Metabolic health is more closely associated with prevalence of cardiovascular diseases or stroke than obesity: A cross-sectional study in Korean populations.
Mounting evidence suggests that not all obese subjects are at increased cardiovascular risk. However, the relationship between the metabolically healthy obese (MHO) phenotype and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) or stroke remains unclear. Therefore, we retrospectively investigated the prevalence of CVDs or stroke according to metabolic health with obese.We studied 3695 subjects (40-85 years) from the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were divided into 2 groups and 6 subgroups based on the body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components: healthy (exhibiting none of the 5 MetS components) with the followings: healthy-normal weight (BMI < 23 kg/m), healthy-overweight (BMI = 23-24.9 kg/m), and healthy-obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m); and unhealthy (exhibiting 2 or more MetS components) with the followings: unhealthy-normal weight, unhealthy-overweight, and unhealthy-obese.In the healthy group (n = 1726), there were 76 CVDs or stroke patients (4.4%), whereas in the unhealthy group (n = 1969), there were 170 (8.6%). The prevalence was significantly different between the 2 groups (P < 0.001). However, the prevalence was not significantly different among healthy subgroups (P = 0.4072). The prevalence in unhealthy subgroups also demonstrated no statistically significant difference (P = 0.3798).We suggest that the prevalence of CVDs or stroke is different between metabolically healthy and unhealthy phenotype. Furthermore, MHO did not reveal higher CVDs or stroke prevalence rather than metabolically healthy other groups. Additional cohort studies are needed to explain causality between CVDs or stroke incidence and subjects exhibiting the MHO phenotype.
Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea Department of Cardiology and Neurology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
A Ri
AR
Byun
Seungwon
S
Kwon
Sang Wha
SW
Lee
Kyung Won
KW
Shim
Hong Soo
HS
Lee
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology