Associations between hospital admission frequency and household financial outcomes in Korea

Health shocks within families affect not only individual patients but also their entire household, across various economic and psychological dimensions. Rising hospital admissions are strongly associated with increased medical expenditures that strain household finances, with larger relative financial strain among lower-income households. However, the broader socioeconomic consequences of these shocks have yet to be sufficiently investigated, leaving a notable research gap. This study examines the association between hospital admission frequency and household financial stability, focusing on how similar health shocks are differentially associated with outcomes across the conditional distribution of household financial status. Using data from the 2022 Korea Health Panel Survey, this study examined the association between hospital admission frequency and financial outcomes, including household assets for 3,669 households and earned income among 1,844 household heads. Households were categorized into no-, low-, and high-admission groups based on the annual number of hospital admissions per household member. Multivariable linear regression and quantile regression analyses were performed to estimate the average and distributional effects of hospital admission frequency on financial indicators after adjusting for the covariates, with the three groups entered simultaneously into the models. Household assets in the high-admission group were significantly lower at the 25th and 50th percentiles—by KRW 30.09 million and KRW 56.00 million, respectively—than in the no-admission group in the quantile regression analysis (both p < 0.05). For earned income, linear regression showed an average reduction of KRW 5.03 million for the low-admission group (p < 0.01), and quantile regression identified a KRW 5.51 million decrease at the 50th percentile for the high-admission group (p < 0.01). Subgroup analyses showed similar dual declines in both financial indicators across the top 25% and bottom 75% out-of-pocket health expenditure groups, particularly between the 10th and 50th percentiles. Frequent hospital admissions were associated with heterogeneous financial associations across households, with the extent of losses in assets and earned income varying significantly by household composition and medical expenditure level. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive financial protection and social support policies in Korea to alleviate the unequal economic burden of health shocks.