Koreans have little confidence in their health, a global statistics showed.

According to Health Statistics 2018, a report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea ranked rock bottom with only 32.5 percent of Koreans answering that they thought they were healthy. The OECD average is 68.3 percent.

The result coincides with a recent report published by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in February, which stated that the total number of patients suffering from hypochondriac delusion hit 3,817 in 2016.

Hypochondriasis is a condition in which a person is inordinately worried about having a serious illness.

Despite such concerns, the OECD report showed that Koreans are above the OECD average when it comes to various health indexes. The report showed Koreans have a life expectancy of 82.4 years, 1.6 years longer than the OECD average.

Also, Korea's cancer mortality rate was 168.4 per 100,000, which was the third lowest after Mexico (114.7) and Turkey (160.8), while the death rate of ischemic heart disease was only 37.1 per 100,000, ranking second after Japan (32.3). The death rate for cerebrovascular disease was also on par with the OECD average with 61.7 per 100,000.

However, Korea had a respiratory diseases mortality rate of 76.2 per 100,000, which was considerably higher than the OECD average (66.1).

Also, although suicide rates have steadily decreased since 2011, the report showed that Korea still had the highest suicide rate among OECD nations with 25.8 per 100,000.

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