The association between tooth brushing during lunchtime and obesity in South Korean adolescents

Obesity in adolescents is a global health concern associated with several diseases and complications in adulthood. Obesity has been reported to be strongly associated with oral habits. To investigate the association between tooth brushing during lunchtime and the prevalence of obesity among adolescents in a nationally representative sample of South Korean adolescents. Data from the 2018-2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey were used in this cross-sectional study. Obesity was measured based on the body mass index. The chi-square test was used to investigate and compare tooth brushing habits during lunchtime in the study population, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between tooth brushing during lunchtime and the prevalence of obesity. The odds of obesity were lower in the group that brushed their teeth during lunchtime (adjusted odd ratio: 0.90, 95% confidence interval: 0.88-0.93). Furthermore, the odds of obesity were significantly higher in high school students; boys; those with a low household income, low subjective health status awareness, medical history (asthma or atrophy), and history of sealant use; and those who responded after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. A significant inverse relationship was found between tooth brushing habits during lunchtime and the prevalence of obesity. This relationship was consistent regardless of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors.

Effects of Subjective Health Perception on Health Behavior and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Patients with Prediabetes and Diabetes

The purpose of this study is to confirm the health behavior performance rate and cardiovascular disease-related indicators according to the subjective health perception of prediabetic and diabetic patients using the 2016–2019 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. This study classified hemoglobin A1c ≥ 6.5% as diabetes and 5.7–6.4% prediabetes among 2485 adults over 40 years of age among the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In addition, subjective health perception was divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and then cross-classified into four groups (Good/PDM, Bad/PDM, Good/DM, and Bad/DM) to analyze the differences between the four groups. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA), and complex sample analysis was performed using weights according to the KNHANES raw data usage guidelines from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of subjective health awareness was higher in men than in women in both prediabetic- and diabetic-stage subjects and adults in the prediabetic stage were higher than in the elderly. The better the subjective health status, the higher the ratio of normal weight, proper sleep time, exercise, and eating out among health-related behaviors. As a result of analyzing blood pressure and blood indices related to the cardiovascular disease risk (Framingham Risk Score), in all indicators except blood pressure, the better the subjective health status and the lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. As a result, for disease prevention and continuous management through healthy behaviors in prediabetic and diabetic patients, it is necessary to improve the positive subjective perception of health.

The Effect of Physical and Mental Health and Health Behavior on the Self-Rated Health of Pregnant Women

Self-rated health (SRH) is an evaluation tool to assess an individual's level of health, including both general health and personal experience. There have been existing studies on women's SRH; however, few studies have been on pregnant women's SRH and its associated factors. This study investigated the SRH of pregnant women and their factors using the Korea Community Health Survey. The chi-squared test and multivariable logistic regression were used to investigate the effects of demographic, physical, and mental health and health behaviors on the SRH of pregnant women. As a result of the study, 54.0% out of 1032 pregnant women had good SRH. Their SRH score was good when they were young, economically active, and living in cities. Poor SRH was observed with depression, hypertension, and after experiencing a fall. Good SRH was found when they exercised and slept for more than 8 h a day. This study is the first to observe the SRH of pregnant women and its related factors in South Korea.

Associations Between Positive and Negative Affect and the Way People Perceive Their Health Goals

Objective

Why are people who suffer from depressive symptoms or chronic negative mood less likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle? We postulated that adoption of health goals (HGs) and health behaviors is impeded by negative affect (NA) and facilitated by positive affect (PA). Our aim was to assess the associations between NA and PA, measured as a state and as a trait, and perceptions of HGs and related means. In our studies we tested the relationship between perceptions of HGs and affect measured as a state and as a trait.

Methods

Participants in three online studies were asked to choose and evaluate a health goal (Studies 1–3) or a health goal and related means (Study 3). In Study 1 we used the personal project analysis to assess 10 dimensions of HGs, inter-goal interference, and inter-goal facilitation; in Studies 2 and 3 we used a specially designed questionnaire to assess the difficulty, attainability, controllability, and congruency with self-identity of HGs and related means. We used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to measure trait and state affect and the NEO PI-R to measure neuroticism and extraversion.

Results

Participants perceived their HGs and related means in mood-congruent ways. High NA participants perceived their HGs to be less controllable, less attainable, more difficult, and less congruent with their self-identity. They also perceived their related means to be more difficult and less congruent with their self-identity. In contrast, high PA participants perceived their HGs and related means to be more attainable and more congruent with their self-identity, and they evaluated their related means as less difficult. In addition, our results suggest that state affect is better associated with perceptions of HGs than trait affect.

Conclusion

The adoption and attainment of HGs is likely to be facilitated by PA but impeded by NA. PA and NA may also impact the adoption and maintenance of healthy lifestyles. These results help provide a better understanding of the reasons why people with depression or negative mood adhere to behaviors that compromise their health.

What Causes Health Promotion Behaviors in College Students?

BACKGROUND

College students are exposed to an environment that places their health at risk. As a result, they are vulnerable to health-related problems. In order to improve health promotion behaviors, it is necessary to identify the variables affecting these behaviors. However, few studies have comprehensively examined health consciousness, health perception, and self-esteem as variables in health promotion behaviors among college students.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing health promotion behaviors in college students.

METHOD

Data were collected from 331 students, using a structured questionnaire based on the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (health promotion behaviors), Dutta-Bergman's Health Consciousness Scale (health consciousness), the Health Perception Questionnaire (health perception), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (self-esteem), and sociodemographic data. To assess the factors that influence health promotion behaviors, a multiple regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Health promotion behaviors were higher when health cognition was higher (r=.421, p<.001), health perception was higher (r=.326, p<.001), and self-esteem was higher (r=.526, p<.001). The constructed model for health promotion behaviors showed that the statistically significant explanatory variables were health cognition, health perception, and self-esteem. The model explained 34.9% of the variance in health promotion behaviors.

CONCLUSION

It will be necessary to develop an intervention program targeting health cognition, health perception, and self-esteem in order to increase health promotion behaviors in college students.

Association between working time quality and self-perceived health: analysis of the 3rd Korean working conditions survey (2011)

Background

Self-perceived health, a subjective assessment of one’s health condition, is an important health indicator at the level of quality of life. In this study, working time quality refer to job factors with qualitative aspects of working time. This study was conducted to investigate the association between working time quality and self-perceived health in paid workers in Korea.

Methods

In this study, 35,902 paid workers were analyzed based on the 3rd Korean working conditions survey. For independent variables, working time quality (working at night, working in the evenings, working on Sundays, working on Saturdays, and working more than 10 h a day) were set as major job-related variables. Other occupational characteristics were divided into 6 groups and general characteristics were divided into 6 groups, and univariate analysis was conducted with self-perceived health, a dependent variable. Variables that had significance in the univariate analysis were used for multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results

In the univariate analysis using Chi-square test, variables showing significance in self-perceived health were age, income, education, occupation, employment type, work hours per week, and shift work. Working time quality showed a significant association with self-perceived health. After adjusting for these variables using logistic regression analysis, working at night, working in the evening, working on Sundays, and working more than 10 h a day showed significant association with self-perceived health.

Conclusions

This study showed a statistically significant association between working time quality of employees with self-perceived health.