title: Trends in Cardiovascular Health Metrics among Korean Adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  American Heart Association (AHA) defined 7 cardiovascular health metrics for the general population to improve cardiovascular health in 2010: not smoking; having normal blood pressure; being physically active; normal body mass index, blood glucose, and total cholesterol levels; and eating a healthy diet. To investigate trends in cardiovascular health metrics in Korea, we used data from the third and fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
  
  
  METHODS
  We defined seven cardiovascular health metrics similar to the one defined by AHA but physical activity, body mass index, and healthy diet were properly redefined to be suited for the Korean population. We compared each cardiovascular health metric and calculated the sum of cardiovascular health metrics after dichotomizing each health metric to ideal (scored 1) and poor (scored 0).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Health metric scores of smoking in males (P value for trend < 0.001), physical activity both in males and females (P-value for trend < 0.001 both), body mass index in females (P-value for trend = 0.030), and blood pressure both in males and females (P-value for trend < 0.001, both) were improved. On the other hand, health metric scores of healthy diet in males (P-value for trend = 0.002), and fasting blood glucose both in males and females (P-value for trend < 0.001 both) got worse. The total scores of seven health metrics were stationary.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Total scores were not changed but each metric showed various trends. A long-term study is necessary for analyzing exact trends.
authors: Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Hae-Joon
authors: HJ
authors: Lee
authors: Beomseok
authors: B
authors: Suh
authors: Tae-Gon
authors: TG
authors: Yoo
authors: Haewon
authors: H
authors: Lee
authors: Dong Wook
authors: DW
authors: Shin
keywords: Cardiovascular Health Metrics; Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys; Trends