Korea Community Health Survey Data Profiles

In 2008, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated the first nationwide survey, Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS), to provide data that could be used to plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate community health promotion and disease prevention programs. This community-based cross-sectional survey has been conducted by 253 community health centers, 35 community universities, and 1500 interviewers. The KCHS standardized questionnaire was developed jointly by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff, a working group of health indicators standardization subcommittee, and 16 metropolitan cities and provinces with 253 regional sites. The questionnaire covers a variety of topics related to health behaviors and prevention, which is used to assess the prevalence of personal health practices and behaviors related to the leading causes of disease, including smoking, alcohol use, drinking and driving, high blood pressure control, physical activity, weight control, quality of life (European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions, European Quality of Life-Visual Analogue Scale, Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living ), medical service, accident, injury, etc. The KCHS was administered by trained interviewers, and the quality control of the KCHS was improved by the introduction of a computer-assisted personal interview in 2010. The KCHS data allow a direct comparison of the differences of health issues among provinces. Furthermore, the provinces can use these data for their own cost-effective health interventions to improve health promotion and disease prevention. For users and researchers throughout the world, microdata (in the form of SAS files) and analytic guidelines can be downloaded from the KCHS website (http://KCHS.cdc.go.kr/) in Korean.