Gender Medicine Unit, Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Medical University Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
BMC Public Health. 2012 May 30;12:392. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-392.
Lifestyle diseases and cardiovascular complications are dramatically increasing, but little is known about the impact of educational level and health behaviour in men and women in different populations. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between educational level (EL) and self-reported chronic diseases and health behaviour in both sexes.
Data were derived from the Austrian Health Interview Surveys 2006/2007, which includes 13 558 persons (50.9% females). The associations between EL and the risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke and anxiety disorders or depression, nutrition, exercise, and smoking were evaluated. University education served as the reference category (EL4), the lowest educational level was required schooling only (EL0).
Only among women did the risk for diabetes mellitus and hypertension increase with decreasing educational level with the highest rates for EL0 OR [95% CI] adjusted for age, income, family status and lifestyle: 3.7 [1.7-8.0], and 2.5 [1.8-3.5], respectively. Only among the men, however, did the risk for stroke increase with decreasing educational level adjusted OR for EL0: 8.5 [1.7-42.7]. For anthropometric measures and lifestyle factors in both sexes the risk increased with decreasing EL.
EL affects lifestyle, overweight and obesity in both sexes. The apparent sex-specific differences in the association between the prevalence of some chronic disease with EL call for further investigation.
生活方式疾病和心血管并发症显著增加，但对于不同人群中教育水平和健康行为对男性和女性的影响知之甚少。因此，我们旨在研究教育水平（EL）与男女自我报告的慢性疾病和健康行为之间的关系。
数据来自 2006/2007 年奥地利健康访谈调查，其中包括 13558 人（50.9%为女性）。评估了 EL 与肥胖、高血压、糖尿病、心肌梗死、中风和焦虑障碍或抑郁、营养、运动和吸烟的风险之间的关联。大学教育作为参考类别（EL4），最低教育水平仅需要学校教育（EL0）。
仅在女性中，随着教育水平的降低，糖尿病和高血压的风险增加，EL0 的最高比率为 3.7 [1.7-8.0] 和 2.5 [1.8-3.5]。仅在男性中，随着教育水平的降低，中风的风险也会增加，EL0 的调整后的比值比为 8.5 [1.7-42.7]。对于两性的人体测量指标和生活方式因素，风险随着 EL 的降低而增加。
EL 影响两性的生活方式、超重和肥胖。EL 与某些慢性疾病患病率之间的关联存在明显的性别特异性差异，需要进一步研究。
