An Investigation of the Intake of the Health Improving Agents and Health Status by Male Workers in Chonnam Yeosu Industrial Area / 대한지역사회영양학회지

This study was carried out to examine information regarding usage of health improving agents and health status of male workers in the Chonnam Yeosu industrial area. We obtained data by means of a questionnaire from 329 men. Of the subjects 44.7% were in their forties, high school education was 43.0%, married was 83.0% and 1,500~3,000 thousand won in monthly income was 35.8%. Average height and weight of the subjects was 171.8 +/-5.4 cm and 70.5 +/-8.1 kg. Average BMI was 23.8 +/-2.2. Drinking rate of respondents was 85.5%, the drinking rate of daily workers was significantly higher than rotation workers (p < 0.05). Rotation workers exercised more regularly than daily workers (p < 0.001). Subjective symptoms of the subjects always had eye problems (11.7%), shoulder aches (5.8%), ache in one's empty stomach (4.7%) in decreasing order. 21.4% of the subjects had a disease, and liver disease was the highest in the subjects; the second was cardio-vascular disease. Interval of health food intake was highly irregular (62.7% of respondents), and keeping healthy was the main motivation for the usage of health foods. Health improving agents included oriental medicine, animal protein based restorative foods, nutrition supplements, health supplements, and natural foods. 33.3% of the subjects took health supplements, nutrition supplements (29.1%), oriental medicine (20.6%), natural foods (16.7%) and animal protein based restorative foods (3.9%), in respective order. Health improving agents were consumed higher in liver disease than other diseases. This study suggests that nutritional education and monitoring should be implemented for industrial workers to prevent life-habit diseases and to keep proper self-management of health status under special environments.

A Study on Usage of Health Improving Agents in Seoul & Busan

This study explores some basic issues behind adults' seeking and using patterns of alternative medicine as well as health food (health food/medicine). In order to do this, 791 adult participants in Seoul and Busan were interviewed face-to-face. The results of the survey showed that 1) interpersonal influence was the most influential factor in relation to the adoption of health food/medicine(46.9% of the participants reported on the influences), 2) keeping healthy was the main motivation for the usage of health food/medicine(34.5% of the participants), 3) mass media was the important information source for health food/medicine, 4) with regard to trustworthiness of information sources, experts were believed to be the most trustworthy while information from acquaintances were thought less, and finally, 5) pharmacies and health food stores were main suppliers of health food/medicine. This study suggests some marketing strategies for health food/medicine. For example, it can be suggested that interpersonal communication among other information channels should be focused and might be increased trust by using professionals.