Health behaviors and related demographic factors among Korean adolescents.

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to explore health behaviors, examine health behaviors in relation to demographic factors, and investigate the relationships between health risk behaviors (e.g., tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and sexual experience) among Korean adolescents.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional descriptive relational design and a population-based data collection of 1,716 middle and high school Korean adolescents. The 72-item Korean Adolescent Health Behavior Scale was used for data collection, while descriptive statistics, t test and chi-square test were used in the data analyses.

Results: Females were doing better on weight control, hygiene, safety, and computer use than were males. Males were doing better on physical activity. Adolescents living in cities were more likely to be addicted to computer but were consuming alcohol and using tobacco less than adolescents in rural areas were. In addition, religion, grade level, and living area also made the adolescents' health behavior significantly different.

Conclusion: As the result suggested, gender, religion, grade level, and region need to be considered when designing health promotion interventions among Korean adolescents.