• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.165-184
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the difference and related factors with general characteristic and health behaviors, a experience of diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases between rural and urban among elderly in Korea. Methods: We used the data of Community Health Survey 2017 which were collected by the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The study population comprised 67,835 elderly peopled aged 65 years or older who participated in the survey. The chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to analyze data. Results: We identified many significant difference of health behaviors, an experience of diagnosis and treatment with chronic diseases between rural and urban. Compared to urban elderly, the odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence interval) of rural elderly were 1.136 (1.092-1.183) for diagnosis of diabetes, 1.278 (1.278-1.386) for diagnosis of dyslipidemia, 0.940 (0.904-0.977) for diagnosis of arthritis, 0.785(0.736-0.837) for treatment of arthritis, 1.159 (1.116-1.203) for diagnosis of cataracts, and 1.285(1.200-1.375) for treatment of cataracts. In the experience of diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases, various variables were derived as contributing factors for each disease. Especially, there were statistically significant difference in the experience of diabetes diagnosis, arthritis diagnosis, cataract diagnosis and dyslipidemia except for hypertension diagnosis (p <0.01) between urban and rural elderly. There were statistically significant differences in the experience of treatment for arthritis and cataract (p <0.01), but there was no significant difference in the experience of treatment for hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia between urban and rural elderly. Conclusion: Therefore, it would be necessary to implement a strategic health management project for diseases that showed significant experience of chronic diseases with diagnosis and treatment, reflecting the related factors of the elderly chronic diseases among the urban and rural areas.