Objectives
This study described 10-year trends in the prevalence of 5 metabolic syndrome (MetS) components and examined age- and sex-specific patterns in the Republic of Korea using aggregated national health screening statistics from 2014 to 2023.
Methods
This repeated cross-sectional study used publicly available aggregated data from the National Health Screening Statistical Yearbook of the National Health Insurance Service. Annual prevalence estimates were summarized overall and by age group and sex. Linear regression descriptively summarized temporal trends. Because of a marked reduction in examinees in 2018 and a discontinuity around the 2018–2019 transition, sensitivity analyses excluding 2018 were performed.
Results
From 2014 to 2023, the prevalence of abdominal obesity increased from 21.0% to 25.5%, hyperglycemia from 34.7% to 40.1%, and hypertension from 42.3% to 45.1%. Hypertriglyceridemia and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol appeared to decrease over the same period but showed a marked discontinuity between 2018 and 2019. Prevalence generally increased across older age groups, particularly for hypertension and hyperglycemia. Men had a higher prevalence of 4 MetS components, whereas women had a higher prevalence of low HDL cholesterol.
Conclusion
MetS components showed heterogeneous temporal, age-specific, and sex-specific patterns in Korean national health screening statistics. Increases in abdominal obesity and hyperglycemia support the need for earlier age- and sex-tailored cardiometabolic prevention, whereas apparent declines in lipid-related indicators should be interpreted cautiously due to the 2018–2019 discontinuity. Because this study used aggregated repeated cross-sectional data, individual-level longitudinal studies are needed to clarify cardiometabolic risk trends in the Republic of Korea.

<sec><title>Objectives</title><p>Many economically advanced countries have attempted to minimize public expenditures and pursue privatization based on the principles of neo-liberalism. However, Korea has moved contrary to this global trend. This study examines why and how the Korean health care system was formed, developed, and transformed into an integrated, single-insurer, National Health Insurance (NHI) system.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We describe the transition in the Korean health care system using an analytical framework that incorporates such critical variables as government economic development strategies and the relationships among social forces, state autonomy, and state power. This study focuses on how the relationships among social forces can change as a nation’s economic development or governing strategy changes in response to changes in international circumstances such as globalization.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The corporatist Social Health Insurance (SHI) system (multiple insurers) introduced in 1977 was transformed into the single-insurer NHI in July 2000. These changes were influenced externally by globalization and internally by political democratization, keeping Korea’s private-dominant health care provision system unchanged over several decades.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Major changes such as integration reform occurred, when high levels of state autonomy were ensured. The state’s power (its policy capability), based on health care infrastructures, acts to limit the direction of any change in the health care system because it is very difficult to build the infrastructure for a health care system in a short timeframe.</p></sec>