The Association between C-reactive Protein and Obesity among Korean Men

Hwang, Jeong Sook; Lee, Seung Hun; Park, Hye Soon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (hereinafter CRP) is a substance that is elevated in large quantities when there is an abnormal metabolic reaction or an inflammatory condition. Many researches have identified the substance as a prognostic and an independent risk factor responsible for cardiovascular disease. More recently, many studies have shown that obesity is associated with low-grade systemic inflammation. This study was attempted to illustrate the relationship between obesity and CRP regarding Korean men who were applied by different standards of obesity.
METHODS
The subjects included 15,353 men who had visited one health promotion center from May, 2001 to December, 2001, were randomly selected as the total addressable population. We excluded 389 men who were observed to have inflammatory conditions, according to the results of the general chemical and physical diagnosis. Among 15,353 Korean men 14,964 were examined. CRP was quantitatively analyzed by the method of Nephelometry as high sensitivity-CRP. CRP values in relation to age, BMI, clustering of metabolic risk factors were studied, and multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify correlation between obesity and CRP value.
RESULTS
We compared the median values of CRP of each group divided by age, BMI, and clustering of metabolic risk factors. As a matter of the fact, the more age, BMI, and clustering of metabolic risk factors increased, the more the value of CRP significantly increased (P<0.0001). We operationally defined incremented CRP value as CRP of 0.22 mg/dl or more, and conducted multiple logistic regression analysis with the parameters of age, BMI, and obesity related diseases. Consequently, when fasting blood glucose and total cholesterol were high or HDL was low, the risk of CRP increasing was significantly high. Also, when the age was more than 60 or BMI was greater than 25 kg/m2, which was categorized as obese, the risk regarding increase in CRP was significantly high.
CONCLUSION
Obesity is independently related to increase in CRP in Korean men. Which suggests that low-grade systemic inflammation exists in obese people. Furthermore, our study showed that old age, high level of blood glucose, high level of cholesterol, and low level of HDL have correlation with increase in CRP.