Association between Alcohol Intake and Abdominal Obesity among the Korean Population

OBJECTIVES Although abdominal obesity has been reported to be highly related with alcohol intake, the results are still inconclusive. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore the association between alcohol and abdominal obesity among the Korean population. METHODS This study included 8,603 participants (men: 5,195, women: 3,408) aged 30 to 87 who visited the health promotion centers in Seoul for routine health examinations from April, 2006 to June, 2007. Abdominal obesity was defined as WC ≥90 cm for men and ≥85 cm for women in accordance with the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity. For ever drinkers, total alcohol consumption in grams was classified into four groups (group 1, non-drinkers; group 2, 1-10 g of alcohol per day; group 3, 11-20 g of alcohol per day; and group 4, over 20 g of alcohol per day). RESULTS The mean age of the study population was 45.4 yr old (men) and 45.3 yr (women). The average waist circumference was 85.3 cm in men and 75.3 cm in women. A high alcohol intake was associated with high waist circumference in both genders. In multivariate analysis, the group of men and women drinkers consuming >20 g in a day had a large waist circumference compared with men and women non-drinkers. CONCLUSION This study showed that a high alcohol intake was related to high waist circumference. Such association remained independently even after adjustment for smoking, which is strongly related to abdominal obesity.