Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:50:56.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Socio-economic, dietary, activity, nutrition and body weight transitions in South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2006

Soo-Kyung Lee  and
Jeffery Sobal
Soo-Kyung Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 26 Nichol Avenue, Davison Hall, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2882, USA
Jeffery Sobal
Affiliation:
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 19853, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective:

Socio-economic development influences many factors that affect health, especially diet and nutrition. This investigation proposes that a system of transitions occur as societies develop, with socio-economic, physical activity, dietary, nutrition and body weight transitions operating in relationship with each other. This model of transitions was examined empirically using South Korea as an example of a nation that has undergone considerable changes.

Design:

Data were drawn from published government reports: the Korean National Nutrition Survey and annual reports at the national level for the years between 1969 and 1993. The socio-economic transition was assessed by gross national product. The physical activity transition was assessed using annual proportions of the population involved in primary, secondary and tertiary industries, as well as the number of cars and driver's licences. The dietary transition was measured by plant and animal food consumption. The nutrition transition was assessed by percentages of energy from carbohydrate, protein and fat. The body weight transition was measured by body mass index calculated from the average height and weight of adolescents.

Results:

Results revealed that the transitions were highly correlated as expected, with the socio-economic transition exhibiting major changes. South Koreans tended to decrease their physical activity and plant food consumption, and to increase animal food consumption, percentage of energy from dietary fat and body weight, in relationship to the socio-economic transition.

Conclusion:

Examining a system of transitions on a national level in one country that has undergone rapid economic development may provide a strategy for examining how such transitions operate in other nations.

Keywords

Socio-economicDietaryActivityNutritionWeightTransitionsSouth Korea
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 6 , Issue 7 , October 2003 , pp. 665 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2003

