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Impact of BMI on the incidence of metabolic abnormalities in metabolically healthy men

International Journal of Obesity volume 36, pages 1187–1194 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives:

Although the existence of metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individuals has been recognized, little is known regarding metabolic health status in these subjects over time. Thus, we evaluated longitudinal changes in metabolic parameters among MHO subjects compared with metabolically healthy, normal-weight (MHNW) subjects.

Methods:

A cohort study was performed on 2599 Korean men, 30–59 years of age, with no evidence of fatty liver disease on ultrasound and no traits of metabolic syndrome at baseline. BMI was categorized based on criteria for Asian population. Study participants were followed annually or biennially between 2002 and 2009. At each visit, the fatty liver on ultrasound was assessed and metabolic abnormalities were measured. Parametric Cox models and a pooled logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationships of BMI with incident metabolic abnormalities.

Results:

During 9647.1 person-years of follow-up, 1673 participants developed metabolic abnormalities. After adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol intake and exercise, higher baseline BMI categories predicted increased incidences of metabolic abnormalities in a dose-response manner. The hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for hypertriglyceridemia, prediabetes, pre-hypertension, low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, fatty liver, elevated high sensitivity-C reactive protein, elevated homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, any metabolic abnormality and metabolic syndrome among the MHO subjects compared with the MHNW subjects were 1.51 (1.23–1.85), 1.43 (1.19–1.72), 1.79 (1.45–2.22), 1.80 (1.30–2.49), 2.69 (2.19–3.31), 1.39 (1.16–1.67), 2.90 (2.31–3.62), 1.68 (1.45–1.93) and 1.84(1.02–3.30), respectively.

Conclusion:

In this study, MHO individuals showed higher incidences of metabolic abnormalities compared with MHNW individuals. This suggests that initially MHO individuals undergo adverse metabolic changes associated with obesity over time.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank TS Choi (Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Information System, Seoul, Korea) for his help with technical support in gathering data and also Dr Lina Kim (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) for her help with revising this paper. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (KRF-2008-331-E00072).

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Author notes

  1. Y Chang and B-S Suh: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Screening Center, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Y Chang, S Ryu, B-S Suh, K E Yun & C-W Kim

  2. Department of Occupational Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Y Chang, S Ryu & B-S Suh

  3. Graduate School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    S-I Cho

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Correspondence to S Ryu.

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Chang, Y., Ryu, S., Suh, BS. et al. Impact of BMI on the incidence of metabolic abnormalities in metabolically healthy men. Int J Obes 36, 1187–1194 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.247

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