Health Behaviors of Korean Gastric Cancer Survivors with Hypertension: A Propensity Analysis of KNHANES III-V (2005–2012)

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study provides a comparison of health behaviors between gastric cancer survivors with hypertension and non-cancer subjects in Korea.MethodsData from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) for the period of 2005-2012 were used in this study. A propensity score matching method was used to compare health behaviors. Before the matching of propensity scores, the number of participants was 11034 (102 gastric cancer survivors and 10932 non-cancer participants). A 1:5 propensity score matching procedure yielded a total of 480 participants (80 gastric cancer survivors and 400 non-cancer participants) for the final analysis. Drinking, smoking, physical activity, antihypertensive medication adherence, self-reported diet control, and sodium intake accordance in the two groups were compared. A complex samples logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess any differences between the two groups.ResultsThe group of hypertensive gastric cancer survivors had lower alcohol consumption (OR = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.14-0.66; p-value = 0.003). They were more likely to be on dietary control than the control group (OR = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.60-6.10; p-value = 0.001). However, there was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in sodium intake accordance or other health behaviors (including medication adherence, smoking, and physical activity) between the two groups.ConclusionsOur results revealed that gastric cancer survivors with hypertension were more likely to be on dietary control with lower alcohol consumption than the control group. However, there was no significant difference in sodium intake accordance or other health behaviors between the two groups. Therefore, primary care physicians should inform cancer survivors about the appropriate health behaviors to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease and improve their overall survival rate, even though they say they have been doing health behaviors.

Dietary and Lifestyle Factors Associated with Gastric and Pancreatic Cancers: A Case-Control Study

“…Similarly, previous studies have shown that a high percentage (66.3%) of patients with GC is smokers ( Okada et al, 2017 ) and that 48% of PC patients are current or previous smokers ( Keane et al, 2014 ). Further studies have reported that PC is not affected by smoking (OR=0.60, 95% CI: 0.30~1.19, P =0.141) ( Jo et al, 2015 ), and that active and passive smoking may play an important role in the development of cardial stomach cancer ( Mao et al, 2002 ). However, Duan et al (2009) did not report any evidence that passive smoking had any appreciable effect on oesophageal or gastric adenocarcinomas.…”

Prediction of cancer survivors’ mortality risk in Korea: a 25-year nationwide prospective cohort study

“…However, cancer survivors are considered to engage in better hypertension management behavior than the general population [ 45 ]. Cancer survivors are also more likely to be aware of, treat, and manage high blood pressure, and have better access to knowledge on health-improving behaviors such as vaccination or cancer screening, improvements in nutrition and exercise, and reduction or cessation of smoking and drinking [ 46 , 47 ]. This may explain our finding that a history of hypertension is associated with a decreased mortality rate.…”