Youn Jung Son1, Hyun Joon Kim1, Hye Jin Jeong1, In Young Hwang1, Moo Young Kim1, Soo Hyoung Lee1, Ki Hyun Park1, Kee Ho Park2, Chae Bong Kim3, Hyang Im4, Ji Young Lee5

1Department of Family Medicine, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea 2Cancer Policy Branch, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea 3Environmental and Health Research Institute, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea 4South and North Integrated Welfare Center, Seoul, Korea 5Graduate School of Global Political Studies, Kyonggi University, Seoul, Korea

have been struggling with health problems due to their poor health status and the differences in medical system and terminology between South and North Korea. We aimed to investigate the level of health literacy and its related factors in North Korean refugees.
Methods: This study was conducted with 142 patients who visited North Korean refugees' counseling center at Seoul Medical Center and National Central Medical Center and 100 South Korean patients who visited outpatient clinics or Health Promotion Center of Seoul Medical Center. General and health-related characteristics were surveyed through a questionnaire and health literacy was measured by using ‘Korean Adult Health Literacy Scale’.
Results: The average age of North Korean refugees was 48.92±11.49 years old. Almost 95% reported that their monthly income was less than 2 million KRW. The survey showed that North Korean refugees obtain health information mainly through TV, radio, and acquaintances and more than half (54.9%) said their health was bad or very bad. The mean score of North Korean refugees' health literacy was much lower than that of South Koreans (12.42±7.58 vs. 25.3±5.7, P<0.001). This discrepancy was maintained after adjusting related factors such as age, sex, and socioeconomic status with stratified analysis.
Conclusions: It suggest the urgent need for policies which support for futher researches and development of education system, which may lead to the improvememt of the health literacy of North Korean regugees.
Korean J Health Promot 2017;17(2):71-79

Keywords: Health literacy, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Refugees