Objectives This study estimated the association of cardiovascular health behaviors with the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in middle-aged men in Korea.MethodsIn total, 12 538 men aged 40 to 59 years were enrolled in 1993 and followed up through 2011. Cardiovascular health metrics defined the following lifestyle behaviors proposed by the American Heart Association: smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet habit score, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose. The cardiovascular health metrics score was calculated as a single categorical variable, by assigning 1 point to each ideal healthy behavior. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio of cardiovascular health behavior. Population attributable risks (PARs) were calculated from the significant cardiovascular health metrics.ResultsThere were 1054 total and 171 CVD deaths over 230 690 person-years of follow-up. The prevalence of meeting all 7 cardiovascular health metrics was 0.67%. Current smoking, elevated blood pressure, and high fasting blood glucose were significantly associated with all-cause and CVD mortality. The adjusted PARs for the 3 significant metrics combined were 35.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 21.7 to 47.4) and 52.8% (95% CI, 22.0 to 74.0) for all-cause and CVD mortality, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios of the groups with a 6-7 vs. 0-2 cardiovascular health metrics score were 0.42 (95% CI, 0.31 to 0.59) for all-cause mortality and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.29) for CVD mortality.ConclusionsAmong cardiovascular health behaviors, not smoking, normal blood pressure, and recommended fasting blood glucose levels were associated with reduced risks of all-cause and CVD mortality. Meeting a greater number of cardiovascular health metrics was associated with a lower risk of all-cause and CVD mortality.

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Our findings suggest that total vegetable intake is linearly associated with cancer incidence but nonlinearly associated with total cancer mortality in middle-aged Korean men. However, total fruit intake is not associated with total cancer incidence or mortality.

OBJECTIVESThis study aims to compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome between Korean emigrants (KEs) and their host country residents in Japan and China.METHODSThe Korean Emigrant Study (KES) is a cohort study initiated in 2005 to elucidate the effect of genetic susceptibility and environmental change on hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Equal numbers of KEs and host country residents, aged 30 or over, were recruited from three regions; Kobe-Osaka in Japan (total number=965), Yanbian in China (n=1,019), and Changchun in China (n=949).RESULTSThe age-adjusted prevalences of metabolic syndrome among KEs in Kobe-Osaka were significantly higher than those among Japanese (in men 24.0% vs. 15.6%, p=0.04, in women 8.4% vs. 2.7%, p=0.01), while the age-adjusted prevalences among KEs in Changchun were similar to those among Chinese (in men 11.7% vs. 16.1%, p=0.37, in women 28.3% vs. 30.1%, p=0.91). The age-adjusted prevalences were generally higher in Yanbian than other regions, and KEs had higher prevalence than Chinese in men but not in women (in men 37.9% vs. 28.3%, p=0.03, women 46.0% vs. 50.6%, p=0.44). The components with significant ethnic differences in prevalence were high blood pressure and abdominal obesity in Japan, and triglyceride in China. The most influential component in diagnosing metabolic syndrome was abdominal obesity in men and triglyceride in women.CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of metabolic syndrome was higher in KEs than in host country residents in Japan but not in China. Abdominal obesity and triglyceride are both discriminating and influential components in metabolic syndrome.

Background: In Korea, Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were the second leading cause of deaths in 2011. In 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA) published cardiovascular health metrics (CVHM) aimed at reducing deaths from all CVDs and stroke, and improving the cardiovascular health of the population as a whole. Despite their implications, the AHA’s metrics have not been broadly studied or previously applied to an Asian population. Objectives: This study estimated the combined association of cardiovascular health behaviors on the risk of all-cause and CVD mortality in middle-aged men in Korea. Methods: In total, 14,533 men aged 40-59 years were enrolled in 1993 and followed-up through 2011. CVHM defined the following lifestyles proposed by the AHA: smoking, physical activity, BMI, healthy diet score, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose. The CVHMs score was calculated as a single categorical variable, by assigning 1 point to each ideal healthy behavior vs. 0 points otherwise. All subjects were classified as meeting 0-7 CVHM. The principal outcome variables were all-cause and CVD mortality. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of cardiovascular health behavior, and CVHMs score. PARs were calculated from significant CVHMs. Results: During 266,482.8 person-years of follow-up, there were 1,314 deaths in total. Current smoking, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose were significantly associated with all-cause and CVD mortality. The adjusted PARs for the 3 significant metrics combined were 81% (95% CI, 50-94%) and 96% (66-99%) for all-cause and CVD mortality, respectively. More ideal CVHM was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause and CVD mortality ( p-trend<.0001 ). The adjusted HRs of the groups with 6-7 vs. 0-2 ideal CVHM were 0.49 (0.35-0.70) and 0.23 (0.10-0.57) for all-cause and CVD mortality, respectively. Conclusions: Among ideal cardiovascular health behaviors, non-smoking, normal blood pressure, and recommended fasting blood glucose levels associated with reduced risks of all-cause and total CVD mortality. There was a strong trend towards decreased all-cause and CVD mortality risk with increasing the number of ideal CVHMs.