Prehypertension and Obesity in Middle-aged Korean Men and Women: the Third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES III) Study

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between obesity and prehypertension (preHT) after adjustment for socioeconomic position and health behavior factors.

Methods: The study sample included 1973 Korean men and women, 45-64 years of age. Subjects were classified into three groups based on their baseline blood pressure: prehypertensive, hypertensive and normotensive. Men with a waist circumference ≥90 cm or women ≥80 cm were considered abdominally obese. Body mass index (BMI) obesity was defined as having a BMI ≥25. The prevalence of abdominal obesity and BMI obesity was calculated with age adjustment using a direct method. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied.

Results: The prevalence of preHT in our study was 52.8%. We found that subjects with abdominal obesity were 2.06 times as likely to be prehypertensive as those without it and people with BMI obesity were 1.89 times as likely to be prehypertensive as those without it. Interestingly, men with BMI obesity had a higher preHT risk, while women with abdominal obesity had a higher preHT risk.

Conclusions: Statistical analyses of a community-based random sample of the Korean population indicate that obesity is associated with preHT in Korean middle-aged subjects.