ABSTRACT
Background@#Postmenopausal status increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, and C-reactive protein (CRP) constitutes an independent cardiovascular risk factor. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with increased high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) level in postmenopausal women. @*Methods@#We included postmenopausal women without laboratory test results that suggested acute inflammation who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2016 and 2017. The participants were divided into high and low hs-CRP groups (cutoff value, 3.0 mg/L). We investigated factors that influenced the hs-CRP level with logistic regression analysis. @*Results@#The total number of subjects was 2,739, of whom 76.4% had low hs-CRP levels and 23.6% had high hs-CRP levels. The mean age and body mass index were higher in the high than in the low hs-CRP group. In the simple logistic regression analysis, high hs-CRP level was associated with smoking, whereas low hs-CRP level was associated with aerobic exercise, use of oral contraceptives, and history of pregnancy in postmenopausal women. When the analysis was adjusted for confounding variables, histories of smoking and pregnancy had a statistically significant association with high hs-CRP level. @*Conclusion@#This study showed that the important modifiable risk factors of elevated hs-CRP level in postmenopausal women of Korea include obesity, smoking, and lack of aerobic exercise, but well-controlled prospective investigations should be considered.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Association between obesity and family communication was a controversial issue in previous studies. Previous studies were done on adolescents and adults in overall. This study was done to figure out association between obesity of medical school students specifically and their family function including communication and to help them on the treatment of obese patients.METHODS: A self-reported questionnaire was filled in by 97 medical school students in Busan. They were asked to answer forty different questions including their height and weight. Association between BMI and family communication was studied using FACE III, Family APGAR and KOBES.RESULTS: Among 97 correspondents, 30 of them were found to be overweight to obese. There was a significant difference in number of siblings, amount of food intake, meal time and recent weight reduction trial among overweight-obese group and normal group. The mean Family APGAR score of normal group was higher than overweight-obese group. Flexibility and connectivity score in FACE III of normal group was also higher than overweight-obese group. Among all the factors considered, recent weight reduction trial was the only factor that was statistically significant in accordance with normal weight.CONCLUSION: There was significant relation between flexibility and connectivity of family function with overweight and obesity. In order to investigate further relation and significance on separate gender, larger study samples are needed. Future studies are suggested regarding gender differences on relationship between overweight-obesity and family function in medical school students.