The prevalence of general and abdominal obesity according to sasang constitution in Korea

Abstract

BackgroundObesity is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and could affect mortality rates. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) have been used to classify obesity, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has recently emerged as a discriminator of cardiovascular disease. Sasang constitution (SC) is a kind of well-known traditional Korean medicine: Tae-eumin (TE), Soeumin (SE), Taeyangin (TY) and Soyangin (SY) carrying a different level of susceptibility to chronic diseases. We aimed to examine the prevalence in general and abdominal obesity (AO) using BMI, WC and WHR according to SC in the Korean population.MethodsA total of 3,348 subjects were recruited from 24 Korean medicine clinics. Obesity was divided into three categories: general obesity by BMI, abdominal obesity by waist circumference (WC AO) and abdominal obesity by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR AO). A Chi-square test was performed to compare prevalence, and logistic regression was conducted to generate odds ratios (ORs) according to SC (p < .05).ResultsThe prevalence of general obesity was significantly higher in males than in females. The highest prevalence of general obesity, WC AO and WHR AO were all observed in the TE type, and the SY and SE types were followed in order, for both males and females respectively.The TE type was highly associated with increased risk of general obesity (OR = 20.2, 95% CI: 12.4-32.9 in males and OR = 14.3, 95% CI: 10.1-20.2 in females), of WC AO (OR = 10.7, 95% CI: 7.2-15.9 in males and OR = 7.5, 95% CI: 5.8-9.6 in females), and of WHR AO (OR = 4.6, 95% CI: 3.3-6.4 in males and OR = 3.8, 95% CI: 2.9-4.9 in females) compared with the SE type. In addition, after controlling for age, social status and eating habits, the ORs were similar to the crude model according to gender and SC.ConclusionsThis study shows that the prevalence of obesity varies according to SC in the Korean population. In particular, the TE type was highly associated with increased ORs for general obesity, WC AO and WHR AO in both genders.

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“…Various studies suggest that the TE type is prone to metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and ischemic stroke 10, 18, 29, 30, 43, 44, 45. Although we found no significant pathological abnormalities in the serum indices of any tested sample, the higher BMI and body weight of the TE type could be risk factors for these diseases.…”

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“…Recent publications on SCM show that different SC types are characterized with different susceptibilities to metabolic syndrome. Compared with other SC types (especially with respect to the SE type), the TE type is characterized by an attenuated metabolic rate down to the cellular level [71] with suspected reduction in mitochondrial metabolism [72], and most likely as a consequence, the TE type is highly associated with an increased risk of general obesity and abdominal obesity [73], and individuals of the TE type have higher blood pressures, glucose metabolism values, and lipid profile levels, which impose a higher risk of type 2 diabetes [74]. The SC type itself was reported to be a risk factor for metabolic syndrome (TE > SY > SE) [75], and the SE type was a risk factor for irritable bowel syndrome [76].…”

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“…Obesity is a serious medical health problem in the world, and was estimated over 500 million adults in 2008 according to the World Health Organization [ 1 ]. Obesity, which is an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, is associated with increased health-care costs, reduced quality of life, and increased risk of various chronic diseases such as heart and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and various forms of cancer [ 2 – 4 ]. Genetic, physiological, psychological and gut microbial factors are responsible for the significant increase in prevalence of obesity and its sequels [ 5 – 7 ].…”