Clinical and Sociodemographic Factors and Arthritis in a Nationally Representative Sample of Korean Adults

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aim(s): Social determinants of health are known to affect to health. However, the association between arthritis and social determinants of health remains undetermined. This study aimed to examine whether clinical and sociodemographic factors were associated with arthritis in a nationally representative sample of Korean adults.
Method(s): Data from the Korea Community Health Survey from 2017 were obtained and analyzed. The participants of this study (n = 216,467; age = 52.9 years) were adults aged 19 and over who responded to arthritis related items. Descriptive statistics were performed to describe sample and clinical (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia) and sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, marital and education status, income, residential area). Logistic regression analysis were performed to determine which social determinants of health had relevance with arthritis.
Result(s): More than half were female (53.9%) and married (68.5%) and lived in urban area (57.5%). Approximately a fourth were obese (27.5%) and hypertensive (26.4%). Overall, 14.9% of adults had doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Age, sex, marital and education status, household income, residential area (all ps < .001) were significant determinants and these variables explained 24.14% of the variance in arthritis. Additionally, persons who slept less than 6 hours (p<.001) and were obese, hypertensive, and depressed (all ps < .001) with smoking habits (p=.014) were more likely to have arthritis, and these explained additional 1.7% of the variance.
Conclusion(s): Some social determinants of health were strong indicators of arthritis in Korean adults. More attention should be given in the relationship between arthritis and the clinical and sociodemographic factors identified in the result to reduce arthritis prevalence.