Association of lead, mercury, and cadmium with metabolic syndrome of young adults in South Korea: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2016.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the relations between blood lead, mercury, and cadmium levels, affect metabolic syndrome of young adults.

STUDY DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS

This study is a descriptive study on verifying the relation between blood lead, mercury, cadmium level, and subcategories of metabolic syndrome. A total of 823 respondents' data of 19~29 years were sampled of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016 conducted under the National Health Promotion Law.

MEASUREMENT

To identify the predictive risk factors of metabolic syndromes, the subcategories of metabolic syndromes and the lead, mercury, and cadmium levels were analyzed using logistic regression. Pearson's correlation was used to identify correlations among the factors.

RESULTS

An analysis of the correlations among the metabolic syndromes and blood levels of lead, mercury, and cadmium showed significant relationships between blood lead level and systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, waist circumference, and triglyceride level; also between blood mercury level and waist measurement and triglyceride level; and between blood cadmium level and waist circumference and triglyceride level (p < .05).

CONCLUSION

This study is significant in that it provides basic data on the correlation between metabolic syndromes and heavy metals among young adults.