Association between Abdominal Obesity and Incident Colorectal Cancer: A Nationwide Cohort Study in Korea

We investigated the association of waist circumference (WC) and abdominal obesity with the incident colorectal cancer risk in Korean adults.

This nationwide population-based cohort study was based on health insurance claims data. We analyzed data from 9,959,605 participants acquired through health check-ups of the Korean National Health Insurance Service in 2009 who were followed up until the end of 2017. We performed multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.

During 8.3 years of follow up, 101,197 cases (1.0%) of colorectal cancer were recorded. After adjusting for potential confounders, there was a positive association between WC and colorectal cancer risk (p for trend <0.001). Abdominal obesity was associated with an increased risk of colorectal (hazard ratio: 1.10, (95% confidence interval: 1.08-1.12)), colon (1.11, 1.09-1.13), and rectal cancer (1.08, 1.05-1.10). These associations were independent of body mass index and were more pronounced in men and elderly individuals.

We revealed that higher WC is related to colorectal cancer risk, thus suggesting that abdominal obesity may be a risk factor for colorectal cancer in this East Asian population.