Prevalence and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome in a rural population of South Korea.

AIMS: To determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to the criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

METHODS: Data were collected from 1108 subjects over 40 years of age in the Chongup district, a rural area of South Korea. We evaluated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome according to the two criteria.

RESULTS: According to the ATP III criteria, the prevalence of central obesity was 0.2% in men and 27.3% in women, which is much lower than the prevalence of central obesity in Americans. However, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was similar to the prevalence in Americans. Of the Korean subjects over 40 years of age, 29.4% and 39.2% had metabolic syndrome according to the ATP III and WHO criteria, respectively. Metabolic syndrome according to the ATP III criteria was associated with insulin resistance, but not with microalbuminuria.

CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic syndrome has a high prevalence in South Koreans despite the low prevalence of obesity and/or central obesity.