'Health Index' of Gyeonggi-do Residents in the 'COVID-19 Era'?

Announcement of the Results of the '2020 Community Health Survey' Conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency

File photo [Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Last year, the monthly drinking rate and annual drunk driving experience rate among Gyeonggi-do residents significantly decreased, but the rates of physical activity practice and walking practice slightly declined.

According to the results of the '2020 Gyeonggi-do Community Health Survey' announced by Gyeonggi-do on the 2nd under the supervision of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the smoking rate was 18.8%, showing a continuous decline for five consecutive years following 21.8% in 2016, 20.7% in 2017, 20.5% in 2018, and 19.5% in 2019. The male smoking rate was 33.9%, which is 6.1 percentage points lower than 40.0% in 2016.

The 'monthly drinking rate,' defined as the proportion of people who drank alcohol at least once a month in the past year, was 53.8%, down 5.0 percentage points from 58.8% in 2019. Considering it decreased by 1.4 percentage points between 2017 and 2018 and by 1.0 percentage point between 2018 and 2019, this is a sharp decline.

Additionally, among drinkers in the past year, men responded that they consumed 7 or more drinks (or about 5 cans of beer) and women 5 or more drinks (or about 3 cans of beer) at a single drinking occasion at least twice a week. The 'high-risk drinking rate among annual drinkers' also decreased by 2.7 percentage points from 17.8% in 2019 to 15.1% last year.

The 'annual drunk driving experience rate (car or motorcycle),' an indicator of safety awareness, also decreased by 2.9 percentage points from 4.5% in 2019 to 1.6% last year. The 'driver's seat seatbelt wearing rate' increased by 1.3 percentage points from 93.7% in 2019 to 95.0% last year.

Due to the full-scale implementation of social distancing caused by COVID-19 last year, the 'moderate or higher physical activity practice rate' was 17.1%, down 5.2 percentage points from 22.3% in 2019. The 'walking practice rate' decreased by 3.9 percentage points from 45.1% in 2019 to 41.2% last year.

On the other hand, the 'stress recognition rate,' which reflects the proportion of people who responded that they felt stress in daily life, increased by 1.0 percentage point from 26.5% in 2019 to 27.5% last year.

Prior to this announcement, the province conducted a survey from August to October last year at 46 public health centers within the province, targeting 21,115 households and 41,983 residents. The survey covered smoking, drinking, safety awareness, physical activity, dietary habits, obesity and weight control, oral health, and mental health.

This project was funded by national government funds, and details of the survey results can be found on the official Community Health Survey website (chs.cdc.go.kr).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.