Association between Body Weight Perception and Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Adults: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015–2016

ABSTRACT

Background@#Obesity has become a concern globally. The incidence of metabolic syndrome has increased rapidly in Korea over the past decades.Previous studies have reported obesity as a major cause of metabolic syndrome. Body mass index (BMI) and body weight perception have beenwidely used as indirect predictors of the risk of metabolic syndrome. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate subjective body weight perception and therisk of metabolic syndrome in adults over 20 years of age and confirm the gap between body weight perception and the objective measure of BMI. @*Methods@#This study was conducted aming 9,842 Korean adults over 20 years of age using data from the VI-3 (2015) and VII-1 (2016) Korea NationalHealth and Nutrition Survey. The BMI criteria were set according to the WHO Asia Pacific Standard criteria. Perceived body weight status wasmeasured according to the question, “How would you describe your body shape?”. The patients were grouped as “obese,” “slightly obese,” “rightweight,” and “under weight” according to the original responses (“very obese,” “slightly obese,” “normal,” “slightly thin,” and “very thin”). Data analysiswas performed using chi-square test, analysis of variance, and logistic regression. @*Results@#Among the participants, the risk of metabolic syndrome was progressively higher with the body weight perception as obese. Additionally, therisk of metabolic syndrome was higher in those with a higher BMI than in those with subjective body weight perception. @*Conclusion@#In this Korean population, increased risk of metabolic syndrome showed higher associated with higher BMI than with body weightperception.