Trends in the distribution of body mass index and waist circumference among South Korean adults, 1998-2014.

Sujin Kim, S V Subramanian, Juhwan Oh, Fahad Razak

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in European journal of clinical nutrition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

7citing papers in PubMed

1.2field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

Longitudinal reversals and evolving patterns of the double burden of malnutrition among adults in Southwest China: a population-based cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026
Article
Trends in the ability of socioeconomic position to predict individual body mass index: an analysis of repeated cross-sectional data, 1991-2019.BMC medicine · 2023
Article
Lipid Accumulation Product Index Predicts New-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Among Non-Obese Koreans: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2022
Article
Body-mass index and obesity in urban and rural China: findings from consecutive nationally representative surveys during 2004-18.Lancet (London, England) · 2021
Article
White Blood Cell Count as a Predictor of Incident Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Non-Obese Adults: A Longitudinal 10-Year Analysis of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study.Journal of inflammation research · 2021
Article
Pervasive Modulation of Obesity Risk by the Environment and Genomic Background.Genes · 2018
Article
Association between population mean and distribution of deviance in demographic surveys from 65 countries: cross sectional study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2018
Observational

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Sujin KimInstitute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, South Korea.

S V SubramanianDepartment of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.

Juhwan OhCollege of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, 03087, South Korea.

Fahad RazakSt Michael's Hospital and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. sujin0818@gmail.com.

Seoul National University · KRHarvard University · USSt. Michael's Hospital · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND/

objectivesAn increase in mean body mass index (BMI) or prevalence of obesity may be accompanied by changes in the population BMI distribution. This study aimed to examine how the distributions of BMI and waist circumference (WC) have changed in South Korea over a 16-year interval (1998-2014). SUBJECTS/

methodsUsing the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we analyzed changes in mean, standard deviation (SD), 5th, and 95th percentile values of BMI and WC distributions for 46,343 (BMI) and 46,327 (WC) adults aged 25-64 years.

resultsFor men, mean BMI increased at an annual rate of 0.060 units (95% CI: 0.047-0.073) with annual increases of 0.029 units in SD (95% CI: 0.019-0.039), 0.121 units in the 95th percentile (95% CI: 0.097-0.145) and 0.042 units in the 5th percentile (95% CI: 0.021-0.062). The 95th percentile and SD of the WC distribution increased, but not mean WC and the 5th percentile. For women, mean BMI decreased at an annual rate of 0.030 units (95% CI: 0.010-0.049) with a 0.030-unit increase in SD (95% CI: 0.012-0.048) and a 0.049-unit decrease in the 5th percentile (95% CI: 0.029-0.070). Mean WC also decreased with an increase in SD and a decrease in the 5th percentile.

conclusionsThese findings suggest increasing dispersion in the distribution of BMI and WC derived from significant shifts in the upper tails for Korean men, but not women. Future research needs to identify the factors that underlie the increasing dispersion of obesity measures.

Indexed as

Body Mass IndexWaist CircumferenceAdultEducational StatusFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNutrition SurveysObesityRepublic of Korea

Identifiers

PMID29242528

DOI10.1038/s41430-017-0024-7

OpenAlexW2775581506

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.