All categorical variables were analyzed using frequency analysis, and the number of chronic diseases was presented as median (interquartile range, IQR) because it did not follow a normal distribution. All analyses applied sampling weights. Because of weighting and variable-specific missing data, the total N and weighted percentages may vary slightly and may not sum exactly to 100%.
Declarations
Author contributions
DHL: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. BRK: Investigation, Writing—original draft. MKJ: Validation, Writing—review & editing, Supervision. All authors read and approved the submitted version.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
This study used anonymized data from the 2023 Korean Elderly Survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. According to national research ethics guidelines, secondary analyses of de-identified public data are exempt from Institutional Review Board (IRB) review.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent to publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
Data from the 2023 Korean Elderly Survey are publicly available from the KIHASA data portal [https://data.kihasa.re.kr].
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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