Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To examine trends in socioeconomic inequalities in major cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among the Korean population.
Design Cross-sectional study.
Setting A nationally representative population survey database.
Participants A total of 42 725 Koreans, aged 25–64 years, who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) II (2001) to VI (2013–2014).
Main outcome measures Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in five major CVD risk factors (smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia).
Results Gender differences were noted in the time trends in socioeconomic inequalities in smoking, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Among men, low socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with higher prevalence of smoking, but not with obesity, diabetes or hypertension. The magnitudes of socioeconomic inequalities in smoking, obesity and diabetes remained unchanged, and the magnitude of the inequality in hypertension decreased over time. However, among women, low SES was associated with higher prevalence of smoking, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Time trends towards increasing socioeconomic inequalities, measured by income, in smoking, obesity and diabetes were found in women. Unlike the other CVD risk factors, hypercholesterolaemia was not associated with socioeconomic inequality.
Conclusions SES had a stronger impact on major CVD risk factors among Korean women than men. Moreover, socioeconomic inequalities in smoking, obesity and diabetes worsened among Korean women over time. Public policies to prevent smoking, obesity and diabetes in women with lower SES are needed to address inequalities.
- trend
- health inequality
- cardiovascular disease
- cardiovascular disease risk factors
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors (As co-first authors) YJK and JSL contributed equally to this study. (As co-corresponding authors) SGK and JL contributed equally to this study. YJK, SGK, JL and JSL developed the research questions and contributed to the development of the conceptual framework, and the interpretations of the results. YJK contributed to writing and submitting the manuscript. JSL performed the main analyses and critical revisions to the manuscript. JP provided theoretical support. DSC, DMK, K-HL and HYK assisted with writing the manuscript.
Funding JL’s research was supported by a grant from the College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea (grant no K1616241).
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval All procedures and protocols of the study have been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) since 2007. Written informed consent regarding the survey and blood analysis has been obtained from all participants since 2001.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement All relevant materials are provided in the manuscript. Data access for the KNHANES is available from.