Health Benefits of Weight Maintenance and Weight Change: Based on Males’ Data from the Korea Health Panel in 2010 and 2011

Abstract

Background: With the increase in obesity, weight change rather than weight maintenance is becoming more popular with the public, but studies evaluating the health benefits between them are rare. This study confirmed the health-related characteristics and benefits of each. Methods: Using 2 years (2010 and 2011) of data from the Korea Health Panel, this study investigated weight change of 5 kg or more within the past year among males after identifying the homogeneity of two years subjects (p > 0.05). Subjects were classified into weight maintenance and weight change categories of gain, recovery, and loss. The author identified the effect variables and health benefit variables, current health status as quality of life (QOL), days spent sick in bed during the past month, and annual out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure by adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and ANCOVA. Results: Among males, the prevalence of weight maintenance was 89.1% and the prevalence of weight change categories was 10.9% overall, gain 4.8%, recovery 1.5%, and loss 4.6%. The AORs of the weight maintenance group for health-related characteristics were significant: young adult (AOR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4–0.6), no spouse (0.7, 0.6–0.8), overweight (0.7, 0.6–0.8), obesity (0.4, 0.4–0.5), no regular meal (0.7, 0.6–0.9), two meals per day (0.8, 0.7–0.9), four meals or more per day (0.4, 0.2–0.9), depression (0.7, 0.5–0.9), and suicidal impulse (0.7, 0.5–0.9). However, AORs of the weight change group showed among those who gained, no regular meals (AOR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1–1.7) and two meals per day (1.3, 1.1–1.7); among those who recovered, excessive drinking (1.5, 1.1–2.2) and suicidal impulse (2.2, 1.2–4.0); and among those who lost, underweight (2.0, 1.3–3.2) and current smoking (1.2, 1.1–1.5). Health benefits of the weight maintenance group differed significantly from the weight change group: current health status as QOL (74.3 vs. 70.1, p < 0.0001), days spent sick in bed during the past month (4.5 vs. 7.9, p < 0.02), and annual OOP expenditure ($366.3 vs. $562.9, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The social alternative to obesity management needs to promote that maintaining a stable weight has more health benefits than weight change. It is also necessary to support the cognitive abilities of the public through evidence-based knowledge.