Impact of Korean Military Service on the Prevalence of Steatotic Liver Disease: A Longitudinal Study of Pre-enlistment and In-Service Health Check-Ups.
Jaejun Lee, Jae Hyeop Jung, Sung Jun Choi, Beomman Ha, Hyun Yang, Pil Soo Sung, Si Hyun Bae, Jeong-A Yu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background/aims: Young Korean men are obligated to serve in the military for 18 to 21 months. We investigated the effects of military service on steatotic liver disease (SLD) and other metabolic parameters.
Methods: Pre-enlistment health check-up performed from 2019 to 2022 and in-service health check-up performed from 2020 to 2022 were merged as paired data. SLD was defined as a hepatic steatosis index of 36 or higher. Hypertension (HTN) and hypertriglyceridemia were also included in the analysis.
Results: A total of 503,136 paired cases were included in the analysis. Comparing pre-enlistment and in-service health check-ups, the prevalence of SLD (22.2% vs 17.6%, p<0.001), HTN (7.6% vs 4.3%, p<0.001), and hypertriglyceridemia (8.1% vs 2.9%, p<0.001) decreased during military service. In terms of body mass index, the proportion of underweight (8.2% vs 1.4%, p<0.001) and severely obese (6.1% vs 4.9%, p<0.001) individuals decreased over time. Regarding factors associated with SLD development and resolution, age was positively associated with SLD development (odds ratio, 1.146; p<0.001) and a health check-up interval of <450 days was a protective factor for SLD development (odds ratio, 0.746; p<0.001). Those serving in the marines were less likely to develop SLD, whereas those serving in the navy were more likely to develop SLD. Serving in the army or the navy was negatively associated with SLD resolution, whereas serving in the air force was positively associated with SLD resolution.
Conclusions: The prevalence of SLD, HTN, and hypertriglyceridemia decreased substantially during Korean military service.
期刊介绍:
Gut and Liver is an international journal of gastroenterology, focusing on the gastrointestinal tract, liver, biliary tree, pancreas, motility, and neurogastroenterology. Gut and Liver delivers up-to-date, authoritative papers on both clinical and research-based topics in gastroenterology. The Journal publishes original articles, case reports, brief communications, letters to the editor and invited review articles in the field of gastroenterology. The Journal is operated by internationally renowned editorial boards and designed to provide a global opportunity to promote academic developments in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology.
Gut and Liver is jointly owned and operated by 8 affiliated societies in the field of gastroenterology, namely: the Korean Society of Gastroenterology, the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the Korean Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, the Korean College of Helicobacter and Upper Gastrointestinal Research, the Korean Association for the Study of Intestinal Diseases, the Korean Association for the Study of the Liver, the Korean Pancreatobiliary Association, and the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer.