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Byeon, Lee, and Lee: Characteristics of Young Korean Metabolically Healthy Obese Patient: Based on Retrospective Analysis of Republic of Korea Navy Soldiers' Medical Examination
Original Article

Journal of Lipid and Atherosclerosis 2016; 5(2): 155-162.

Published online: 31 December 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12997/jla.2016.5.2.155

Characteristics of Young Korean Metabolically Healthy Obese Patient: Based on Retrospective Analysis of Republic of Korea Navy Soldiers' Medical Examination

Seonggyu Byeon1, 2, Ji-Hwan Lee2, Seung-Eun Lee3

1Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea.

2Republic of Korea Navy, Korea.

3Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding Author: Seonggyu Byeon, Republic of Korea Navy, Chungmu-ro 70, Ocheon-eup, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do 37897, Korea. Tel: +82-54-290-7280, Fax: +82-54-290-7283, bichon3@naver.com

Received 24 November 2016       Revised 21 December 2016       Accepted 21 December 2016

© 2016 The Korean Society Lipidology and Atherosclerosis.

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the young Korean obese but metabolically healthy subjects and to identify the factors associated with metabolic health status among them.

Methods

We reviewed the medical record of South-Korea Navy soldiers at 1st marine division with routine medical examination. Within this population, we selected obese subjects whose body mass index (BMI) were more than 25 kg/m2. The clinical characteristics between obese subjects with metabolically healthy and unhealthy factors were retrospectively compared.

Results

Of the 1,522 subjects with medical record, 319 (20.9%) subjects were identified as obese. Among them, 60 subjects (18.8%) were classified as metabolically unhealthy, whereas 259 (81.2%) subjects were metabolically healthy. Multivariate analysis revealed that higher BMI (odds ratio, OR 1.26, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.07-1.49), higher alanine transaminase (ALT) (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06), and drinking alcohol (OR 3.65, 95% CI 1.02-13.02) were associated with metabolically unhealthy status in obese subjects. Meanwhile, regular physical activity was associated with metabolically healthy status in obese subjects. (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.17-0.62)

Conclusion

This study found that higher BMI, higher ALT, and drinking alcohol were related to metabolically unhealthy status in young Korean obese subjects; meanwhile, regular physical activity was related to metabolically healthy status.

Keywords: Metabolically healthy obese (MHO), Metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO), Metabolic disease, Obesity, Young Korean

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Characteristics of study population

jla-5-155-i001
Mean±SD (N=1,522) p value
Non-obese Subjects (n=1203) Obese Subjects (n=319)
Age (year) 20.42±0.49 20.38±0.48 0.821
Height (m) 173.8±5.20 173.4±5.28 0.217
Weight (kg) 68.4±5.86 80.6±7.38 <0.001
Body Mass Index (kg/m2) 22.6±1.44 26.8±1.74 <0.001
WBC (103/mm2) 5.8±1.58 5.8±1.67 0.600
Hb (g/dL) 14.7±0.78 14.8±0.77 0.053
PLT (103/mm2) 231.7±48.35 235.2±44.8 0.236
FBS 90.1±8.51 90.8±7.74 0.198
TG 66.0±26.61 75.2±38.88 <0.001
HDL 56.0±10.35 52.1±9.74 <0.001
AST (U/L) 23.2±15.34 24.5±11.8 0.168
ALT (U/L) 19.3±13.03 23.0±12.4 <0.001
r-GT (U/L) 20.1±6.46 23.2±10.9 <0.001
Serum Creatinine (mg/dL) 1.07±0.10 1.08±0.10 0.255
Smoking status 0.595
 Never 553 (46%) 108 (9%)
 Prior 541 (45%) 146 (46%)
 Current 50 (16%) 123 (38)
Alcoholic status 0.295
 Non-drinker 72 (6%) 722 (60%)
 Light Drinker 409 (34%) 44 (14%)
 Heavy Drinker 196 (61%) 81 (25%)
Weekly physical activity 0.056
 0 36 (3%) 253 (21%)
 1-2 505 (42%) 277 (23%)
 3-4 132 (11%) 15 (5%)
 5-6 68 (21%) 163 (51%)
 7 43 (14%) 30 (9%)

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation (SD) or number (%).

WBC; white blood cell, Hb; hemoglobin, PLT; platelet, FBS; fasting blood sugar, TG; triglyceride, HDL; high density lipoprotein, AST; aspartate transaminase, ALT; alanine transaminase, r-GT; gamma glutamyltransferase

Table 2

Characteristics of obese subjects according to metabolic health status

jla-5-155-i002
Mean±SD (n=319) pvalue
MUO (n=60) MHO (n=259)
Age (year) 20.38±0.47 20.40±0.49
Body Mass Index (kg/m2) 27.6±2.43 26.6±1.48 0.003
WBC (103/mm2) 5.9±1.65 5.8±1.68 0.588
Hb (g/dL) 15.1±0.71 14.7±0.76 <0.001
PLT (103/mm2) 244.0±47.34 233.2±44.02 0.092
AST (U/L) 26.2±11.96 24.1±11.75 0.212
ALT (U/L) 30.1±20.05 21.4±9.16 0.002
r-GT (U/L) 27.1±15.24 22.3±9.48 0.023
Serum Creatinine (mg/dL) 1.08±0.09 1.08±0.10 0.657
Smoking status 0.342
 Never 27 (45%) 8 (13%)
 Prior 25 (42%) 119 (46%)
 Current 42 (16%) 98 (38%)
Alcoholic status 0.036
 Non-drinker 3 (5%) 39 (65%)
 Light Drinker 18 (30%) 39 (15%)
 Heavy Drinker 157 (61%) 63 (24%)
Weekly physical activity 0.524
 0 7 (11%) 22 (37%)
 1–2 17 (28%) 8 (14%)
 3–4 6 (10%) 8 (3%)
 5–6 46 (18%) 146 (56%)
 7 35 (14%) 24 (9%)

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation (SD) or number (%).

MUO; metabolically unhealthy obese, MHO; metabolically healthy obese, WBC; white blood cell, Hb; hemoglobin, PLT; platelet, AST; aspartate transaminase, ALT; alanine transaminase, r-GT; gamma glutamyltransferase

Table 3

Multiple logistic regression analysis for metabolically unhealthy obese subjects

jla-5-155-i003
Odds ratio (95% CI) for MHO p value
Body Mass Index 1.26 (1.07–1.49) 0.005
WBC 0.95 (0.78–1.17) NS
Hb 1.52 (0.97–2.36) NS
PLT 1.00 (0.99–1.01) NS
AST 0.97 (0.93–1.01) NS
ALT 1.03 (1.01–1.06) 0.016
r-GT 0.98 (0.94–1.02) NS
Serum Creatinine 0.53 (0.20–13.8) NS
Current Smoking 0.85 (0.30–2.46) NS
Drinker 3.65 (1.02–13.02) 0.046
Regular Physical activity (≥3 times/week) 0.33 (0.17–0.62) 0.001

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation (SD) or number (%).

CI; confidence interval, MD; metabolic disease, WBC; white blood cell, Hb; hemoglobin, PLT; platelet, AST; aspartate transaminase, ALT; alanine transaminase, r-GT; gamma glutamyltransferase, NS; non-significant

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Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Table 1

Multiple logistic regression analysis for metabolically unhealthy subjects regardless of obesity
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