The Patient Families' Diet and Health Behavior Living in Rural, Korea - Comparison of Non-Patient Families Living in Rural -

환자가 있는 농촌가족의 식행동과 건강행동 - 환자가 없는 농촌가족과 비교 -

Recent trends in agricultural globalization have brought on a crisis to our already impoverished Korean farmers. This study was proposed to assist in comparing the health and dietary characteristics of farmer families that have chronic disease patients to farmer families that do not have chronic disease patients. For the study, 1870 families were selected from 9 rural Korean provinces. Trained evaluators interviewed farmer housewives to collect demographic, health behavior, and dietary relative information about family members. Statistical analyses were performed using SAS (ver 8.2). Chi-square tests and General Linear Models were also used. In general, patient family members were older than non-patient family members. For patient families, the mean age was 70.4 for husbands and 64.3 for wives. For non-patient families, the mean age was 64.2 for husbands and 57.3 for wives. Therefore we analyzed the data after we stratified the subjects based on the wife's age of 65. Patient families snacked less and 'dined out' less than non-patient families. However, they consumed cookies more frequently, and milk and fruits less frequently, when compared to non-patient families. There were no significant differences in nutrient supplementation, and/or instant food intake frequencies between patient families and non-patient families. Sixty-two percent of patient family members complained about health problems such arthritis, lumbago, numbness, shoulder pain, dizziness, and others, whereas 52olo of non-patient family members complained about Farmers' syndrome. Husband cigarette smoking was not significantly different among groups. However, the smoking patterns of the wives was significantly higher in patient families. Alcohol consumption was also higher in patient families. In summary, it was determined that rural patient families had poorer dietary behavior and poorer health in general, when compared to non-patient families, and accordingly, diverse community-level health and nutritional support are suggested to solve the farmers' health problems and to improve their quality of life.