Relationship between nutritional biomarkers and health status in the Korean elderly women

Abstract

This study was performed to exam association between nutritional biomarkers and health status based on metabolic syndrome (MS) and obesity in the elderly women. This was a across‐sectional study involving Korean elderly women (≥60, n=99) and socio‐demographics, life style characteristics, health conditions, dietary behavior, anthropometric measures (wt, ht, waist, hip, body protein, body fat, and abdominal fat, triceps skinfold thickness), and nutritional biomarkers (serum total cholesterol, HDL‐cholesterol, triglyceride, total protein, albumin, prealbumin, hemoglobin, hematocrit, fasting blood glucose, HbA1C, ferritin, Zn, Ca, Na, K, Vt. B12, folate), and systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were examined. MS group had significantly higher WBC, serum TG and glucose level, but had lower serum HDL‐cholesterol and folate level than normal elderly women. Obesity group had significantly higher serum TG and glucose level, but lower serum HDL‐cholesterol level than normal weight elderly women. Serum TG, HDL‐cholesterol, and glucose were significantly correlated with BMI, waist, WHR, and abdominal fat(%) which suggested the risk of abdominal obesity for health status in the Korean elderly women. Other nutritional biomarkers except serum folate were not significantly related to the health status in the elderly women. These results suggest that serum TG, HDL‐cholesterol, glucose, and abdominal obesity may be the important risk factors in the Korean elderly women. (Funded by the Korea Research Foundation)

Nutrition fact label (NFL) use is related to meeting the requirements for vitamins and minerals not listed on NFLs: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey VIII (2019–2021) for the prepandemic and pandemic periods

“…Regarding DRIs, with the enactment of the National Nutrition Management Act in 2010, the management of all work related to DRIs for Koreans shifted from the private sector and academia to the government [ 27 ]. Among the various standards of DRIs, EARs are values calculated from the median daily nutrient requirements of Koreans, which means that the EARs can satisfy the needs of 50% of the population [ 28 , 29 ]. EARs can be set if there is a sufficient scientific basis for the needed amount of nutrients and calculated from the median daily nutrient requirements of healthy people [ 30 ].…”