PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Hwang, Jongnam AU - Shon, Changwoo TI - Relationship between socioeconomic status and type 2 diabetes: results from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2010–2012 AID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005710 DP - 2014 Aug 01 TA - BMJ Open PG - e005710 VI - 4 IP - 8 4099 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/8/e005710.short 4100 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/8/e005710.full SO - BMJ Open2014 Aug 01; 4 AB - Objective To examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and type 2 diabetes using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2010–2012. Design A pooled sample cross-sectional study. Setting A nationally representative population survey data. Participants A total of 14 330 individuals who participated in the KNHANES 2010–2012 were included in our analysis. Primary outcome Prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Results The relationship between SES and type 2 diabetes was assessed using logistic regression after adjusting for covariates including age, gender, marital status, region, body mass index, physical activity, smoking and high-risk drinking behaviour. After adjustment for covariates, our results indicated that individuals with the lowest income were more likely to have type 2 diabetes than those with the highest income (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.72). In addition, lower educational attainment was an independent factor for a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Korea. Conclusions These findings suggest the need for developing a health policy to ameliorate socioeconomic inequalities, in particular income and education-related disparities in type 2 diabetes, along with risk factors at the individual level. In addition, future investigations of type 2 diabetes among Koreans should pay more attention to the social determinants of diabetes in order to understand the various causes of the condition.