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Endocrine Abstracts (2018) 56 P357 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.56.P357

ECE2018 Poster Presentations: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Diabetes (to include epidemiology, pathophysiology) (73 abstracts)

Distribution of Korean obese patients based on National Health Insurance Claim Data in 2016

Ryungwoo Kang 1 , YounSue Lee 1 & Deborah Chee 1,


1Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials (KoNECT), Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2The Korean Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (KSCPT), Seoul, Republic of Korea.


South Korea has a universal health coverage system that the National Health Insurance covers approximately 98% of the overall Korean population. The claims data of HIRA contains 46 million patients per year that account for 90% of the total population in Korea and include claims from almost 80,000 healthcare service providers across South Korea as of 2011. National Health Insurance (NHI) reimbursement coverage continues to expand and there will be full reimbursement of cancer, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and rare diseases by 2017. The proportion of GDP spent on healthcare will keep growing from the current 7.5%, driven by the ageing population. The claims data of HIRA is collected when healthcare service providers in South Korea seek reimbursements for healthcare services that the National Health Insurance Corporation agrees to cover. The annual number of Korean patients that submitted health insurance claims is approximately 46 million. The claims data of HIRA is a national data compiled from healthcare providers across the country that corresponds to the number of claims submitted by patients. In addition, the claims from patients with medical aid program, government expenditures, and veteran patients are also included in the claims data. According to the National Health Statistics 2015: National Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted by Ministry of Health and Welfare, Prevalence and trends in obesity among Korean adults were incresed since 1998. Percent of adults aged 20 years and over with obesity was 25.1% in 1998 and 39.7% in 2015.

Table 1 Annual numbers of patients.
201120122013201420152016
Total Patients20,33018,14318,37118,04717,54916,613
New Patients16,85414,47514,29013,76713,35712,365
Claimed Patients3,4763,6684,0814,2804,1924,248
Table 2 Gender distribution (2016).
GenderPatients (n)Proportion (%)
Total16,613100.0
Male2,75716.6
Female13,85683.4
Table 3 Age distribution (2016).
AgeMale (n)Female (n)Sub-total (n)
Total2,75913,89816,657
0–9398524922
10–196385291,167
20–293402,2812,621
30–395694,2394,808
40–494483,6894,137
50–592342,0062,240
60–6993539632
70–793181112
Over 80s81018
*The data includes double-counted patients due to the way of age calculation in Korea.
Table 4 Distribution by clinical department (2016).
DepartmentPatients (n)Proportion (%)
General Medicine5,62933.8
Internal Medicine2,72716.4
Pediatrics2,42414.6
Obstetrics-Gynecology1,1676.5
Korean Medicine1,4318.6
Family Medicine1,0847.0
Orthopedic Surgery3802.3
Others1,80910.9
*The data includes multiple counting among clinical departments.
Table 5 Number of inpatients and outpatients (2016).
TypePatients(n)Proportion(%)
Outpatients16,52199.9
Inpatients100.1
*Spell-based proportion.

Volume 56

20th European Congress of Endocrinology

Barcelona, Spain
19 May 2018 - 22 May 2018

European Society of Endocrinology 

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