Association between community deprivation and practising health behaviours among South Korean adults: a survey-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the association between community deprivation and poor health behaviours among South Korean adults.

Design: This was a survey-based cross-sectional study.

Setting and participants: Data of 224 552 participants from 244 communities were collected from the Korea Community Health Survey, conducted in 2015.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: We defined health behaviours by combining three variables: not smoking, not high-risk drinking and walking frequently. Community deprivation was classified into social and economic deprivation.

Results: Multilevel logistic analysis was conducted to determine the association of poor health behaviours through a hierarchical model (individual and community) for the 224 552 participants. Among them, 69.9% did not practice healthy behaviours. We found that a higher level of deprivation index was significantly associated with higher odds of not-practising healthy behaviours (Q3, OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.31; Q4 (highest), OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.39). Economic deprivation had a positive association with not-practising health behaviours while social deprivation had a negative association.

Conclusion: These findings imply that community deprivation levels may influence individual health behaviours. Accordingly, there is a need for enforcing the role of primary healthcare centres in encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the residents in their communities, developing national health policy guidelines for health equity and providing financial help to people experiencing community deprivation.

Keywords: health policy; public health; quality in health care.