Obesity has become a major problem in Korea, recently. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing rapidly in Korea. However, there is no mortality data associated with obesity in Korea, yet. Instead, we would like to introduce a study on the Body mass index and morbidity in a large scale Health examination center at the Ajou medical center(Suwon Korea).

We have examined 15145 persons(7468 men 7677 women, middle economic class, Table 2) to determine the role of Obesity Index(body mass index, WHR, body fat percent) on the risk of various chronic disease. All the subjects were pooled from Health Examination Center who took the annual health examination from June, 1994 through Jan, 1997. BMI(Body mass index, kg/m²), WHR(Waist hip ratio), Body fat(BIA, 101s, RJL system, USA) were measured and correlated with the frequency of chronic disease(morbidity index Table 1).
 

Table 1. Morbidity Index(Total=10)

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Lung disease: Tuberculosis, bronchitis, lung Cancer(biopsy)

Hypertension: Systolic pressure ¡Ã140mmHg or Diasolic pressure ¡Ã90mmHg

Diabetes mellitus: Fasting blood sugar ¡Ã126mg/dl

Anemia: Hemoglobin(male ¡Â13.5g/dl, female ¡Â11.7g/dl)

Dyslipidemia: Total cholesterol ¡Ã220mg/dl or Triglyceride ¡Ã200mg/dl

Liver disease: GPT in female ¡Ã31U/L, in male ¡Ã41U/L ,GOT ¡Ã40U/L, ¥ãGTP in female ¡Ã35U/L, in male ¡Ã50U/L

Fatty liver

Hyperuricemia: ¡Ã7.0mg/dl

Urinary tract infection: Urinalysis

G.B stone: Abdominal ultrasonography

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Table 2. Anthropomtrics and clinical characteristics of subjects.
 

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Table 3. The percentile for the obesity index(BMI, WHR, Body fat)
 

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Table 4. Mean(S.D.) obesity index among subjects by age groups.
 

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The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Korea( Adult 1994-1997 ).

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The prevalence of overweight and obesity depends upon the criteria that are used to define obesity. There is slight difference between the WHO criteria and that of Korean. The overweight criteria is similar(BMI ¡Ã25kg/m²⁾ but, there is some difference in the obesity criteria. Using the 95th percentile for the BMI, the obesity criteria is more than 28kg/m² in Korea(WHO¡Ã30kg/m²). Thus, using the 95th percentile for the BMI(¡Ã28kg/m² ), 5.9% (5.7% of women, 6.1% of men) of the study population were obese. If we use WHO criteria(BMI¡Ã30kg/m²), 1.7%(1.9% of women, 1.4% of men) were defined as obesity(Table 3). The frequency of overweight is also increased in older age groups of both sexes(Table 4). In men, after 59 years old, there is a decline in the prevalence of overweight.(Fig. 1, 2, 3)

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Fig. 1 Relationship of BMI to age

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Fig. 2 Relationship of WHR to age

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Fig. 3 Relationship of Body fat to age

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Morbidity and Obesity

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We have investigated the association of obesity index(BMI, WHR, Body fat) to the defined morbidity and there was positive association between the obesity index and morbidity(chronic illness, Table 1) for both men and women.(Fig. 4)

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Fig. 4 Morbidity and BMI

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In order to evaluated the BMI, WHR, Body Fat as an independent factors on morbidity, analysis of covariance was applied adjusted for age. The risk of various chronic diseases were also analyzed with obesity, defined by obesity (BMI ¡Ã28kg/m²), by logistic regression adjusted age and sex. Risk of hypertension was 4.1 with 95% confidence interval of 3.4-5.0 in obese group. Risk of diabetes mellitus, Dyslipidemia, gall stone, fatty liver, hyperuricemia were 2.2(1.5-3.2), 3.7(3.0-4.4), 1.4(1.1-2.6), 2.2(1.4-3.6) and 2.4(1.7-3.2) respectively. The risk of various chronic diseases were also analyzed with obesity, WHR above 0.9(men), 0.81(women), by logistic regression adjusted age and sex. Risk of hypertension was 1.7 with 95% confidence interval of 1.4-2.1 in obese group. Risk of diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, gall stone, fatty liver were 3.1(2.3-4.0), 1.2(0.9-1.4), 1.4(1.1-2.6), 2.4(1.8-4.8) and 2.1(1.2-4.1) respectively(Table 5).

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Table 5. Odd ratio of the Obesity associated disease by Body mass index, Waist hip ratio(by logistic regression adjusted age and sex.)

OR: odd ratio.
 

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These are the recent findings of obesity and its related disease. We are planning to publish the full paper in one of the leading obesity journals soon. If you have further questions please contact the Korean Society of the Study of Obesity(KSSO). The email address is ; ksso@bora.dacom.co.kr