Metabolically Healthy Obesity and Risk of Incident Chronic Kidney Disease in a Korean Cohort Study

The incident of chronic kidney disease (CKD) of metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) has not been consistently determined.

This study used data of Anseong Ansan community-based cohort, a part of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES) provided by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Surveys were received from the Anseung and Ansan residents every two years between 2001-2002 and 2015-2016 for a total of 7 surveys over all. The subjects were divided into 4 phenotypes based on the presenting obesity and metabolic syndrome; 1) metabolically healthy normal weight (MHNW), 2) metabolically healthy obesity (MHO), 3) metabolically abnormal normal weight (MANW), and 4) metabolically abnormal obesity (MAO). Data were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model.

Of 8,865 subjects, 1,551 cases of 49,995 person-year (3.1%) developed incident CKD. At an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.13, the MHO group was not associated with a higher risk of incident CKD (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.92-1.41, P =0.234, using MHNW as the reference). The adjusted HRs of the MANW and MAO groups for incident CKD were significantly higher than those of the MHNW groups: 1.31 (95% CI: 1.05-1.64, P=0.017) for MANW and 1.49 (95% CI: 1.23-1.79, P<0.001) for MAO.

MHO is not associated with a high risk of CKD, and that MANW and MAO increase the risk of the incident CKD. Thus, it is important to consider metabolic health status rather than obesity when evaluating CKD risk.