Changes in the characteristics of metabolic syndrome in Korea over the period 1998-2001 as determined by Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

M etabolic syndrome has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (1,2). In the U.S., 23.7% of the population was classified as having metabolic syndrome by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel III definition when the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) data were used (3). According to the recent study by Ford et al. (4), the age-adjusted prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 27.0% based on data from the U.S. NHANES 1999–2000 study. Thus, the number of individuals with metabolic syndrome is increasing, and an increasing trend has been observed in Asian countries (5,6). During the period 1970–1980, Korea experienced an epidemiologic switchover from infectious diseases to chronic degenerative diseases (7). A westernization of diet and a reduction in physical activity seem to have evoked metabolic imbalance, obesity, and an explosive increase in cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In particular, Korea experienced an economic crisis during the period 1997– 1998 due to a collapse in the value of the currency, which was followed by an increase in the death rate (8). Thus, we considered that changes in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome around this time would be of interest. In 1998, when the Korean economy was in crisis, and in 2001, when it returned to recovery, nationwide surveys referred to as the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANESs) were conducted. In the present study, we investigated the change in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components by applying the NCEP definition to the data obtained during these two studies.