TITLE:
Gender differences of health behaviors and quality of life of Koreans with asthma
AUTHORS:
Yeonsoo Jang, Hyera Yoo
KEYWORDS:
Asthma; Health Behavior; Quality of Life; Gender; Korean
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.3 No.6,
October
11,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in health-behaviors
and quality of life (QOL) in Koreans with asthma. Methods: Participants,
selected from the 2009 Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination
Survey VI, included 305 individuals (men = 128, women = 177) with asthma and
over 19 years old. Health behaviors were measured by questions about disease management, health choices, and functional and psychological status. QOL was
measured with the European Quality of Life-5D (EQ-5D). Results: In health behaviors,
51.3% of women and 37.7% of men suffered from wheezing at rest. About 41% of
men and 10% of women were smokers. One half of the participants were not taking
medication and this was not significantly different by gender. The number of
women with symptoms of depression was significantly higher than men. The EQ-5D
index score of women was significantly lower
than that of men. Conclusion: Women with asthma were more likely to have
psychological problems and discomfort than men. Understanding gender
differences in asthma is important to the development of effective, tailored
asthma management strategies to cope with symptoms and improve health behaviors
and QOL for people with asthma.