Seventy-seven Percent of Obese Adolescents Suffer from Adult diseases

It was discovered that more than 7 out of 10 overweight adolescents suffer from a complication of various adult diseases, including hyperlipidemia.

On July 20, a team of professors consisting of Kang Jae-hun and Yu Sun-mee at the Obesity Center of Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital announced their results after examining the “obesity prevalence rate of adolescents and complications” from a pool of 3,615 students from 14 middle schools nationwide. This was the first time a nationwide examination was accomplished domestically concerning adolescent obesity.

The results indicated that 17 percent of adolescents were overweight. 22.3 percent of the total male students were determined as overweight, a figure two times higher compared to female students (10.7 percent). In particular, it was found that the risk of obese adolescents developing adult diseases was a maximum of 13 times higher than that of normal students.

In the case of obese students, the numerical value of AST (GOT) and ALT (GPT) that are used to measure liver function were found to be 10 times and 13 times higher, respectively. The risk of developing hyperlipidemia was also four times higher. These students had a five-fold higher risk of getting high blood sugar (diabetes).

76.5 percent of obese adolescents were actually found to suffer complications arising from more than one adult disease, including abnormality in liver function hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. 36.3 percent had complications resulting from a combination of more than two diseases. If both parents were obese, the risk of the child obesity increased by 2.92 times, and it was found that obesity from the mother had a greater effect on the child than did the father.

Sang Hoon Kim corekim@donga.com