The present study purposed to analyze the effects of the socioeconomic status and health behaviors of male and female employees on their health status and to examine whether there is inequality in health status according to socioeconomic status and, u...
The present study purposed to analyze the effects of the socioeconomic status and health behaviors of male and female employees on their health status and to examine whether there is inequality in health status according to socioeconomic status and, ultimately, to provide basic materials for establishing industrial health policies to reduce any inequality in health status effectively.This study used the data of health interview survey and health behavior survey from the raw material of 2001 National Health and Nutrition Survey. The subjects of this study were 4,162 men and women aged between 20~64 who replied that they had an occupation. Socioeconomic status was measured with occupation, income and education level, health behavior with smoking, drinking, exercising, sleeping hours and health examination, and health status with chronic disease and self?rated health status. Data were analyzed using SAS 8.2 through X2?test, multiple logistic regression analysis and likelihood ratio test.The results of this study are as follows.1. Among the subjects, 60% were male employees and 40% were female employees. By age, 60% of the subjects were in their 30s or 40s. As for the distribution of occupation, income and education level, the largest groups were class II, the middle?income class and high?school graduates in the male employees, and class IV, the middle?income class and high?school graduates in the female employees.2. With regard to the relation between socioeconomic status and health behaviors, in both male and female employees, desirable health behavior level related to smoking, exercising and health examination increased with the increase of occupation, income and education level. However, desirable health behavior level related drinking did not show a consistent result. As for sleeping hours, the number of female employees with normal sleeping hours was smaller in the groups of high occupation, income and education level. Health behavior risk level in male employees was highest in the non?exercising group and, next, in smoking, abnormal sleeping hours, non?health examination and drinking groups, and that in female employees was highest in the non?exercising group and, next, in abnormal sleeping hours, non?health examination, drinking and smoking. In this way, there were differences between male and female employees.3. With regard to the relation between socioeconomic status and health status, in both male and female employees, the number of employees with chronic diseases decreased and the number of healthy employees in self?rated health status increased with the increase of occupation, income and education level. The difference between the group of employees with chronic disease and the group of unhealthy employees in self?rated health status according to socioeconomic status was larger in female employees than in male ones.4. With regard to the relation between health behaviors and health status, health behavior commonly related to the possession of chronic diseases and self?rated health status was smoking in male employees and sleeping hours in female employees. Health behavior related only with the possession of chronic diseases was health examination in male employees and none in female employees. Health behavior related only with self?rated health status was exercising in both male and female employees.5. With regard to the effects of socioeconomic status on health status, socioeconomic status related to the risk of chronic diseases was occupation and income in male employees and occupation and education level in female employees. Thus, occupation was related to the risk of chronic diseases in both male and female employees. Socioeconomic status related to self?rated health status was income and education level in both male and female employees.6. With regard to the effects of health behavior on health status, health behavior related to the possession of chronic diseases was smoking and health examination in male employees and none in female employees. Health behavior related to self?rated health status was smoking and exercising in male employees and smoking, exercising and sleeping hours in female employees.7. With regard to the effects of socioeconomic status and health behaviors on health status, socioeconomic status and health behavior related to the risk of chronic disease were occupation, income, smoking and health examination in male employees and occupation, income, education level and health examination in female employees. Socioeconomic status and health behavior related to self?rated health status were income, education level, smoking and exercising in male employees and income, education level, exercising and sleeping hours in female employees.8. With regard to the degree of effect of socioeconomic status and health behavior on health status, both health behavior and socioeconomic status had an effect on the possession of chronic disease and self?rated health status in male employees, and the effect of health behavior was higher for the possession of chronic diseases and the effect of socioeconomic status was higher for self?rated health status. In female employees, the possession of chronic diseases was affected by socioeconomic status, and self?rated health status was affected by health behaviors and socioeconomic status, of which health behavior had a higher effect.In conclusion, health behavior was related to socioeconomic status, health status was affected by socioeconomic status and health behaviors, and health status and health behavior were different between male and female employees. The results suggest that there is inequality in employees’ health status according to their socioeconomic status and there are differences in health status and health behavior between male and female employees. Therefore, in establishing industrial health policies for improving employees’ health status, it is necessary to consider employees’ gender as well as their socioeconomic status including occupation, income and education level. In addition, programs for correcting health behavior should be approached from understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and health behavior. In order for policies to be effective, anti?smoking, exercising and high rate of health examination should be induced for male employees, and sleeping hours and exercising should be considered for female employees.