ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives@#As the Korean population ages fast, it is estimated that the people with hypertension, especially female patients, will increase rapidly. However, there are few data comparing the size of female and male hypertensive patients in the Korean population. Thus we assessed sex-specific trends in the prevalence and the number of people with hypertension. @*Methods@#We analyzed data for 128,949 adults aged ≥20 years with valid blood pressure measurements from the 1998 to 2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The prevalence and the absolute number of hypertension were estimated with taking into the sampling weights separately for women and men. @*Results@#Overall prevalence of hypertension is higher in men than in women. But, in older adults, women show higher prevalence and the number of people with hypertension. Between 1998 and 2018, prevalence of hypertension increased from 61.8% to 65.9% in elderly (age 65+) women, and from 49.0% to 59.4% in elderly men. During the same period, the number of elderly women with hypertension increased from 1.18 to 2.70 million, while the number of elderly men with hypertension increased from 0.57 to 1.78 million. Among hypertensive patients, undiagnosed hypertension and diagnosed-but-untreated hypertension were more common in men, while treated-but-uncontrolled hypertension were more common in women. @*Conclusion@#The fast-growing number of elderly women with hypertension will be an important public health challenge for the Korean society to solve in order to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.
ABSTRACT
Objectives@#Low bone density (LBD) in the postmenopausal period has long been a pervasive public health concern; however, the association between parity and LBD has yet to be fully elucidated. Thus, we investigated the association between parity and LBD in postmenopausal Korean women. @*Methods@#This study used baseline data from 1287 Korean postmenopausal women aged 40 years or older enrolled in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center community-based cohort study conducted in Korea from 2013 to 2017. The main exposure was parity (nullipara, 1, 2, 3+). The main outcome was LBD, including osteopenia and osteoporosis, based on bone mineral density measured using quantitative computed tomography of the lumbar spine (L1-2). @*Results@#The mean age of participants was 57.1 years, and the median parity was 2. Of the 1287 participants, 594 (46.2%) had osteopenia and 147 (11.4%) had osteoporosis. No significant difference in the prevalence of LBD was found between nullipara and parous women, whereas higher parity was associated with a higher risk of LBD among parous women; the adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the presence of LBD was 1.40 (0.97 to 2.02) for a parity of 2 and 1.95 (1.23 to 3.09) for a parity of 3 relative to a parity of 1. @*Conclusions@#Women who have given birth multiple times may be at greater risk of bone loss after menopause; therefore, they should be a major target population for osteoporosis prevention.
ABSTRACT
Objectives@#Low bone density (LBD) in the postmenopausal period has long been a pervasive public health concern; however, the association between parity and LBD has yet to be fully elucidated. Thus, we investigated the association between parity and LBD in postmenopausal Korean women. @*Methods@#This study used baseline data from 1287 Korean postmenopausal women aged 40 years or older enrolled in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Etiology Research Center community-based cohort study conducted in Korea from 2013 to 2017. The main exposure was parity (nullipara, 1, 2, 3+). The main outcome was LBD, including osteopenia and osteoporosis, based on bone mineral density measured using quantitative computed tomography of the lumbar spine (L1-2). @*Results@#The mean age of participants was 57.1 years, and the median parity was 2. Of the 1287 participants, 594 (46.2%) had osteopenia and 147 (11.4%) had osteoporosis. No significant difference in the prevalence of LBD was found between nullipara and parous women, whereas higher parity was associated with a higher risk of LBD among parous women; the adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the presence of LBD was 1.40 (0.97 to 2.02) for a parity of 2 and 1.95 (1.23 to 3.09) for a parity of 3 relative to a parity of 1. @*Conclusions@#Women who have given birth multiple times may be at greater risk of bone loss after menopause; therefore, they should be a major target population for osteoporosis prevention.
ABSTRACT
Objectives@#We compared the associations of 3 computed tomography (CT)-based abdominal adiposity indexes with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among middle-aged Korean men and women. @*Methods@#The participants were 1366 men and 2480 women community-dwellers aged 30-64 years. Three abdominal adiposity indexes—visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), and visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (VSR)—were calculated from abdominal CT scans. NAFLD was determined by calculating the Liver Fat Score from comorbidities and blood tests. An NAFLD prediction model that included waist circumference (WC) as a measure of abdominal adiposity was designated as the base model, to which VFA, SFA, and VSR were added in turn. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification improvement (NRI) were calculated to quantify the additional predictive value of VFA, SFA, and VSR relative to WC. @*Results@#VFA and VSR were positively associated with NAFLD in both genders. SFA was not significantly associated with NAFLD in men, but it was negatively associated in women. When VFA, SFA, and VSR were added to the WC-based NAFLD prediction model, the AUC improved by 0.013 (p<0.001), 0.001 (p=0.434), and 0.009 (p=0.007) in men and by 0.044 (p<0.001), 0.017 (p<0.001), and 0.046 (p<0.001) in women, respectively. The IDI and NRI were increased the most by VFA in men and VSR in women. @*Conclusions@#Using CT-based abdominal adiposity indexes in addition to WC may improve the detection of NAFLD. The best predictive indicators were VFA in men and VSR in women.