청소년 건강행태 및 생활환경과 천식의 관련성

Relationship between Health Behaviors, Living Environment and Asthma of Adolescents

Objectives: This study was performed to examine the relationship between health behaviors, living environment, and asthma in adolescents in Korea. Methods: Information on adolescents’ characteristics, including demographic factors, health behaviors, and doctor’s diagnosis of asthma was obtained from the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2015). In total, 68,043 middle and high school students participated. Environmental characteristics, including city park area and outdoor PM₁₀ concentrations in 2015 were obtained from the Korean Statistical Information Service. The adolescents’ and environmental characteristics were merged by local information. Multiple logistic regression models were used to investigate the risk factors affecting asthma in adolescents. Results: The prevalence of asthma in adolescents in 2015 was 8.8%. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, adolescents who were male, attended middle school, suffered obesity, experienced tobacco smoking, had physical activity levels of 2 to 4 days, had higher stress levels, and lived in areas with outdoor PM₁₀ concentrations more than 47 μg/m₃ were more likely to have asthma, while adolescents who had middle levels of family economic status were less likely to do so. Conclusions: The fact that PM₁₀ concentration can affect asthma is an important point in this study. Risk factors identified in this study could be used as basic data for the prevention and management of asthma in Korea