title: Body mass index and incident ischemic heart disease in South Korean men and women.
abstract: Asian populations have a higher body fat percentage for a given body mass index (BMI) than Caucasians. However, little information is available on the association of BMI with ischemic heart disease (IHD) incidence in Asians at low BMI levels. The authors prospectively evaluated the association of BMI (weight (kg)/height m2) with IHD incidence over 9 years of follow-up (1993-2001) among 133,740 South Korean adults (89,050 men, 44,690 women) who participated in the 1990 and 1992 examinations of the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation Study. Average BMI at baseline was 23.4 (standard deviation, 2.3) in men and 22.3 (standard deviation, 2.3) in women. After multivariate adjustment, there was a 14% (95% confidence interval: 12, 16) increased risk of incident IHD per unit of increase in BMI. This trend was also observed within the range considered normal by Western standards, and a BMI of 24-<25 was associated with an IHD hazard ratio of 2.01 (95% confidence interval: 1.32, 3.05) in comparison with a BMI of 18-<19. The association of BMI with IHD in this cohort of relatively young South Korean men and women was progressive over the range of BMI values, with no threshold of change in risk and no indication of a U-shaped relation at low BMI levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Graduate School of Health Science and Management, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sun Ha
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jee
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pastor-Barriuso
authors.forename: Lawrence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Appel
authors.forename: Il
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Edgar R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Eliseo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guallar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009765:Obesity; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models