Abstract
In August 2019, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (currently the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency) aimed to identify the factors associated with health disparities in each region of Korea to improve the health of local residents and establish measures to resolve health disparities tailored to regional characteristics through the Subregional Health Disparity Reduction Pilot Project. Since 2020, this project has been promoted with the goal of improving health disparities at the subregional level, targeting vulnerable groups to make the results for the entire community visible, and resolving subregional health problems and health disparities. This report examines the status and past achievements of the Gyeongnam Region Subregional Health Disparity Resolution Project conducted in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam by the Chronic Disease Investigation Department of the Gyeongnam Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention in cooperation with local governments and explores development tasks for expanding the Project in the future. Over the past four years (2020–2023), this project has established a standard model for regional health promotion and health disparity resolution intervention projects, and the related information was assessed through evaluation after the implementation of the intervention project. Efforts have been made to create a scientific basis for policy preparation by verifying the project’s effectiveness. As a result, clues for improving the health of vulnerable areas were obtained, and local interest in health issues has increased. Furthermore, this project in the Gyeongnam subregion should be developed by establishing a system as well as a national standard model.