• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.391-400
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• 2005

Objective : This study examined the socioeconomic differentials for the health and health related behaviors among South Korean middle school students. Methods : A nationwide cross-sectional interview survey of 3,449 middle school second-grade students and their parents was conducted using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method. The response rate was 93.3%. The socioeconomic position indicators were based on self-reported information from the students and their parents: parental education, father's occupational class, monthly family income, out-of-pocket expenditure for education, housing ownership, educational expectations, educational performance and the perceived economic hardships. The outcome variables that were measured were also based on the self-reported information from the students. The health measures included self-rated health conditions, psychological or mental problems, the feelings of loneliness at school, the overall satisfaction of life and the perceived level of stress. The health related behaviors included were smoking, alcohol drinking, sexual intercourse, violence, bullying and verbal and physical abuse by parents. Results : Socioeconomic differences for the health and health related behaviors were found among the eighth grade boys and girls of South Korea. However, the pattern varied with gender, the socioeconomic position indicators and the outcome measures. The prevalence rates of the overall dissatisfaction with life for both genders differed according to most of the eight socioeconomic position indicators. All the health measures were significantly different according to the perceived economic hardship. However, the socioeconomic differences in the self-rated health conditions and the psychosocial or mental problems were not clear. The students having higher socioeconomic position tended to be a perpetrator of bullying while those students with lower socioeconomic position were more likely to be a victim. Conclusions : The perceived economic hardships predicted the health status among the eighth graders of South Korea. The overall satisfaction of life was associated with the socioeconomic position indicators. Further research efforts are needed to explore the mechanisms on how and why the socioeconomic position affects the health and health related behaviors in this age group.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8877-8881
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• 2014

Background: Despite social gradients in adult smoking, the effects of socioeconomic position (SEP) on adolescent smoking is not well understood. This study examined effects of subjective SEP as well as the objective SEP on smoking among Korean adolescents. Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the 2012 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students (38,221 boys; 35,965 girls). SEP was assessed by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) and the self-rated household economic status. Relationships between SEP and smoking were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: The low perceived SEP for either the high or low FAS grade was related to an elevated likelihood of smoking in both genders. A significantly higher risk of smoking was found in boys of low perceived SEP in middle school (odds ratio [OR] 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.28-1.77 for high FAS, OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.21-1.98 for low FAS), and of low perceived SEP and high FAS in high school (OR 1.13; 95% CI 1.02-1.26). Among girls, an elevated risk of smoking was observed in middle school group with low perceived SEP and low FAS (OR 2.01; 95% CI 1.44-2.79) and in the high school group of low perceived SEP, regardless of FAS level (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.14-1.57 for high FAS, OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.04-1.65 for low FAS). Conclusions: The relationship of subjectively perceived SEP with smoking is as important as objective SEP and more significant in Korean high school adolescents.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.129-140
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• 2009

Objectives: This study aimed to examined the socioeconomic disparities in oral health related behaviors and to assess if those behaviors eliminate socioeconomic disparities in oral health in a nationally representative sample of adults aged 30-64. Methods: Data are from the Korea Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005). Behaviors were indicated by smoking, over intake of daily calories from carbohydrate, perceived stress, frequency of daily tooth brushing, use of oral hygiene goods, insufficient oral treatment. Oral health outcomes were self-reported dental caries and periodontitis during the last 12 months and perceived oral health. Education, household income, and employed status indicated socioeconomic position. Sex, age, residential area, marital status were adjusted for in the logistic regression analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess socioeconomic disparities in behaviors. Logistic regression model adjusting and not adjusting for behaviors were compared to assess the change in socioeconomic disparities in oral health. Results: Clear socioeconomic disparities in all behaviors were showed. After adjusting for behaviors, the association between oral health and socioeconomic indicators attenuated but did not disappear. For example, the odd ratios of reporting poorer oral health for persons in no education or elementary school education and middle school education groups, compared with college or higher education group, were 1.77 (95% CI: 1.36-2.29) and 1.56 (1.19-1.97), respectively. After adjusting for all indicators of behaviors, these odds ratios attenuated to 1.54 (1.17-2.03) and 1.48 (1.15-1.91) for those groups, respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the presence of more complex determinants of socioeconomic disparities in oral health should be considered with developing preventive policies for those disparities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3279-3286
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• 2014

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Korea. To reduce cancer incidence, the Korean National Cancer Center (KNCC) has been expanding its organized cancer screening program. In addition, there are opportunistic screening programs that can be chosen by individuals or their healthcare providers. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with participation in organized and opportunistic cancer screening programs, with a particular focus on socioeconomic factors. Materials and Methods: We used data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), a cross-sectional nationwide study conducted by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare from 2007 to 2011. The study included information from 9,708 men and 12,739 women aged 19 years or over. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted, adjusting for age, year of data collection, residential region, current smoking status, current alcohol consumption status, exercise, marriage status, job status, perceived health status, stress level, BMI, limitation of activities, cancer history, health insurance type, and private insurance status, to investigate the association between education level, economic status, and cancer screening participation. Results: In terms of education level, disparities in attendance were observed only for the opportunistic screening program. In contrast, there was no association between education level and participation in organized screening. In terms of economic status, disparities in opportunistic screening participation were observed at all income levels, but disparities in organized screening participation were observed only at the highest income level. Conclusions: Our findings reveal that socioeconomic factors, including educational level and economic status, were not significantly associated with participation in organized cancer screening, except at the highest level of income.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2010

