Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 20th Anniversary: Accomplishments and Future Directions

Overview

Journal Epidemiol Health

Specialty Public Health

Date 2021 Apr 19

PMID 33872484

Citations 90

Authors

Kyungwon Oh

Yoonjung Kim

Sanghui Kweon

Soyeon Kim

Sungha Yun

Suyeon Park

Yeon-Kyeng Lee

Youngtaek Kim

Ok Park

Eun Kyeong Jeong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) was initiated in 1998 to provide evidence for the development and evaluation of health policies and programs. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is responsible for the KNHANES and has conducted it as a series of surveys. Over the past 20 years, efforts to produce accurate, timely, and nationwide health statistics have been refined by establishing a continuous annual survey system with full-time field staff, incrementally expanding survey components, collaborating with relevant academic societies for quality control, and revising the survey methods. Additionally, the utility of the collected data was increased by linking the KNHANES data with related data from other government agencies or institutions and making the overall data publicly available on the official website of KNHANES (https://knhanes.kdca.go.kr). Additional long-term plans are being developed, including plans to continue producing nationwide health indicators and invigorating the utilization of the KNHANES data.

Citing Articles

Diabetes status, duration, and risk of dementia among ischemic stroke patients.

Kim J, Han K, Lee J, Yang Y, Cheon D, Lee J Alzheimers Res Ther. 2025; 17(1):58.

PMID: 40057772 PMC: 11889840. DOI: 10.1186/s13195-025-01708-8.

Dietary patterns and all-cause and cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality in Korean adults.

Lee S, Lee J, Kang M Nutr J. 2025; 24(1):3.

PMID: 40025492 PMC: 11874861. DOI: 10.1186/s12937-024-01064-7.

Discovering Vitamin-D-Deficiency-Associated Factors in Korean Adults Using KNHANES Data Based on an Integrated Analysis of Machine Learning and Statistical Techniques.

Ahn H, Kim S, Jung J, Park C Nutrients. 2025; 17(4).

PMID: 40004947 PMC: 11858147. DOI: 10.3390/nu17040618.

Trajectory Analysis in FBG and the Incidence of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

Park H, Na K, Hwang Y, Han S, Park K, Park H Biomedicines. 2025; 13(2).

PMID: 40002749 PMC: 11852470. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines13020336.

Metabolic outcomes in non-alcoholic and alcoholic steatotic liver disease among Korean and American adults.

Kim Y, Lee T, Oh C BMC Gastroenterol. 2025; 25(1):110.

PMID: 39994673 PMC: 11853905. DOI: 10.1186/s12876-025-03687-4.

References

Kim D, Song S, Lee J, Oh K, Shim J, Kweon S . Reproducibility and validity of an FFQ developed for the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Public Health Nutr. 2014; 18(8):1369-77. PMC: 10271806. DOI: 10.1017/S1368980014001712. View

Kim W, Kim W, Woo G, Kim H, Cho Y, Kim T . Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Reference Range and Prevalence of Thyroid Dysfunction in the Korean Population: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013 to 2015. Endocrinol Metab (Seoul). 2017; 32(1):106-114. PMC: 5368108. DOI: 10.3803/EnM.2017.32.1.106. View

Yoon K, Mun G, Kim S, Kim S, Kim C, Park K . Prevalence of eye diseases in South Korea: data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008-2009. Korean J Ophthalmol. 2011; 25(6):421-33. PMC: 3223710. DOI: 10.3341/kjo.2011.25.6.421. View

Lee Y, Nam H, Chuang L, Kim K, Yang H, Kwon I . South Korean time trade-off values for EQ-5D health states: modeling with observed values for 101 health states. Value Health. 2009; 12(8):1187-93. DOI: 10.1111/j.1524-4733.2009.00579.x. View

Ueda P, Woodward M, Lu Y, Hajifathalian K, Al-Wotayan R, Aguilar-Salinas C . Laboratory-based and office-based risk scores and charts to predict 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in 182 countries: a pooled analysis of prospective cohorts and health surveys. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2017; 5(3):196-213. PMC: 5354360. DOI: 10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30015-3. View

Baek Y, Hwang J, Kim K, Moon H, Kweon S, Yang J . Dietary intake of fats and fatty acids in the Korean population: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013. Nutr Res Pract. 2015; 9(6):650-7. PMC: 4667207. DOI: 10.4162/nrp.2015.9.6.650. View

. Long-term and recent trends in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in 12 high-income countries: an analysis of 123 nationally representative surveys. Lancet. 2019; 394(10199):639-651. PMC: 6717084. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31145-6. View

Kim H, Kim Y, Cho Y, Jun B, Oh K . Trends in the prevalence of major cardiovascular disease risk factors among Korean adults: results from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1998-2012. Int J Cardiol. 2014; 174(1):64-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2014.03.163. View

Hajifathalian K, Ueda P, Lu Y, Woodward M, Ahmadvand A, Aguilar-Salinas C . A novel risk score to predict cardiovascular disease risk in national populations (Globorisk): a pooled analysis of prospective cohorts and health examination surveys. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2015; 3(5):339-55. PMC: 7615120. DOI: 10.1016/S2213-8587(15)00081-9. View

10.

. Contributions of mean and shape of blood pressure distribution to worldwide trends and variations in raised blood pressure: a pooled analysis of 1018 population-based measurement studies with 88.6 million participants. Int J Epidemiol. 2018; 47(3):872-883i. PMC: 6005056. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyy016. View

11.

Kim H, Oh K . Household food insecurity and dietary intake in Korea: results from the 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Public Health Nutr. 2015; 18(18):3317-25. PMC: 10271457. DOI: 10.1017/S1368980015000725. View

12.

Kweon S, Kim Y, Jang M, Kim Y, Kim K, Choi S . Data resource profile: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Int J Epidemiol. 2014; 43(1):69-77. PMC: 3937975. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyt228. View

13.

Lee H, Lee H, Cho Y, Oh K, Ki M . Changes in seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen and epidemiologic characteristics in the Republic of Korea, 1998-2013. Epidemiol Health. 2016; 37:e2015055. PMC: 4835708. DOI: 10.4178/epih/e2015055. View

14.

. Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults. Nature. 2019; 569(7755):260-264. PMC: 6784868. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1171-x. View

15.

Kim K, Yun S, Jang M, Oh K . Body fat percentile curves for Korean children and adolescents: a data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010. J Korean Med Sci. 2013; 28(3):443-9. PMC: 3594610. DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2013.28.3.443. View

16.

Park E, Joo I, Jang M, Kim Y, Oh K, Oh H . Prevalence of osteoporosis in the Korean population based on Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), 2008-2011. Yonsei Med J. 2014; 55(4):1049-57. PMC: 4075366. DOI: 10.3349/ymj.2014.55.4.1049. View

17.

Park K, Lee S, Koo J, Park H, Lee K, Choi Y . Prevalence and associated factors of tinnitus: data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2011. J Epidemiol. 2014; 24(5):417-26. PMC: 4150014. DOI: 10.2188/jea.je20140024. View

18.

Hong S, Oh H, Choi H, Kim J, Lim S, Kim E . Characteristics of body fat, body fat percentage and other body composition for Koreans from KNHANES IV. J Korean Med Sci. 2011; 26(12):1599-605. PMC: 3230020. DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2011.26.12.1599. View

19.

. Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet. 2017; 390(10113):2627-2642. PMC: 5735219. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32129-3. View

20.

Yoo K, Kim Y, Sheen S, Park J, Hwang Y, Kim S . Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Korea: the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2008. Respirology. 2011; 16(4):659-65. DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1843.2011.01951.x. View