Lifestyle habits related to abdominal obesity in Korean adolescents

Background: It has been reported that the abdominal obesity can cause various metabolic abnormalities not only in adults but also in adolescents. This study was conducted to investigate lifestyle habits related to abdominal obesity in Korean adolescents. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study on 561 adolescents (305 boys and 256 girls) aged 12-18 years from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005. The abdominal obesity was defined as waist circumference at or above the 90th percentile for each age and gender based on the 2007 growth chart for Korean children. The frequency of physical activity, screen time, and the intake amount of energy and macronutrients were investigated as lifestyle habits. Results: The prevalence of abdominal obesity in Korean adolescents aged 12-18 years was 9.1% (Boys, 9.4%; Girls, 8.7%). The mean of daily screen time was 4.3 ± 0.1 hours (Boys, 4.4 ± 0.2 hours; Girls, 4.2 ± 0.2 hours). The subjects with daily screen time ≥ 5 hours had a 3.0 times increased risk of abdominal obesity compared to subjects with daily screen time < 3 hours (P-value = 0.004). The adjusted odds ratio of fat intake ≥ 35% of energy was 2.57 (95% confidence interval, 1.16 to 5.68; P-value = 0.020) with fat intake < 25% of energy as reference. The relationship between long screen time and abdominal obesity was observed in girls and high fat intake was related to abdominal obesity in boys. Conclusion: This study shows that abdominal obesity in Korean adolescents is associated to long screen time and high fat intake.