Department of Public Health Science, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Epidemiol Health. 2019;41:e2019019. doi: 10.4178/epih.e2019019. Epub 2019 May 15.
Previous studies have shown that marital status is associated with household composition and living arrangements, which partially explain observed differences in health status according to marital status. However, due to the rapid socioeconomic and demographic transformations of the last few decades, the distribution of marital status among middle-aged adults has become more diverse. Therefore, this study aimed to obtain up-to-date information on the associations between marital status and health and to investigate the implications of these findings for conventional explanations of the health effects of marriage.
The data for this study were obtained from the 2015 Korean Community Health Study. We compared 4 modifiable lifestyle behaviors-smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and self-rated health status-as outcome variables in association with marital status in Korean middle-aged men (age 40-44) living in Seoul and other regions.
Married men showed the lowest cigarette smoking prevalence and the highest subjective health status both before and after adjusting for education and income. The odds of engaging in vigorous physical activity did not show a major difference before and after adjustment for income and education.
In married men, the prevalence of cigarette smoking was lowest and subjective health status was highest, similar to previous studies. However, the prevalence of engaging in physical activity was highest in divorced/widowed/separated men. The health behaviors and health status of Korean middle-aged adults should be more closely followed, since they are representative of demographic changes in the Korean population.
先前的研究表明，婚姻状况与家庭构成和生活安排有关，这部分解释了根据婚姻状况观察到的健康状况差异。然而，由于过去几十年社会经济和人口的快速转型，中年成年人的婚姻状况分布变得更加多样化。因此，本研究旨在获取有关婚姻状况与健康之间关联的最新信息，并探讨这些发现对婚姻健康影响的传统解释的意义。
本研究的数据来自 2015 年韩国社区健康研究。我们将可改变的生活方式行为（吸烟、饮酒、身体活动和自我报告的健康状况）作为结局变量，比较了居住在首尔和其他地区的韩国中年男性（40-44 岁）的婚姻状况。
已婚男性在调整教育和收入后，吸烟率最低，主观健康状况最好，这与之前的研究结果相似。然而，在调整收入和教育后，进行剧烈身体活动的可能性并没有太大差异。
在已婚男性中，吸烟率最低，主观健康状况最好，这与之前的研究结果相似。然而，离婚/丧偶/分居的男性参与身体活动的比例最高。应该更密切地关注韩国中年成年人的健康行为和健康状况，因为它们代表了韩国人口的人口变化。
