An Exploratory Study on Community-based Participatory Capacity and Health Inequality

This study aims to explore ways to alleviate health inequality by analyzing the effect of community-based participatory capacity on individual health level through the mediate effect of health behaviors. Existing studies have shown limitation in that it only focused on socio-economic status or it explain the impact of social capital on health without intermediate stage. Thus, this study measured the level of health as physical, mental, and perceptive health based on the 2017-2023 data of the ‘Community Health Survey’, and analyzed whether the sense of belonging and participation in the local community improved health through positive and negative health behaviors. As a result, the capacity of the local community, excluding reciprocity, changes individual health behavior in a positive direction and improves the level of individual health. This shows that local governments needs to consider alternative ways to activate the network of relationships between the community and residents for changing the health behavior of local residents positively.