*3.3. Factors Influencing the Avoidance of Healthcare Utilization*

We used logit regression models to test the association between the avoidance of healthcare utilization and respondents' sociodemographic factors and health-related factors (Table 3). Out of the sociodemographic factors, female sex (odds ratio (OR), 1.91; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.40–2.62; *p* < 0.001), age in 50 s (OR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.06–3.50; *p* = 0.03) and living in rural area (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.41–0.99; *p* = 0.05) were significant individual predictors of healthcare avoidance. Among residential areas, respondents who live in the Daegu/Gyeongbuk region (OR, 3.10; 95% CI, 1.62–5.94; *p* < 0.001), Gangwon/Jeju (OR, 2.78; 95% CI, 1.12–6.88; *p* = 0.03) and Daejeon/Sejong/Chungcheong-do (OR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.14–3.65; *p* = 0.02) were more likely to practice avoidance than those living in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. Interestingly, none of the health-related factors were associated significantly with the dependent variable. Respondents who are women in their 50s living in urban and residential areas (especially the Daegu/Gyeongbuk region) are vulnerable in healthcare utilization.

Tables 4 and 5 provide the results of the subgroup analysis, which show a moderate effect of gender and presence of underlying disease. Among men (*n* = 478), sociodemographic factors such as monthly household income level 4.00–5.99 million KRW (OR = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.18–0.98; *p* = 0.05), and over 6.00 million KRW (OR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.19–0.99; *p* = 0.05) and residential area were associated significantly with healthcare avoidance. However, among women (*n* = 522), in their 50 s (OR = 3.05; 95% CI, 1.27–7.30; *p* = 0.01) or older than 60 (OR = 2.90; 95% CI, 1.23–6.82; *p* = 0.01) significantly influenced their healthcare avoidance. Factors that made people vulnerable differed among gender groups. When we restricted the respondents to those with an underlying disease (*n* = 411), only the respondents' residential area, Daegu/Gyeongbuk-region (OR = 4.26; 95% CI, 1.45–12.51; *p* = 0.01), was significantly related to their healthcare utilization. Among the

respondents with no underlying disease, the following groups were more likely to avoid healthcare: females (OR = 2.02; 95% CI, 1.34–3.04; *p* < 0.001), those in their 30s (OR = 2.52; 95% CI, 1.29–4.93; *p* = 0.01), families of two or more (OR = 1.92; 95% CI, 1.00–3.77; *p* = 0.05), those with young children in the home (OR = 2.00; 95% CI, 1.07–3.73; *p* = 0.03), and those living in Daejeon/Sejong/Chungcheong-do (OR = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.00–4.62; *p* = 0.05) and Daegu/Gyeongbuk (OR = 2.51; 95% CI, 1.10–5.76; *p* = 0.03).
