Relationships between Walking, Body Mass Index, and Risk Factors of Metabolic Syndrome among Korean Adults: Data from the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010-2012)

Background: It is well known that obesity increases the risk of metabolic syndrome (MS); however, the associations between walking and MS risk factors among Korean adults still need to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of body mass index (BMI) and walking with MS risk factors among Korean adults from the fifth Korea national health and nutrition examination survey. Methods: A total of 17,019 (7,334 males, 9,685 females) Korean adults participated in the cross-sectional study. We measured walking, BMI, and MS risk factors including waist-circumference (WC), glucose, triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Results: Results showed that 1) subjects with high BMI (23 kg/m 2 ≤ BMI) had significantly increased MS risk factors compared to subjects with low BMI (BMI < 23 kg/m 2 ), 2) subjects who participated in walking had significantly decreased WC, TG and increased HDL-C compared to subjects who didn’t participate in walking, and 3) when subjects were divided into four groups according to walking and BMI levels, subjects with nonparticipation in walking and high BMI showed the worst profile of metabolic syndrome risk factors. Moreover, subjects with nonparticipation in walking and high BMI had 7.42 times higher the prevalence of MS compared to subjects with participation in walking and low BMI after adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and smoking. Conclusion: Our study showed that improvement in walking and reduction in BMI are important factors for the prevention of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults.