Korean people think they might have cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases someday but know little of the rules of life to prevent them, according to a recent survey.
The result was disclosed by an opinion poll released by the Korean Society for the Prevention of Cardiocerebrovascular Disease (KSCP) on Tuesday. The society surveyed 2,000 adults 20 years and older from June 16-24.
According to the survey, 46.6 percent of Koreans were concerned about developing angina or cardiocerebrovascular diseases. It was the second-highest percentage following cancer, with 65.2 percent. Also, 48.1 percent expected they might have cardiocerebrovascular diseases, even exceeding cancer’s 45.8 percent.
As reasons, the largest share of respondents (46.7 percent) cited poor management of daily habits, followed by family medical history (26.2 percent) and inability to afford to take care of health (12.0 Percent).
However, the survey found most Koreans do not know the rules to prevent cardiocerebrovascular diseases.
More than half of respondents (55.1 percent) said they had heard about prevention rules but did not know them in detail. More than 37 percent of those surveyed replied they did not even know such rules exist, and only 9.2 percent knew about the contents of such rules.
Even people with cardiocerebrovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, were ill-informed of the precautions. Only 10.7 percent of people with these diseases answered they know the contents of the precautions, while 64 percent said they know such precautions exist but did not know their contents.
Presented with the precautions, more than 80 percent of Koreans answered all nine rules were essential to prevent cardiocerebrovascular diseases.
Nearly half of respondents (48.7 percent) thought quitting smoking was a relatively easy rule to keep, followed by 34.3 percent who thought similarly about less than two shots of drinking. However, 44.8 percent said reducing stress and living happily would be difficult.
The survey also discovered that the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected maintaining a healthy lifestyle. As many as 52.6 percent of respondents said they experienced stress and negative changes in mental health due to Covid-19. The pandemic also resulted in more unfavorable changes in physical exercise (36.6 percent) and dietary habits (27.7 percent).
In contrast, the pandemic has left more positive changes in some health-related habits, as shown by hospital visits and disease management (23,2 percent), drinking (38.1 percent), and smoking (30.6 percent).