농촌지역 청소년의 건강행태

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare health related behaviors among adolescents in the rural area with those in the urban area in Korea. Methods: The data source was the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey in 2005. With two stage cluster sampling, a total of 58,224 sample was selected from 799 middle and high schools nationwide. The area was classified into county area, small to medium city, and large city, and then the county area was considered as a rural area. Data was analyzed with STATA 9.0 using the method of complex survey data analysis considering sampling weight, strata, and primary sampling unit. Results: The prevalence of health related behaviors among adolescents in the rural area was higher than the city area as following health behaviors: smoking behaviors of smoking experience, smoking experience before entrance to middle school; drinking behaviors of frequent drinking, high risk behaviors with drinking; dietary behaviors of omitting of lunch or dinner, less intake of fruits or milk, more intake of cooky; oral hygiene of less tooth brushing, less preventive oral care, more oral symptoms and less dentist visit; safety behaviors of less wearing of safety belt or protective device; general hygiene of less hand washing before meal or after visiting rest room. Conclusions: The health behaviors among adolescents in the rural area were generally poorer than the city area. The results showed national health program for adolescents should be conducted primarily for those in rural areas. Further study is needed to explore the factors related with the discrepancy of health behaviors between the rural and urban area.