• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.158-172
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• 2021

Background: Metabolic syndrome has been known as a risk of cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is used as a predictor of cardiovascular disease. In this paper, we aimed to investigate the association between hs-CRP and metabolic syndrome. Method: A total of 7,633 were chosen as the study population from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey dataset (2016-2017). Our dependent variable was whether an individual had metabolic syndrome or not, and the independent variable of interest was hs-CRP which was categorized into three groups. The chi-square tests and hierarchical logistic regression analyses reflecting survey characteristics were conducted. All analyses were stratified by gender. Results: According to the adjusted model with all covariates, compared to individuals having the low risk of hs-CRP, those having its average risk were more likely to have metabolic syndrome in men (odds ratio [OR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12-1.76) and women (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.33-2.16). Individuals having the high risk was not significantly different in men; however, they were more likely to have metabolic syndrome in women (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.28-3.23). Conclusion: In an upcoming aging society, it is important to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome to improve population health. This study suggests that hs-CRP may be used as a marker of the risk of metabolic syndrome in a gender-specific way, thereby contributing to enhancing awareness of the risk of metabolic syndrome among the general public.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.735-746
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Metabolic syndrome is closely associated with lifestyle factors, including diet and nutritional intake. Modern trends show a shift in food consumption from healthy home-cooked meals to processed and instant foods. Therefore, this study analyzed the association between ultra-processed food intake and the development of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults based on the data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2013-2018. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The subjects of this study were 17,414 adults aged 19-80 years who participated in the 6th-7th KNHANES. Processed food was classified into four categories, NOVA1 to NOVA4, using 24-h recall data. The higher the NOVA category, the more processed the food. Statistical analysis was conducted using logistic regression to investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to the consumption of ultra-processed foods. RESULTS: Among the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, hypertension (odds ratio [OR], 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.85; Q4 vs. Q1, P-trend < 0.001) and high triglycerides (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.94; Q4 vs. Q1, P-trend < 0.001) showed a correlation with the percentages of energy consumed from ultra-processed foods. The OR for metabolic syndrome, according to the percentages of energy consumed from ultra-processed foods, is shown only for men. The OR showed that the percentages of energy consumed from ultra-processed foods were associated with increased metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that consumption of ultra-processed foods raises the risk of metabolic syndrome especially among men. To prevent metabolic syndrome, it is necessary to prepare appropriate dietary guidelines for Korean adults.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.332-345
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• 2023

Objectives: We examined the association of hearing with cardio-metabolic diseases, dyslipidemia, hypertension and diabetes mellitus according to the personal and occupational characteristics of workers exposed to noise. Methods: The subjects of the study were 237,028 workers who underwent 2, 3, and 4 kHz airway pure tone audiometry in 2015 and who underwent clinical tests to diagnose cardiovascular-metabolic diseases. Cardiovascular-metabolic diseases were defined using reference values for respective items including blood pressure (systolic/diastolic), fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. The airway pure tone hearing threshold of 2, 3, and 4 kHz, the average threshold of 2-3-4 kHz, and the hearing loss by the average threshold of the primary examination were distinguished. Results: Workers with cardiovascular-metabolic disease had significantly higher average hearing thresholds and higher rates of hearing loss. Logistic regression analysis, which adjusted for demographic variables of gender and age and occupational variables such as workplace size, industry, and type of work, and cardiovascular-metabolic disease as independent variables, showed that the odds ratio of hypertension to hearing loss in the mid-frequency was 1.239 (95% confidence interval: 1.118-1.374). For hypertension was 1.159 (1.107-1.214) and for diabetes it was 1.166 (1.104-1.230) for hearing loss in the high-frequency. Hearing loss measured by mean hearing was 1.178 (1.105-1.256) for hypertension and 1.181 (1.097-1.271) for diabetes. Conclusions: Cardiovascular-metabolic diseases in noise-exposed workers are associated with an increased risk of hearing loss and should be accompanied by bio-monitoring of cardiovascular-metabolic diseases in addition to auditory surveillance.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.231-241
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine effects of sarcopenic obesity on metabolic syndrome in Korean elders. Methods: This study is based on the analysis of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) with 1,155 subjects (524 men, and 631 women) aged 60 or older, from 2008 to 2011. Sarcopenia was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle (ASM), divided by weight (%) of <1 SD (standard deviation) below the sex-specific mean for young adults. Obesity was defined as a total body fat percent (men${\geq}$25%, women${\geq}$35%). Results: The prevalence of SO (sarcopenic obesity) was 13.3% among men and 22.5% among women. Both sexes showed a higher total body fat percent, and the SMI (skeletal muscle index) was the lowest in the SO group. Metabolic syndrome was highly prevalent in the SO group (52.5% men, 60.4% women). The SO group showed a higher risk for metabolic syndrome (odds ratio men 6.57 [95% CI 5.19~7.27], women 3.89 [95% CI 2.41~6.29]) than the obese group (men 3.14 [95% CI 1.76~4.14], women 2.54 [95% CI 1.38~4.65]). Conclusion: SO is a major risk factor for metabolic syndrome in Korean elders. Therefore, a nursing program should be given to the Korean elderly SO group to prevent metabolic syndrome.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2015

The present study showed WHtR to be significantly better than BMI and WC for prediction of metabolic-related diseases in the middle-aged and older people in Korea, based on Bayesian ordered probit model analysis. The variations of WC, BMI and WHtR were compared according to the number of metabolic-related diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and diabetes. It was found that the three measures showed the similar variation except a very few extreme cases for age less than 40. For subjects over the age of 40, WC was not significant and WHtR gave more influence in greater variability than BMI on the number of metabolic diseases. Also, the rate of change for WHtR was higher than for BMI as the number of metabolic-related diseases increased. Specifically, the difference of the marginal effect of WHtR between no disease and only one disease was 1.81 times higher than that of BMI. Moreover, it was pointed out that the threshold value of WHtR for obesity should be considered differently by age.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.256-266
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• 2019

