Prolonged or Transition to Metabolically Unhealthy Status, Regardless of Obesity Status, Is Associated with Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Mortality in Koreans

Abstract

The risk of chronic disease and mortality may differ by metabolic health and obesity status and its transition. We investigated the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer incidence and mortality according to metabolic health and obesity status and their transition using the nationally representative Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) and the Ansan-Ansung (ASAS) cohort of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. Participants that agreed to mortality linkage (n = 28,468 in KNHANES and n = 7530 adults in ASAS) were analyzed (mean follow-up: 8.2 and 17.4 years, respectively). Adults with no metabolic risk factors and BMI <25 or ≥25 kg/m2 were categorized as metabolically healthy non-obese (MHN) or metabolically healthy obese (MHO), respectively. Metabolically unhealthy non-obese (MUN) and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) adults had ≥1 metabolic risk factor and a BMI