References

1Beaver, SE. Demographic Transition Theory Reinterpreted. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1975.Google Scholar
2Zelensky, W. The hypothesis of the mobility transition. Geographical Review 1971; 61(1): 219–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Omran, AR. The epidemiologic transition: a theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 1971; 49: 509–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Omran, AR. Epidemiologic transition in the United States: the health factor in population change. Population Bulletin 1977; 32(2): 2–42.Google ScholarPubMed
5Omran, AR. Epidemiologic transition. In: Ross, JA, ed. International Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Free Press, 1982; 172–5.Google Scholar
6Harrison, D. The Sociology of Modernization and Development. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1988.Google Scholar
7Sobal, J. Food system globalization, eating transformations, and nutrition transitions. In: Grew, R, ed. Food in Global History. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999; 171–93.Google Scholar
8Case, KE, Fair, RC. Principles of Economics, 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1994.Google Scholar
9Popkin, BM. Urbanization, lifestyle changes and the nutrition transition. World Development 1999; 27: 1905–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Popkin, BM, Bisgrove, EZ. Urbanization and nutrition in low income countries. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 1988; 10: 3–23.Google Scholar
11Popkin, BM, Paeratakul, S, Zhai, F, Ge, K. Dietary and environmental correlates of obesity in a population study in China. Obesity Research 1995; 3: 135S–43S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Prentice, AM, Jebb, SA. Obesity in Britain: gluttony or sloth?. British Medical Journal 1995; 311: 437–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13Sobal, J. Social and cultural influences on obesity. In: Bjorntorp, P, ed. International Textbook of Obesity. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, 2001; 305–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14French, SA, Story, M, Jeffery, RW. Environmental influences on eating and physical activity. Annual Review of Public Health 2001; 22: 309–35.Google Scholar
15Hill, JO, Peters, JC. Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic. Science 1998; 280: 1371–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Grigg, D. The nutrition transition in Western Europe. Journal of Historical Geography 1995; 21(3): 247–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Bennett, MK. International contrasts in food consumption. Geographical Review 1941; 31: 365–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Bennett, MK. The World's Food: A Study of the Interrelations of World Population, National Diets, and Food Potentials. New York: Harper, 1954.Google Scholar
19Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Income Effect on the Structure of Diet: Provisional Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development. Rome: FAO, 1973; 2: 500–5.Google Scholar
20Pelto, GH, Pelto, PJ. Diet and delocalization: dietary change since 1975. In: Rothberg, RI, Rabb, TK, eds. Hunger and History: The Impact of Changing Food Production and Consumption Patterns on Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983; 309–30.Google Scholar
21Burns, C, Jackson, M, Gibbons, C, Stoney, RM. Foods prepared outside the home: association with selected nutrients and body mass index in adult Australians. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 441–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Warde, A, Martens, L. Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption, and Pleasure. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23Kim, S, Moon, S, Popkin, BM. The nutrition transition in South Korea. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000; 71: 44–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24Monteiro, CA, Mondini, L, de Souza, AL, Popkin, BM. The nutrition transition in Brazil. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1995; 46: 105–13.Google Scholar
25Popkin, BM. Nutritional patterns and transitions. Population and Development Review 1993; 19: 138–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Popkin, BM. The nutrition transition in low income countries: an emerging crisis. Nutrition Reviews 1994; 52: 285–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Popkin, BM. The nutrition transition and its health implications in lower income countries. Public Health Nutrition 1998; 1: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28Popkin, BM. The shift in stages of the nutrition transition in the developing world differs from past experiences. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 205–14.Google Scholar
29Popkin, BM, Ge, K, Zhai, F, Guo, X, Ma, H, Zohoori, N. The nutrition transition in China: a cross-sectional analysis. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1993; 47: 333–46.Google Scholar
30Drewnowski, A, Popkin, BM. The nutrition transition: new trends in the global diet. Nutrition Reviews 1997; 55: 31–43.Google Scholar
31National Statistical Office. Korean Statistical Yearbook. Seoul: Government Printing, 1971–1995 [in Korean].Google Scholar
32National Statistical Office. Social Indicators in Korea. Seoul: Government Printing, 1971–1997 [in Korean].Google Scholar
33Ministry of Construction and Transportation. Statistical Yearbook of Transportation. Seoul: Government Printing, 1973–1993 [in Korean].Google Scholar
34Senauer, B, Asp, E, Kinsey, J. Food Trends and the Changing Consumer. St. Paul, MN: Eagan Press, 1991.Google Scholar
35Lee, SK, Sobal, J, Frongillo, EA. Acculturation and dietary practices among Korean Americans. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1999; 99: 1084–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36Korean Rural Economics Institute. Food Balance Sheet. Seoul: Government Printing, 1971–1993 [in Korean].Google Scholar
37Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. National Nutrition Survey Report. Seoul: Government Printing, 1972–1995 [in Korean].Google Scholar
38Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. Yearbook of Health and Social Statistics. Seoul: Government Printing, 1971–1993 [in Korean].Google Scholar
39Ministry of Education. Statistical Yearbook of Education. Seoul: Government Printing, 1970–1994 [in Korean].Google Scholar
40Willett, W. Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41Gordon-Larsen, P, Adair, LS, Popkin, BM. The relationship of ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, and overweight in US adolescents. Obesity Research 2003; 11: 121–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
42Hatcher, L. A Step-by-Step Approach to Using the SAS System for Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc., 1994.Google Scholar
43Kleinbaum, DG, Kupper, LL, Muller, KE. Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariable Methods. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1988.Google Scholar
44Mo, S. The culture of eating out adds nutritional problems. Journal of the Korean Medical Association 1990; 33: 27–31 [in Korean].Google Scholar
45 Hangeyre Newspaper. High lead content in imported seafood from China. 26 11 2001 [in Korean].Google Scholar
46Moon, CS, Zhang, ZW, Imai, Y, Shimbo, S, Watanabe, T, Moon, DH, et al. Nutrition evaluation of women in urban and rural areas in Korea as studied by the total food duplicate method. Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine 1997; 181: 245–65 [in Japanese].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47National Statistical Office. Footsteps of Korea through Statistics. Seoul: Government Printing, 1995 [in Korean].Google Scholar
48Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients). Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002.Google Scholar
49Cash, TF, Roy, RE. Pounds of flesh. In: Sobal, J, Maurer, D, eds. Interpreting Weight: The Social Mangement of Fatness and Thinness. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1999.Google Scholar
50Kosulwat, V. The nutrition and health transition in Thailand. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 183–9.Google Scholar
51Shetty, PS. Nutrition transition in India. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 175–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
52Du, S, Lu, B, Zhai, F, Popkin, BM. A new stage of the nutrition transition in China. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 169–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
53Noor, MI. The nutrition and health transition in Malaysia. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 191–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
54Lee, MJ, Popkin, BM, Kim, S. The unique aspects of the nutrition transition in South Korea: the retention of healthful elements in their traditional diet. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5: 197–203.Google Scholar
55Yoshiike, N, Seino, F, Tajima, S, Arai, Y, Kawano, M, Furuhata, T, et al. Twenty-year changes in the prevalence of overweight in Japanese adults: the National Nutrition Survey 1976–1995. Obesity Reviews 2002; 3: 183–90.Google Scholar
56Morgenstern, H. Ecologic studies in epidemiology: concepts, principles, and methods. Annual Review of Public Health 1995; 16: 61–81.Google Scholar
57Moon, HK. The method of the Korean National Nutrition Survey. Korean Journal of Nutrition 1994; 27: 509–24 [in Korean].Google Scholar
58Campbell, TC, Chen, J, Brun, T, Parpira, B, QU, Y, Chen, C, et al. China: from diseases of poverty to diseases of affluence. Policy implications of the epidemiological transition. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 1992; 27: 133–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar