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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1519098
Status and factors related to Hemoglobin concentration of people with versus without disabilityusing nationwide claims check-up database
Provisionally accepted
Seyune Lee 1
Young-il Jung 1*
Hye Jung Yun 1
Se-Youn Jung 1 Boyoung Jeon 2
In-Hwan Oh 3 Su Jin Jeong 4- 1 Korea National Open University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2 Myongji College, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3 College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 4 Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Background: Blood hemoglobin level is a key indicator of organ function and health status throughout the life course. As hemoglobin-related health problems are gaining attention, many studies on factors related to hemoglobin concentration are being conducted, yet few researches have been conducted targeting persons with disabilities. Furthermore, researches that consider the association between blood hemoglobin and the regional level health welfare resources are rare. This study aimed to explore the factors related to blood hemoglobin concentration among people with and without disability, and to contribute to the development of future nutritional policies and projects for persons with disabilities.Methods: A health insurance claims database with check-ups provided by the National Health Insurance Services (NHIS) was used. One-to-three propensity score matching was conducted between participants with and without disabilities. In addition to the individual clinical and health behavioral aspects based on the claims data, regional-level data of healthcare and social welfare resources was also collected, and multi-level analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with low blood hemoglobin level.Results: A total of 1,697 participants with disability and 5,091 without disabilities were yielded. Disability was significantly associated with lower hemoglobin level, even after propensity score matching. Sex, BMI, health behaviors, and clinical indicators were significantly associated with the blood hemoglobin level. Furthermore, region-level welfare budget was a significant factor among persons with disability.Our findings confirmed the significant association between disability and lower hemoglobin level. Regional health and welfare resources, as well as individual characteristics should be considered in implementation of further nutrition and health policies for persons with disabilities. Further studies are needed to understand of health outcomes of low hemoglobin level.
Keywords: Persons with disability, Hemoglobin, Anemia, PSM, nutritional inequality, Claims data analysis
Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lee, Jung, Yun, Jung, Jeon, Oh and Jeong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Young-il Jung, Korea National Open University, Seoul, 110-791, Republic of Korea
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