Usefulness of Somatotype Drawing as a Instrument of Measuring Obesity Level in Korea.
- Author:
Jong Myon BAE
;
Yoon Ok AHN
- Publication Type:Original Article
- MeSH:
Adipose Tissue;
Anthropometry;
Body Mass Index;
Cardiovascular Diseases;
Cohort Studies;
Surveys and Questionnaires;
Early Detection of Cancer;
Education;
Epidemiologic Studies;
Humans;
Hypertension;
Insurance;
Korea*;
Male;
Obesity*;
Occupations;
Postal Service;
Proxy;
Risk Factors;
Seoul;
Somatotypes*;
Volunteers
- From:Korean Journal of Epidemiology
1996;18(1):101-107
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: As modern epidemiologic studies began to identify obesity as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer, measuring the degree of excess body fat is important on epidemiologic surveys. The evaluation of obesity level in epidemiologic surveys has been mostly done indirectly by measuring patient's height and weight. But, the anthropometry could not be done to respondents of recalling past anthropometric values or to proxy respondents. This study was attempted to elucidate usefulness of a somatotype drawing as a measuring instrument of obesity level in epidemiologic surveys in Korea. METHOD: The inclusion criteria of subjects were (1) members of the Seoul Cohort Study, who were recruited by self-administered structured questionnaire survey through mailing to the healthy men between the ages of 40 and 59 years through the program of a biennial health checkup offered by the Korean Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC), and (2) volunteers for cancer screening program offered by KMIC. For assessing usefulness of the instrument, measurement of status/weight and self-administered questionnaire survey were done separately through the program of a biennial health checkup and of cancer screening. RESULTS: The data were collected from 138 subjects, whose Body Mass Index (kg/M2) was 23.58+/-1.46 (mean+/-SD). When the validity was measured through correlation with BMI, Spearman's correlation coefficient (rs) was 0.72 (p<0.05), that remained statistically significant after adjusting age, education level, and monthly income and occupation. And, the grades of somatotypo drawing were grouped as 1-3, 4-6, 7-8 by ANOVA and Tukey test. CONCLUSIONS: Instrument using somatotype drawing is applicable to screen degree of body fat in self-administered questionnaire surveys in Korea.
