Trends of Korean and International Medical Research about Obesity

Tak, Yang Ju; Kang, Gilwon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In order for Korea to progress further in the field of medical research concerning obesity, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the studies which take place in Korea and also the differences between studies conducted in Korea and in other countries.
METHODS
A total of 484 original articles from the Korean Journal of Obesity, International Journal of Obesity, and Obesity, which were all published between 2001 to 2006, were reviewed. Differences in number of authors, the background or specialty of the first author, method of study, characteristics of study subjects, number of study subjects, follow-up period, theme of the study, and key words were examined from the articles of the 3 major journals mentioned above
RESULTS
According to the Korean articles, 3/4 of the authors were from a clinical background, whereas very few were from either the field of epidemiology or public health. Compared to Korean researchers, authors of Obesity and International Journal of Obesity were from diverse fields as in basic science, epidemiology, public health and biostatistics. Differences in the theme of the study were noted as well. Most of the Korean articles on obesity were about human physiology (32%), diet and physical therapy for obesity (17%) however, cellular & molecular biology (16%) was the prefered theme of the studies conducted in USA. Relatively large number of articles from the International Journal of Obesity are interested in obesity in terms of epidemiology (10%), risk factor and chronic disease (14%). CONCLUSION: The background of the research authors, theme of the study, and method of study are different between the Korean medical researches on obesity compared to those done in other countries.