Trends in health-related behaviors of Korean adults: study based on data from the 2008-2014 Community Health Surveys

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity (multiple risks) often lead to serious health consequence and impaired health status. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trend in health-related behavioral factors over time among adults in South Korea (hereafter Korea). The data of 1,595,842 Koreans older than 19 years who participated in the 2008-2014 Korea Community Health Survey were analyzed to assess the trend in the prevalence of behavioral risk factors. Individual or clustering health-related behaviors were assessed according to sex, age, and region among 228,712 adults who participated in the 2014 survey. From 2008 to 2014, the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity and high-risk alcohol use increased the prevalence of male current smoking and marginally decreased walking ability. Over 7 years, the percentage of adults who reported having all three healthy behaviors (i.e., currently not smoking, not consuming alcohol or having high-risk alcohol use, and engaging in walking) decreased from 35.2% in 2008 to 29.6% in 2014. Increased efforts to emphasize multiple health-related behavioral risk factors, including reducing alcohol use and smoking, and to encourage walking are needed in the thirties and forties age groups in Korea.