Korean J Gastroenterol.  2007 Jan;49(1):10-16.

Clinicopathologic Study of Colorectal Polyps and Obesity in Korean Adults

• Ji JH
• Park BJ
• Park YS
• Hwang JH
• Chung SH
• Kim N
• Lee DH
• Jung HC
• Song IS

Abstract

BACKGROUD/AIMS: Obesity is a rising problem in industrialized countries. Numerous epidemiologic studies have shown a positive association between obesity and colorectal polyps. There are few studies investigating the association between colorectal adenomatous polyps and body fat composition in Korea. We tried to examine the relationship between body fatness and colorectal adenomatous polyps in health check-up subjects in Korea. METHODS: Six thousand seven hundred and six routine health check-up subjects, who visited our hospital between March 2002 and April 2005 and underwent distal colon examimation with sigmoidoscopy, were enrolled in this study. Among them, colonoscopy was done in 860 patients to evaluate the entire colon. We tried to reveal the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and size, location, number and histopathological type of polyps. BMI was used as an indicator of obesity. RESULTS: The mean value of BMI in total polyp-free group (23.8+/-2.9) was not different from that of the polyp group (24.5+/-2.8, p=0.09). The frequency of rectosigmoid polyps in obese patients (20.4%) was higher than that in non-obese patients (16.0%, p<0.05). The frequency of adenomatous polyp was not different between obese and non-obese group. Number of polyps (> or =4) correlated well with obesity. Moreover, age and triglyceride level in patients with colonic adenoma were significantly higher than in patients without colonic adenom. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that obesity is not associated with colonic adenomatous polyp in Korean population. However, we observed that obesity may be associated with rectosigmoid colon polyps. Furthermore, age and triglyceride level might be the risk factors of colonic adenomatous polyps in Korean population.

Keyword

Obesity; Body mass index; Polyp; Adenoma

MeSH Terms

Adenomatous Polyps/*complications/epidemiology/pathology
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Body Mass Index
Colonic Neoplasms/*complications/epidemiology/pathology
Colonic Polyps/complications/epidemiology/pathology
Comorbidity
Female
Humans
Korea
Male
Middle Aged
Obesity/*complications/diagnosis/epidemiology
Retrospective Studies
Sigmoidoscopy