Health Behaviors of Korean Gastric Cancer Survivors with Hypertension: A Propensity Analysis of KNHANES III-V (2005–2012)

OBJECTIVE: This study provides a comparison of health behaviors between gastric cancer survivors with hypertension and non-cancer subjects in Korea. METHODS: Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) for the period of 2005-2012 were used in this study. A propensity score matching method was used to compare health behaviors. Before the matching of propensity scores, the number of participants was 11034 (102 gastric cancer survivors and 10932 non-cancer participants). A 1:5 propensity score matching procedure yielded a total of 480 participants (80 gastric cancer survivors and 400 non-cancer participants) for the final analysis. Drinking, smoking, physical activity, antihypertensive medication adherence, self-reported diet control, and sodium intake accordance in the two groups were compared. A complex samples logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess any differences between the two groups. RESULTS: The group of hypertensive gastric cancer survivors had lower alcohol consumption (OR = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.14-0.66; p-value = 0.003). They were more likely to be on dietary control than the control group (OR = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.60-6.10; p-value = 0.001). However, there was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in sodium intake accordance or other health behaviors (including medication adherence, smoking, and physical activity) between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed that gastric cancer survivors with hypertension were more likely to be on dietary control with lower alcohol consumption than the control group. However, there was no significant difference in sodium intake accordance or other health behaviors between the two groups. Therefore, primary care physicians should inform cancer survivors about the appropriate health behaviors to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease and improve their overall survival rate, even though they say they have been doing health behaviors.