BackgroundInfection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We investigated the relationship between HBV infection and metabolic syndrome.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study of 9,474 Korean men and women who were at least 20 years old and who underwent a routine health check-up at Ulsan University Hospital in Ulsan, South Korea between March 2008 and February 2009. The associations of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seropositivity with the presence of metabolic syndrome and its components were investigated by logistic regression analysis. Data were analyzed separately for males and females.ResultsHBsAg seropositivity was significantly negatively associated with hypertriglyceridemia and metabolic syndrome in men (odds ratio [OR], 0.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29 to 0.50; P < 0.001 and OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.57 to 0.98, P = 0.033). In women, HBsAg seropositivity was also significantly negatively associated with hypertriglyceridemia, but not with metabolic syndrome (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.17 to 0.91; P = 0.029 and OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.38 to 1.66, P = 0.545).ConclusionHBV infection was significantly negatively associated with hypertriglyceridemia and metabolic syndrome in men and hypertriglyceridemia in women.

Our results suggest that high BMI may increase the risk of colorectal adenoma in Korean adults.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a relationship between colorectal adenoma and metabolically obese but normal weight (MONW) among Korean men and women. The MONW phenotype is defined as a BMI <25, but fulfilling the metabolic syndrome (MS) criteria with a modified waist circumference (≥90 cm for men and ≥85 cm for women) appropriate for Korean. A total of 3,430 subjects (2,263 men and 1,167 women; 23–75 years old) were included in the study. Colorectal adenomas were diagnosed in 775 men and 199 women. The rate of advanced adenomas in males was 24.3% and in females 21.1%. A significant association between MONW and advanced colorectal adenoma was found in men (age‐adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06–3.47) but not in women (age‐adjusted OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 0.50–6.45). The findings suggest that men with MONW may have an increased risk of developing advanced colorectal adenoma whereas this does not seem true for females.