Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Harmful effects of mercury on cardiovascular disease have been suggested in many epidemiologic studies. However, reports on harmful effect of mercury in relation to overweight or obesity have shown inconsistent findings.

Methods: A total of 1577 children and adolescents (10–18 years of age) from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2009–2013. Overweight or obese group was defined as over the 85th percentile of the age- and sex-specific BMI norms or BMI over 25. Subjects were categorized into three groups by age and gender specific blood cadmium, lead, and mercury concentration. Multivariate logistic regression stratified by gender was performed to estimate the odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for investigate the association.

Results: Compared to non-obese group, blood mercury concentration of was higher in obese group. Blood levels of cadmium and lead were not significantly different according to obese status. After adjustment for confounders, subjects in the highest tertile group of blood mercury levels were more likely to have overweight or obesity (OR 2.65, 95%CI 1.13–6.26) compared to subjects in the lowest tertile group in girls. No significant association was found in boys.

Conclusions: Blood mercury concentration is positively associated with overweight or obesity among Korean children and adolescents. Further longitudinal studies will be needed to confirm the causality.