Socioeconomic class and antenatal and postpartum care inequality in the viewpoint of Korea’s response to the low fertility rate

Abstract

The author pays attention to the low total fertility rate (0.78 in Korea in 2022) and inequality in antenatal and postpartum care between socioeconomic classes. I analyzed the data of the Korea Health Panel (2008–2016), 1,196 postpartum women. Low-income households have low fertility rates and less experience with antenatal and postpartum care, and postpartum care costs tend to be time-series lower than others. In order to solve the problem of low fertility due to economic burden, policy governance should focus on equity in antenatal and postpartum care. This is to go beyond women’s health and ultimately contribute to social health.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Joongbu University for encouraging research. Also, I would like to thank the Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the National Health Insurance Corporation for their efforts in producing KHP data.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The author submitted the study plan to the KHP Data Management Agency, KIHASA, and received the data officially. Institutional Review Board formally approved the KHP data (KIHASA 2022–017).

Data availability statement

Information on KHP data used in this study can be found at the following link site: https://www.khp.re.kr:444/web/data/data.do

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the study.