Objectives: This study attempted to explore the aging phenomena that now characterize much of Korean society, and assessed issues associated with the life satisfaction experienced during the process of aging. Methods: By employing the National Survey on the State of Life and the Desire for Welfare of the Elderly, 2004 in South Korea this study attempted to identify the factors that determine subjective life satisfaction among the elderly. The data utilized herein consisted of 3278 elderly people aged 65 years or older, from 9308 households. Results: The results of analysis from the final model after the introduction of 19 variables in 8 factors showed statistically similar explanatory power in men (adj. $R^2=0.320$) and in women (adj. $R^2=0.346$). We found that economic condition was the most influential factor in both men (B = 0.278) and women (B = 0.336) except perceived health condition variables. The second most influential variable in life satisfaction was health checkups in men (B = 0.128) and degree of nutritional diet in women (B = 0.145). Those who had experience with chronic diseases also reported significantly lower perceived life satisfaction and this was particularly true of women. Conclusions: The aging society requires an understanding of the lives of elderly individuals. This study explored factors associated with life satisfaction in old age by using a life satisfaction model. The success of an aging society begins with an accurate understanding of the elderly, and thus political attention will need to be focused on this matter.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 1976

This study was a part of large scale of a prospective study on attitudes of professional students in medicine, nursing and teaching toward population related issues in Korea. The study was first conducted in May 1974 and then in May 1975 for the 1974 class cohot using a questionaire consisted of attitude scales and other items developed by Lee. The purpose of stuay was twohold, namely, to determine the difference in students among specializations on one hand and between the first and second years in the 1974 class cohot regarding tile subject matter. A one-way analysis of variance was used for attitude scale, and absolute and relative frequency were computed for the analysis of non-attitude scale items by employing Fishers' Ratio and Duncan's multiple range test at 5% level and chi square test at 5% level as significance tests. The hypothesis 'students in health profession are more likely to have positive attitudes toward population related issues progressively as class year advances than students in teaching profession' was tested and the following results were obtained: 1) Nursing students were more likely to display favarable attitudes toward family planning than medical or teaching students although the class cohot showed slightly negative improvement in the second year. Medical and teaching students apperaed to have slightly improved attitudes in the second year. 2) Respondents in general perceived national family planning program as a means of population control and this tendency was more true among nursing students as the class year advances than two other professional groups of students. Students in teaching profession appeared to perceive it more as a means to improve individual family welfare while health students were likely to see as to improve maternal and child health. This tendency was progressively improved as the class year advanced. 3) The majority of students regardless of their respective specializations believed that family planning program should be directed toward the improvement of individual family welfare. No progressive changes in the class cohot were observed. 4) About the plan to use contraceptives in future, no singnificant differences were observes among different specializations nor in different class years. However, the majority was confirmed to have a plan to use contracepives in future. An increasing proportion of the undecided category was observed, as class year advanced among health students. 5) Students in health profession were found to be more favorable about 'more leisure opportunities' as motive for limiting number of children whereas education students indicated the reasons as 'facilitate ambitions' and 'economic base' The progressive changes toward positive direction in both groups were observed as the class years advanced. 6) Attitudes toward induced abortions of the health students were observed to be positively related to class years while an inverse relationship was found in teaching students who showed much less favor in the subject matter than health students. This phenomenon may be due to the different exposure to learning environments unique to respective specializations. 7) Health students were found to have more favorable attitudes toward population education in general than the teaching students. The teaching students appeared to have changed more to the negative direction when they became the second year while no such development was observed in health students. The teaching students seemed to hold a very conservative position with regard to sex education in schools. 8) About the equality of sexes, the nursing group was found to be most favorable while the reverse was true in the teaching group. A change in the negative direction as the class year advanced was found in the teaching group. 9) About questions related to fertility values-the 10 percent of respondents regardless of specialization indicated that they would maintain their single status in future, however no change was observed in the second year. The desired number of children was found to be two by the majority of students in nursing, medicine and teaching in order of high proportion. No changes in a different class year were observed. The childless marriage was seen by nursing students as a problem more than other students, but a slight change in positive direction was found when the nursing students became the second year. In summing, as data supported in the above, students in health profession demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward population related issues than the teaching students and this tendency became more apparent in the second year. It was noticed that health students were more conscious about the health aspect of population and family planning program while the teaching students gave more attention to the socioeconomic aspect. The sex variable seemed to have operated in the item related to the equality of sexes. In conclusion, as data presented in the above, the hypothesis of this study was accepted except in the few items. It should be noted that the limitation of this study is the short duration of the observation in measuring the possible attitude changes. It should include curriculum analysis for the respective specializations in order to indentify the area of curriculum impact on students in future study.