Nearly half of South Korean men in their 30s are obese. (Image : Yonhap)
SEJONG, March 14 (Korea Bizwire) - Nearly half of South Korean men in their 30s are obese, while women have longer legs nowadays compared with 10 years ago, a nationwide survey showed Monday.
According to the survey on 6,413 people conducted last year by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), some 52 percent of those aged between 35 and 39 had a body mass index (BMI) of 25, a measure of body fat based on height and weight. A BMI of 25 or over is regarded as obese in South Korea.
At the same time, 47 percent of those in their early 30s were reportedly obese.
Their BMI figure has been on a steady rise since 1979, when KATS started to compile the data.
Nearly half of people in their 40s and 50s were also found to be obese.
On the female side, the survey showed that 46 percent of people aged 60 and over surpassed the 25 BMI line, while a majority of other age groups received obesity-free rates.
The study also showed that South Korean women’s legs have been getting longer over the past decade, as the ratio of the length of their lower body to their height rose to 0.460 in 2015 from 0.452 in 2004 in females aged between 20 and 24, with the figure also increasing in other age groups.
For men, however, their leg-height ratio has remained steady over the cited period.
The state-run standardization agency carries out the survey every five years to check the average body size of South Korean people, and provide the data to the business and industrial communities.’
(Yonhap)
