The relationship between cardiovascular disease risk factors and gender

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between three socioeconomic sta- tuses and five behavior-related cardiovascular risk factors by gender, based on data from the Third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination III. Data from 4556 people were analyzed. The propensity toward obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and physical inactivity was significantly higher in women than in men. Hypertension and smoking were significantly more prevalent in men than in women. The differences in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors by gender is important and should be considered when developing programs to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.