Background@#It is well known that the
prevalence of
obesity in
Korea is increasing over
time, however it is not known how the
trends among
occupational groups and
sex differ in such increasing
trends. This study was designed to provide recent
trends of
obesity among
workers in
Korea and to identify whether there were differences among
occupational groups. @*
Methods@#We used data from the Korean
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Phases I to VI (1998–2015), to analyze
trends in the
prevalence of
obesity in
adult Korean
workers.
Obesity was defined as a
body mass index of 25 kg/m2 or higher.
Occupations were classified into 3 groups (a) nonmanual
workers, (b) service/
sales workers, and (c) manual
workers. @*Results@#During the period of the Korean
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Phases I to VI, the
prevalence of
obesity in
male workers increased in all
occupations (31.1% to 39.5% in manual
workers, 32.3% to 38.2% in service/
sales workers, and 25.3% to 39.7% in manual
workers). However,
female workers did not show any particular tendency toward
obesity, except for a significant decrease in the
prevalence rate in service/
sales workers (30.8% to 23.9%, p for trend = 0.0048). @*Conclusion@#The
trends of
obesity prevalence by
sex and
occupation were different. For
male manual
workers, the
prevalence rate increased steadily during the data period, while it decreased steadily in
female sales/service
workers.