earticle

영어

Family type is not only an important sociodemographic variable for health studies but also influences the health behavior and health condition of individuals. This study assessed a representative sample to see whether family type is associated with health behavior in Korean adults age 65 and older. This is a cross-sectional study of 9,535 Korean elderly who participated in the 2010-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were classified as couple cohabitation, couple-offspring cohabitation, alone, or alone-offspring cohabitation. We assessed the relationship between family type and six health behaviors (smoking, high risk drinking, walking, oral examinations, health screenings, and influenza vaccinations) after controlling covariates. The "alone" classification had a significantly higher risk of no health screening, but was more likely to have an influenza vaccination than couples. Significant interactions between family type and healthy behavior were observed with oral health screening, influenza vaccination, and smoking {Odds ratio (95% confidence interval), 1.452 (1.066-1.980), 1.375 (1.083-1.747), 2.246 (1.604-3.146)}. There is a significant association between family type and healthy behaviors.