Lim J, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2020 Jan;35(6):e79. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e79

Shin HY, et al. J Korean Med Assoc. 2016 Mar;59(3):221-232. http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2016.59.3.221

Recent obesity studies have reported that the rising trend in obesity has stabilized or leveled off. Our study aimed to update estimates of the recent prevalence trend in obesity based on the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1998-2014. A total of 66,663 subjects were included and defined as being either underweight, overweight, or obese, in accordance with a BMI of 18.5 kg/m2 or lower, 23 kg/m2 or higher, and 25 kg/m2 or higher, respectively. The prevalence of underweight in KNHANES I through VI surveys was 4.7%, 3.3%, 3.4%, 3.3%, 2.7%, and 2.6%, respectively, in men (P for trend = 0.03, β = −0.002) and 5.4%, 6.1%, 5.8%, 6.5%, 7.6%, and 7.5%, respectively, in women (P for trend = 0.04, β = 0.003). Also for KNHANES I through VI, the respective prevalence of overweight/obesity was 50.3%, 57.2%, 62.5%, 62.3%, 61.4%, and 62.3% in men (p for trend<0.01, β = 0.009) and 48.3%, 50.3%, 50.0%, 47.8%, 47.0%, and 45.3% in women (p for trend<0.01, β = -0.01), respectively. The obesity occurrence in men was trending upward with respect to overweight/obesity and for grade 1 and 2 obesity, but not for abdominal obesity. However, the obesity trends in women were leveling off from overweight/obesity, grade 1 obesity, and abdominal obesity measures. Further studies are required with data on muscle mass and adiposity for effective obesity control policies.

This study aimed to present and analyze the causes of death in the Korean population in 2018 through an analysis of cause-of-death data from Statistics Korea, which are classified based on the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision and the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death. The total number of deaths was 298,820, reflecting an increase of 13,286 (4.7%) from 2017. The crude death rate was 582.5 per 100,000 population, which was an increase of 25.1 (4.5%) from 2017. The 10 leading causes of death, in order, were malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, intentional self-harm, diabetes mellitus, liver diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer disease, and hypertensive diseases. Within the category of malignant neoplasms, the top five leading organs of involvement were the lung, liver, colon, stomach, and pancreas. Colon cancer was ranked as the third leading cause of death among malignant neoplasms. The most notable characteristics of the 2018 cause-of-death statistics were the ranking of pneumonia as the third leading cause of death, the inclusion of Alzheimer disease in the top 10 causes of death, and the exclusion of transport accidents from the 10 leading causes of death, which is a result that has not been seen since comparable statistics were first published in 1983. These changes reflect the increase of people over 65 years of age, who are vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea, et al. J Korean Med Assoc. 2018 Sep;61(9):573-584. https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2018.61.9.573