Hyun Ji Yim1, Hyun Ah Park1, Jae Heon Kang1, Kyung Woo Kim1, Young Gyu Cho1, Yang Im Hur2, Eun Ju Sung3

1Department of Family Medicine, Seoul Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, 2Inje Institute of Advanced Studies, 3Department of Family Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea


Background: Marital status is not only an important sociodemographic variable for health studies but influences health behavior and health condition of individuals. This study assessed a representative sample to see whether marital status is associated with health behavior in middle-aged Korean adults, and if the association differed by sex.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 9,535 Korean middle-aged adults who participated in the 2007-2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Our data were from this survey. The subjects were classified as married and living with a partner, widowed, separated/divorced, or never married. We assessed the relationship between marital status and five health behaviors (smoking, high risk alcohol intake, regular exercise, regular breakfast consumption, and periodic health screening) after controlling covariates.
Results: In men, the separated/divorced group had a higher risk for high risk alcohol consumption (odds ratio [OR], 1.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-2.19) and lower tendencies to have breakfast regularly (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.29-0.67) and to undergo health screening (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.37-0.79) than the married and living with a partner group while men were more likely to exercise regularly (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.13-2.88). In women, both of the separated/divorced group and had a significantly higher risk for smoking and high risk alcohol consumption than married and living with a partner group by 3-6 times. The separated/divorced women group was less likely to have breakfast regularly (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.41-0.74). Significant interactions between sex and marital status were observed with smoking (P<0.001), high risk alcohol intake (P<0.001), regular breakfast consumption (P<0.001), and periodic health screening (P=0.003).
Conclusions: The association between marital status and health behaviors differed by sex. Even in the single group, differences were seen according to the subtypes of the single group.

Korean J Health Promot 2012;12(4):178-186

Keywords: Marital status, Smoking, Alcohol drinking, Exercise, Breakfast, Screening