earticle

영어

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate differences in health characteristics and healthcare utilization behaviors among Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese students for language course (hereinafter referred to as ‘international students’) in two language schools in the Philippines. In addition, the study would identify the factors affecting their activeness of healthcare utilization and prepare measures to revitalize healthcare utilization in terms of health education. Methods: A questionnaire was prepared in three languages, Korean, traditional Chinese, and Japanese, and a survey was conducted from July 9 to July 16, 2019 in Philippines, and data from 115 participants were analyzed, using IBM Statistics Ver. 21.0. Results: Korean international students were more concerned about skin problems and suffered significantly more from symptoms than Taiwanese and Japanese international students did, and language barriers were picked up as the top reason for not visiting hospitals or external pharmacies when they were sick. Factors affecting their activeness to seek medical care were the severity of their symptoms and whether they had insurance for treatment. Conclusion: It is expected that the results of this study would contribute to the health promotion of international students by developing health education programs tailored to them.