Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the obesity prevalence and to test the obesity prevalence and health status, socio-demographic factors and lifestyle such as smoking and drinking habits, diet habit and physical activity of rural residents in Korea. Methods: The interview survey was performed in November 2005 with structured questionnaires to 518 respondents of the residents who lived in Jindo-Gun of Jeonnam province. The questionnaire was the abridged Scale of the Health and Nutrition Survey and health status as the morbidity, subjective health status and health examination. The covariate, F-test or t-test, and Chi-squire method were used for some of the cross-sectional data. Results: The 518adults respondents were composed of 49.8% male and 50.2% female. Average weight of male was $67.4{\pm}8.36kg$, and average weight of female was $56.5{\pm}6.92kg$. The obesity rate was 20.7%, and the lower weight rate was 2.9%. About the subjective health status that 43.2% of the respondents have been answered not good health status, 70.8% of the respondents have been health examination. 56.0% of the respondents had disease, while 49.0% of the respondents had chronic disease, and 11.1% of the respondents had acute disease. The obesity rate and general characteristics(age, education level) was positively correlated. And while the relationships were positive between obesity rate and between lifestyle(overeating, drinking, dining-out). Conclusion: These results suggested that education programs of the health habits such as drinking, physical exercise and eating habits were necessities for the residents of rural area. Further research would be required to specify the necessities and operation researches.