Effects of Age, Time Period, and Birth Cohort on the Prevalence of Diabetes and Obesity in Korean Men
- Jin-Won Kwon, MPH1,
- Yun-mi Song, MD, PHD2,
- Hye soon Park, MD, PHD3,
- Joohon Sung, MD, PHD4,
- Ho Kim, PHD5 and
- Sung-il Cho, MD, SCD1
- 1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
- 2Department of Family Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea
- 3Department of Family Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
- 4Department of Preventive Medicine. Kangwon National University College of Medicine, Kangwon, Korea
- 5Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Sung-il Cho, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Chogno-gu Yeongun-dong 28, Seoul 110-460, Republic of Korea. E-mail: scho{at}snu.ac.kr
Abstract
OBJECTIVE—We examined changes in the prevalence of diabetes, obesity, and overweight in 412,881 Korean men in birth cohorts from 1933 to 1972 over 8 years from 1992 to 2000 and separately analyzed the effects of age, time period, and birth cohort.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—The study included male employees of Korean government organizations and schools who were between 20 and 59 years of age in 1992. Diabetes was diagnosed on the basis of self-reports in 1992 or fasting blood glucose levels (≥126 mg/ml, 7.0 mmol/l). The age-period-cohort model was used to estimate the effects of age, time period, and birth cohort.
RESULTS—In Korean male birth cohorts from 1933 to 1972, the age-specific prevalence of diabetes, obesity, and overweight in men aged 28–59 years increased annually by 0.41% (3.03 to 6.29%), 0.18% (0.70 to 2.16%), and 1.49% (23.48 to 35.41%), respectively, from 1992 to 2000. The relative change in diabetes was largest among the younger cohorts (>400% increase over 8 years) and corresponded to the change in obesity. Apart from the contribution of age, clear cohort and period effects were evident for diabetes, although the magnitude of the effect was slightly less than that for obesity.
CONCLUSIONS—Prevention of diabetes through the control of obesity, particularly in young men, clearly needs to be emphasized.
Footnotes
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Published ahead of print at http://care.diabetesjournals.org on 31 October 2007. DOI: 10.2337/dc07-0531.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Accepted October 23, 2007.
- Received March 17, 2007.
- DIABETES CARE
