Association Between Occupation Type and Obesity Prevalence: An Analysis of the 2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Abstract Purpose : Although occupational factors such as working hours, type of workers, and being a shift worker have been associated with the prevalence of obesity, the relationships between occupation type and obesity prevalence, especially in South Korea, have not been clarified. We therefore investigated the association between obesity markers such as body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and types of occupation using data from the 2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Methods: We evaluated the height, weight, WC, -and demographic variables (age, sex, socioeconomic status, alcohol, and smoking) from data of 3,645 respondents. The occupational groups were classified into nine categories (managers, professionals and related workers, clerks, service workers, sales workers, skilled agriculture, forestry and fishery workers, craft and related trade workers, equipment, machine operating and assembling workers, and elementary workers) using the Korean version of the Standard Classification of Occupations. We performed an analysis of covariance test to assess the relationship between obesity markers (BMI; and WC) and types of occupation. Results: There was a significant difference in obesity markers among men according to occupation categories after controlling for socio-demographic covariates. The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in managers (25.8 +/- 0.4 kg/m 2 , 89.7 +/- 1.1 cm), and lower in craft and related trade workers (24.3 +/ - 0.2 kg/m 2 , 85.1 +/- 0.6 cm) , respectively . (p = 0.011) . Conclusion: The obesity markers were highest in the manager group and lowest in the craft and related trades workers group among men of all the occupation groups.