Objectives: This study evaluated the distribution and effect of health screening activity based on the 2001 Korean National Examination Health and Nutrition Survey (KNEHANS). Methods: The survey consisted of four parts: a Health Interview Survey, Health Examination Survey, Health Behavior Survey, and Nutrition Survey. The 9,170 respondents to the Health Behavior Survey were divided into 3 groups: non-screening, workplace and individual health screening. We examined various socioeconomic factors included sex, age, marital status, education level, medical insurance, job position, lifetime cost, income, smoking and alcohol consumption, and factors of health consideration. The statistical analysis used multinominal logistic regression. Results: For the subjects who were married (OR=1.47, 95% CI: 1.16∼1.87), and with increasing age (p＜0.001), education (p＜0.001), lifetime cost (p＜0.001), and income (p＜0.01), the frequency of health screening increased and these trends differed according to the type of health screening. Ex-smokers and smokers had more frequent health screening than non-smokers in workplace health screening, but the frequency was not affected by pack-year. The frequency of health screening increased with rising alcohol consumption for present drinkers, but the absolute amount of alcohol consumed did not differ between groups. Conclusions: The factors which affected health screening frequency were age, education, marital status, type of medical insurance, living cost, income, and smoking, and these factors differed in their effect on the type of health screening.

Keywords: Korean National Examination Health and Nutrition Survey, Socioeconomic factors, Health screening