Calculation of smoking rates by dong/eup/myeon unit using small-area estimation in the Community Health Survey / 한국역학회지

No abstract available.

Trends in health-related behaviors of Korean adults: study based on data from the 2008-2014 Community Health Surveys / 한국역학회지

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity (multiple risks) often lead to serious health consequence and impaired health status. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trend in health-related behavioral factors over time among adults in South Korea (hereafter Korea). The data of 1,595,842 Koreans older than 19 years who participated in the 2008-2014 Korea Community Health Survey were analyzed to assess the trend in the prevalence of behavioral risk factors. Individual or clustering health-related behaviors were assessed according to sex, age, and region among 228,712 adults who participated in the 2014 survey. From 2008 to 2014, the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity and high-risk alcohol use increased the prevalence of male current smoking and marginally decreased walking ability. Over 7 years, the percentage of adults who reported having all three healthy behaviors (i.e., currently not smoking, not consuming alcohol or having high-risk alcohol use, and engaging in walking) decreased from 35.2% in 2008 to 29.6% in 2014. Increased efforts to emphasize multiple health-related behavioral risk factors, including reducing alcohol use and smoking, and to encourage walking are needed in the thirties and forties age groups in Korea.

Overview of Korean Community Health Survey

In 2008, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) initiated Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS), the first nationwide survey to provide data that could be used to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate community health promotion and disease prevention program. This community-based cross-sectional survey has been conducted by 253 community health centers, 36 community universities and 1,500 interviewers. The KCHS standardized questionnaire is developed jointly by KCDC staff, a working group of health indicators standardization subcommittee and 16 metropolitan cities and provinces with 253 regional sites. The KCHS was administered by trained interviewers and the quality control of KCHS was improved by introduction of computer-assisted personal interview in 2010. The questionnaire was reviewed annually so that revised and/or new questions could be added based on public health policy. The additional questions included the fixed and rotating cores, emerging issues and optional modules. The standardized questionnaire of KCHS covered a wide variety of health topics, which could be used to assess the prevalence of personal health behaviors related to causes of disease. The KCHS data allows that the differences of health issues among provinces can be directly compared. Furthermore, the provinces can use these data for their own cost-effective health interventions to improve health promotion and disease prevention.