Risk of Cancer Mortality according to the Metabolic Health Status and Degree of Obesity

Background: We investigated the risk of cancer mortality according to obesity status and metabolic healthstatus using sampled cohort data from the National Health Insurance system. Materials and
Methods: Data onbody mass index and fasting blood glucose in the sampled cohort database (n=363,881) were used to estimaterisk of cancer mortality. Data were analyzed using a Cox proportional hazard model (Model 1 was adjusted forage, sex, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level and urinary protein; Model 2 wasadjusted for Model 1 plus smoking status, alcohol intake and physical activity).
Results: According to the obesitystatus, the mean hazard ratios were 0.82 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.75-0.89] and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.72-0.85)for the overweight and obese groups, respectively, compared with the normal weight group. According to themetabolic health status, the mean hazard ratio was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.14-1.40) for the metabolically unhealthygroup compared with the metabolically healthy group. The interaction between obesity status and metabolichealth status on the risk of cancer mortality was not statistically significant (p=0.31).
Conclusions: We found thatthe risk of cancer mortality decreased according to the obesity status and increased according to the metabolichealth status. Given the rise in the rate of metabolic dysfunction, the mortality from cancer is also likely to rise.Treatment strategies targeting metabolic dysfunction may lead to reductions in the risk of death from cancer.