Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health

The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine (대한예방의학회)
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The Comparison of Health Behaviors Between Widowed Women and Married Women in Jeollanamdo Province, Korea

전라남도 거주 여성 중 사별군과 비사별군간의 건강행태 비교

  • Choi, Seong-Woo (Department of Preventive Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School) ;
  • Rhee, Jung-Ae (Department of Preventive Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School) ;
  • Shin, Jun-Ho (Department of Preventive Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School) ;
  • Shin, Min-Ho (Department of Preventive Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School)
  • 최성우 (전남대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 이정애 (전남대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 신준호 (전남대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 신민호 (전남대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실)
  • Published : 2008.07.31
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Abstract

Objectives: To compare the health behaviors of widowed women with those of currently married women. Methods: We randomly sampled the subjects from the Jeollanamdo Resident Registration Data and we then selected 2,331 widowed women and 4,775 married women. Well-trained examiners measured the height, weight, blood pressure and abdomen circumference, and the women were interviewed with using a questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios(OR) of the two groups. Results: The smoking rate (OR=2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI]1.65, 3.66) was significantly higher for the widowed women. On the contrary, the awareness rate of a smoking cessation campaign (OR=0.80; 95% CI=0.70, 0.92), a quit tobacco telephone line (OR=0.73; 95% CI =0.61, 0.88) and a quit smoking clinic (OR=0.74; 95% CI=0.62, 0.89) were lower for the widowed women. The rate of receiving a health exam (OR=0.80; 95% CI=0.70, 0.91), the rate of undergoing gastric cancer screening (OR=0.77; 95% CI=0.68, 0.88), breast cancer screening (OR=0.79; 95% CI=0.69, 0.89), cervix cancer screening in the last 2 years (OR=0.81; 95% CI=0.71, 0.92), colon cancer screening in the last 5 years (OR=0.74; 95% CI=0.63, 0.87) were significantly lower for the widowed women. Conclusions: This study revealed that the health behaviors are significantly different between the widowed women and the married women. To improve the health behaviors of the widowed women, further study and research that will investigate the socioeconomic and environmental factors that affect the health behaviors of widowed women will be needed.

Keywords

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