Disease Control and Prevention Agency Holds Expert Forum to Address Health Disparities in Honam Region

Experts gathered to hold a forum to identify and address disparities in health indicators related to chronic diseases in local communities.

On the 20th, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Honam Regional Disease Response Center, the center held the "Honam Region Health Disparity Reduction Strategy Forum" at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Seo-gu, Gwangju, to reduce disparities related to chronic diseases between regions that have worsened due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first part of the forum, Gwangju City and the Jeonnam Public Health Medical Support Group shared analysis results on the current status of chronic disease health disparities in each region, and the KDCA-led project conducted by Wonkwang University shared the status and achievements of efforts to reduce disparities in chronic disease-related indicators.

According to the annual Community Health Survey conducted by the KDCA, the diagnosis experience rate of chronic diseases and early symptom recognition rate of myocardial infarction in the Honam region have slightly worsened, indicating the need for continuous management to improve chronic disease health indicators and reduce disparities.

The diabetes diagnosis experience rate in the Honam region was 9.2% last year, an increase of 0.6% compared to 2021, while the inter-regional disparity decreased by 0.1% from 6.6% in 2021. Additionally, the early symptom recognition rate of myocardial infarction in the Honam region was 49.7% last year, a slight decrease of 0.2% compared to 2021, and the inter-regional disparity increased by 5.6% over one year to 55.5%.

In this regard, the Honam Regional Disease Response Center is conducting research projects to analyze the causes of disparities in major chronic disease-related indicators and to develop and implement region-specific programs.

In the second part, local governments, research institutions, and preventive medicine experts held in-depth discussions on the direction of community health disparity reduction projects, future strategy development, and improvement of chronic disease-related health indicators in the Honam region.

Yoon Jeong-hwan, director of the Honam Regional Disease Response Center, said, "Through this forum, we hope that the public and private sectors will cooperate to improve chronic disease-related health indicators and reduce disparities that have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic," adding, "The Regional Disease Response Center will also maintain cooperative systems and continue efforts to resolve community health issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.