High school seniors wearing masks attend class in this undated file photo. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Over the past several years, cholesterol levels in South Korean children and teenagers have surged, with about one third suffering from dyslipidemia.
A joint research team from the Gangnam Severance Hospital and the Yongin Severance Hospital analyzed cholesterol levels for 8,731 teenagers between the ages of 10 and 18, including 4,651 boys and 4,080 girls, on the basis of data from the separate national health and nutritional surveys that was conducted four times during the period from 2007 to 2018.
The analysis showed that the average cholesterol level of the teenage boys rose from 154.79 milligrams per decilitre (㎎/㎗) to 161.20 ㎎/㎗ during the period, while that of the teenage girls rose from 161.35 ㎎/㎗ to 168.90 ㎎/㎗ during the same period.
The levels of other cholesterols such as LDL(low-density lipoprotein)-C cholesterol and non-HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol also rose, resulting from a general increase in fat intake among the teenagers
The teenage boys also showed a sharp increase in abdominal circumference.
In the first survey (2007-09), the share of those who were classified as having abdominal obesity among male teenagers stood at 7.76 percent, but this ratio shot up to 11.54 percent 12 years later.
In the latest survey (2016–18), the prevalence rate of dyslipidemia stood at 28.1 percent among 973 teenager boys and 29.7 percent among 881 teenage girls.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
