Background
Considering the unhealthy lifestyle observed in divorced men, we planned this study to compare the lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors between married and divorced man. Methods: A total of 11,855 male workers took a health check-up in a University Hospital in Ulsan from March to December 2004. One hundred eight workers were recognized to have checked affi rmative on "divorced" check item on the marital status and 400 workers were matched for age and randomly selected from the "married" 10,177 workers. Comparison was performed between the two groups with the results of the main laboratory data and self-recorded life style questionnaire. Results: The divorced men were shorter in height than the married men (P = 0.022), and showed significantly higher diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.033) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (P = 0.001). In lifestyle, the divorced men had signifi cantly lower educational level, lower monthly household income, higher smoking rate, and more frequent irregular meals than the married men. Divorcing had 1.88 times the odds of having higher diastolic blood pressure compared to staying married. Conclusion: The divorced men had poorer lifestyle and higher diastolic blood pressure than the married men.
