Korea

Objective: Obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are closely related and have become increasingly prevalent in Korea. Asians are more prone to obesity-related co-morbidities than Caucasians, even at lower body mass index (BMI) and/or smaller waist circumference (WC) values. Nevertheless, little is known regarding the association of WC with the risk of CVD in non-Caucasian populations. The authors conducted a prospective cohort study of WC and the risk of CVD in the Korean Heart Study. Methods: We examined the association of WC to CVD incidence among 53,026 Korean adults (30,152 men, 22,874 women) with no history of CVD and/or cancer. During a mean follow-up of 8.6 years, 2,722 incident cases of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) including 1,383 cases of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 1,012 cases of stroke were documented. Results: Average WC at baseline was 84.0±8.2 cm in men and 75.2±8.9 cm in women. After adjustment for age and BMI, WC was significantly associated with cardiovascular risk factors (P <.001). In men, a WC of ≥91 cm was associated with an ASCVD hazard ratio (HR) of 1.62 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 2.10) and an IHD HR of 1.70 (95 % CI: 1.19, 2.42) in compariso