In this study, obese adults were compared for their ability to predict obesity and lipid related variables and their optimal cutoff values to predict metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. In this study, 9,256 adults aged 20 years or older and less than 80 years old, who were in the Gyeonggi region from January 2014 to December 2016 and who were examined at a general hospital, were enrolled. The diagnostic criteria for obesity were WHO (World Health Organization), and BMI $25kg/m^2$ or more presented in the Asia-Pacific region. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed based on the criteria of American Heart Association / National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (AHA / NHLBI). According to the results of receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, Triglyceride / HDL-cholesterol (TG / HDL-C), Triglyceride and Glucose (TyG) index, lipid accumulation product (LAP) and visceral adiposity index (VAI) showed high predictive power for diagnosing metabolic syndrome. The diagnostic accuracy of LAP (AUC: 0.854) for males and VAI (0.888) for females was the highest. The optimal cutoff value of LAP was 42.71 for male and 35.44 for female, and the cutoff value of VAI was 1.92 for male and 2.15 for female. In addition, WHtR (waist to height ratio), TyG index, and LAP were used as predictors of insulin resistance in obese adults. Therefore, LAP and VAI were superior to other indicators in predicting metabolic syndrome in obese adults.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was conducted to expand evidence-base for the effectiveness of lifestyle intervention programs to prevent the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Methods: Seven intervention studies between 2006 and 2014 at Korea Association of Health Promotion were analyzed. All the studies were randomized controlled trials(RCTs) and included multi-component behavioral interventions. The participants of the programs were 2,172 adults with risk factors regarding metabolic syndrome criteria. The proportions of normalized participants were compared within and across the studies using odds ratio effect sizes. Results: The reductions in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome were from 49.6% to 65.1% in intervention groups, and from 38.7% to 52.3% in comparison groups. Significant differences in effectiveness between groups were found in two studies, one in 2006 with odds ratio of 1.69(p<0.01) and another in 2009 with odds ratio of 2.36(p<0.001). Proportions of normalized participants were higher in blood pressure(31.9% to 52.5% in the intervention groups and 23.0% to 43.3% in comparison groups) than other risk factors. Abdominal obesity showed weakest improvement after the intervention in both groups. Conclusions: Lifestyle modification program is an effective method to reduce diabetes and cardiovascular risks in adults by decreasing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.85-100
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• 2020

Eating alone has recently become a very common dietary pattern in modern society. This study investigated the relationship between the frequency of eating alone and health related issues including chronic diseases, depression, and the quality of life (QOL). The 2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey provided the basic data for this study. According to the general analysis of 4,910 adults aged over 19 years or older, the average age in the 'eating alone' group was significantly higher (P<0.001), and the ratio of single-person households was significantly higher as the number of times of eating alone increased (P<0.001). Analysis of the relationship between the risk factors of metabolic syndrome according to the number of times eating alone, using logistic regression analysis, showed that the odds ratio of metabolic syndrome in the 'two times eating alone a day' group was approximately 1.3 times higher (OR=1.275) after being corrected for gender, age and energy intake. For the 'three times eating alone a day' group, the metabolic syndrome odds ratio was higher in all models except for model 1 and 5 (P for trend<0.05). The prevalence of depression using patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was higher as the number of eating alone increased, and the QOL was inversly related with the number of meals eating alone (P for trend<0.01). We hope the results of this study will raise awareness of the health of those people who eat alone and lay the groundwork for individuals who eat alone and gain social attention.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.830-840
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• 2017

Excessive body weight gain during the growth period of early life may predispose individuals towards obesity and metabolic disorder in later life. We investigated the possibility of using the food efficiency ratio as an early indicator for predicting susceptibility to diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Four-week-old, prepubertal, male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into obesity-prone and obesity-resistant groups based on food efficiency ratio values after five days on a high-fat diet. Metabolic parameters measured after 2, 6, and 10 weeks, and specific phenotypes were compared with each group. Obesity-prone rats had higher increases in body weight and fat mass compared to obesity-resistant rats over the study period. Obesity-prone rats became glucose intolerant early in this study and remained so throughout the experimental period, with increases in fat weight and leptin levels occurring first, followed by increases in insulin level. Gluconeogenesis and insulin resistance significantly increased in obesity-prone groups in which activities of glucose-6-phosphatase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase were increased and glucokinase activity decreased. Higher food efficiency ratio at an early age was closely correlated with body fat accumulation, hyperleptinemia, and hyperinsulinemia of middle and elderly age. We suggest a high food efficiency ratio in prepubertal subjects may be a useful predictor of future obesity and insulin resistance.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.86-93
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• 2015

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common hormonal endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age. It consists of a heterogeneous collection of signs and symptoms that together form a disorder spectrum. The diagnosis of PCOS is principally based on clinical and physical findings. The extent of metabolic abnormalities in women with PCOS varies with phenotype, body weight, age, and ethnicity. For general population, the prevalence of hyperandrogenism and oligomenorrhea decreases with age, while complications such as insulin resistance and other metabolic disturbances increase with age. Obese women with PCOS have a higher risk of developing oligomenorrhea, amenorrhea, hyperandrogenemia, insulin resistance, and lower luteinizing hormone (LH) to follicle stimulation hormone (FSH) ratios than non-obese women with PCOS. The LH to FSH ratio is a valuable diagnostic tool in evaluating Taiwanese women with PCOS, especially in the diagnosis of oligomenorrhea. Overweight/obesity is the major determinant of cardiovascular and metabolic disturbances in women of reproductive age.