Impact of Behavioral Risk Factors on Mortality Risk in Older Korean Women

To investigate the impact of lifestyle risk factors on all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Korean women aged 60 yr and older.

Data (n = 3,034) obtained from the Korean longitudinal study of aging were analyzed. Exposures included lifestyle risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, underweight/obesity, physical inactivity, and unintentional weight loss. Primary outcomes were premature deaths from specific and all-causes.

During 9.6±2.0 yr of follow-up, there were 628 cases (20.7%) of death from all causes, of which 137 cases (4.5%) were from CVD. Compared to zero risk factor (hazard ratio, HR=1), crude HR of all-cause mortality was 2.277 (95% confidence interval, CI, 1.712 ∼ 3.030, P < 0.001) for one risk factor, 2.977 (95% CI, 2.124 ∼ 4.003, P < 0.001) for two risk factors, and 5.154 (95% CI, 3.515 ∼ 7.557, P < 0.001) for three or more risk factors. Compared to zero risk factor (HR=1), crude HR of CVD mortality was 2.035 (95% CI, 1.422 ∼ 2.913, P < 0.001) for one risk factor, 2.468 (95% CI, 1.708 ∼ 3.567, P < 0.001) for two risk factor, and 4.484 (95% CI, 2.830 ∼ 7.102, P < 0.001) for three or more risk factors. Adjusted HRs of all-cause (P = 0.016) and CVD (P = 0.050) for three or more risk factors only remained significant for three or more risk factors.

The current findings showed that individual and combined lifestyle risk factors were significantly associated with increased risks of all-cause and CVD mortality in older Korean women.