Prevalence and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome in a rural population of South Korea.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to the criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) and the World Health Organization (WHO).


METHODS
Data were collected from 1108 subjects over 40 years of age in the Chongup district, a rural area of South Korea. We evaluated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome according to the two criteria.


RESULTS
According to the ATP III criteria, the prevalence of central obesity was 0.2% in men and 27.3% in women, which is much lower than the prevalence of central obesity in Americans. However, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was similar to the prevalence in Americans. Of the Korean subjects over 40 years of age, 29.4% and 39.2% had metabolic syndrome according to the ATP III and WHO criteria, respectively. Metabolic syndrome according to the ATP III criteria was associated with insulin resistance, but not with microalbuminuria.


CONCLUSIONS
Metabolic syndrome has a high prevalence in South Koreans despite the low prevalence of obesity and/or central obesity.
Kim
E S
ES
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Han
S-M
SM
Kim
Y I
YI
Song
K-H
KH
Kim
M-S
MS
Kim
W B
WB
Park
J-Y
JY
Lee
K-U
KU
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012423:Rural Health; D017678:Sex Distribution