Education is a significant factor in the prevalence of diabetes in middle-aged Korean women, a recent study by Ajou University has shown.

The study, “Effect of Socio-Economic Status of the Prevalence of Diabetes,” surveyed some 14,000 patients with diabetes nationwide.

Among the surveyed women aged 30 to 64, those who received education for seven years or less were eight times more likely to develop diabetes than women who received education for 12 years or more.

Also, women who belong to the poorest 25 percent of the same age group were five times more likely to develop the disease than those who belong to the wealthiest 25 percent.

“Public policies for the prevention and management of diabetes should be targeted toward people of lower socioeconomic status, especially middle-aged females,” the researchers, led by professor Kim Dae-jung, wrote in the paper.

“The association between the prevalence of diabetes and education level was more prominent in females and did not change after full adjustment for family history of diabetes, BMI, smoking status, alcohol intake, physical activity, and residence.”

The study found that Koreans with higher socioeconomic status consume more vegetables and fruits, exercise more, and visit doctors more frequently than low-income earners. They also consumed less fat and sugar, and had lower blood pressure than those who belonged to the poorest 25 percent.

Overseas studies have long shown that people with higher levels of education and higher income have lower rates of many chronic diseases than those with less education and lower income.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S., women in their 20s and over with no university degrees were more likely to be obese than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher from 2007 to 2010.

Also, 23 percent of all children raised by parents who had less than a high school education were obese in the same time period, while only 9 percent of children with parents with a higher education degrees had the same condition according to a CDC report released in 2012.

Another recent Korean study has also showed that less educated Korean women have a higher chance of dying of cancer, especially breast and cervical cancers. The study, organized by Samsung Medical Center, showed that the effects of socioeconomic inequality on women’s cancer mortality were rising in Korea.

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases suffered by Korea’s elderly population. As of last year, 22.6 percent of all Koreans aged 65 or older have diabetes, while 90 percent of all elderly people have chronic diseases including diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis.

While some of the biggest risk factors for diabetes are obesity and unhealthy diets, one third of Korea’s elderly population was obese as of last year.

Obesity is also more prevalent in elderly women than men in Korea. As of 2012, 40 percent of Korean women aged 65 or older were obese, while only 25.7 percent of their male counterparts were.

While Korea is one is one of the most-educated nations in the world ― 80 percent of young Koreans aged 25 to 34 attended university as of 2012 ―- the vast majority of today’s elderly population, 92 percent, did not receive higher education.

According to government data, 32 percent of the elderly never attended middle school, while 30.5 percent of them never received any education at all as of last year.

However, the study by Ajou University found that the association between diabetes and education in middle-aged men was less pronounced ― prevalence was nearly six times higher in the least-educated group. The association between income and diabetes among the same group was only significant for men in the poorest quartile.

And there was no significant association between the prevalence of diabetes and education level among the Korean elderly, regardless of their sex.

The risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke goes up as people get older.

Kim, who organized the research, pointed out that a previous study in southern Germany had shown similar results among the senior population.

“Age may attenuate the effect of socioeconomic status on diabetes among the elderly,” he wrote in the study.

Dr. Song Yoon-mi, who researched the cancer mortality rate of Korean women earlier this year, said the statistics show that low education level may have a higher impact on women’s lives than men’s, as well as their physical and emotional well-being.

Limited knowledge and lack of access to information are some of the factors that increase women’s risk of dying of illnesses. The number of Korean women who never finished elementary school and died of breast cancer increased from 4,250 in 2001 to 14,550 in 2011.

“Certainly, more women are educated today than in the past,” Song said. “But this also means that todays’ women with low education level may experience more discrimination and disparity nowadays.”

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)