Obesogenic Environment Factors Related to the Obesity Prevalence in Korean Children
Authors: Lee Myoungsook 
Published: June 2021

Background

Obesity, an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, is a risk factor of various metabolic diseases. Being obese starts with the increase of body fat which leads to the adipocyte hypertrophy. Obesogenic Environment(OE) induce people to be overweight and obese. People who are exposed to obesogenic environment eat unhealthy foods such as junk food, soda, and sweets but not consume calories as much as they eat. The objective of this survey is to find out which nutrients have an effect on gaining weight in Korean children.

Methods

Seven elementary schools in Seoul were randomly selected and 770 Korean children in those schools (normal 600, obesity 170) aged 8–9 years participated in 2007 and 2010. All participants were surveyed including family health history, Body Mass Index(BMI), physical activity, and education. Blood samples were obtained to measure total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) and fasting blood glucose (FBS) from a Hitachi‐7600 analyzer (Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). Low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) levels were calculated by the equation: LDLc = TC–HDLc–(TG/5). Commercial ELISA kits were used for estimating fasting insulin levels (Mesdia, Seoul, Korea). The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) was calculated as follows: fasting insulin (μU/ml)×FBS (mmol/ml)/22.5. Dietary intakes for three days(two week and one weekend day) were recorded trained interviewers. CanPro4.0 was used for quantitative analysis of nutrients based on food records. All analyses were performed using SAS9.1 software(SAS Institute, Inc, Cary, NC, USA). All statistical tests were two‐tailed, and p‐values of <=0.05 were interpreted as statistically significant.

Results

We confirmed the differences between normal and obese children in both years. The level of waist circumference, blood pressure, TC, TG, LDLc, FBS & ALT was increased but the HDLc in blood decreased in the obese children compared to the normal children. There was no differences food intakes in two groups in 2007. Total energy intake was declined by the obese children reduced their fat intake. However, high sodium intake aspect was shown in 2010 compared to the result of research in 2007. We found that children consumed 4000 mg/day or more of sodium showed to high risk of obesity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, OE factors such as dietary intakes strongly influenced the obesity prevalence in two cross‐sectional research of 2007 and 2010. Sodium intake is related to the obesity indigence. We believe that the finding of this study will contribute to the prevention of the early onset of chronic disease in obese children.

Support or Funding Information

[Funds: This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI17C0863).]

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.