat they are. Although 24.4 percent of respondents said they believe they are overweight or obese, the actual proportion was 31.5 percent. The discrepancy was even more pronounced among women with 17.8 percent against a reality of 26.4 percent.

In the U.S., the difference was minimal -- while a humongous 71.3 percent are overweight or obese, 70.5 percent know it.

"Untested information readily available online and mistrust of medical professionals result in people shopping around hospitals and doctors until they find one that tells them what they want to hear", warned Shin Hyun-young at the Korean Medical Association.