19% of Normal-Weight Women Consider Themselves Obese... Over 4 Times That of Men

Two out of every 10 South Korean women with a normal body weight perceive themselves as obese, a study showed.

According to the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity, when adults aged 20 and older who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency from 2022 to 2024 were asked about their subjective body perception, 18.9% of women with a normal weight considered themselves to be obese.

This is significantly higher than the 4.1% of men with a normal weight who viewed themselves as obese.

According to the obesity treatment guidelines of the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity, a body mass index (BMI, calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared) is classified as follows: ▲ 18.5 to 22.9 is normal weight, ▲ 23 to 24.9 is pre-obesity, ▲ 25 to 29.9 is stage 1 obesity, ▲ 30 to 34.9 is stage 2 obesity, and ▲ 35 or higher is stage 3 obesity.

Among women in the pre-obesity stage, 66.9% thought of themselves as obese.

Expanding the scope to all adult men and women, those aged 20 to 39 had the highest rate of self-perceived obesity across all age groups.

Among them, 15.7% of those with a normal weight and 54.8% of those in the pre-obesity stage viewed themselves as obese.

Amid this discrepancy between actual weight and perceived body shape, the use of obesity treatments is rapidly increasing.

According to data on the Drug Utilization Review (DUR) system obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service by Representative Han Ji-ah of the People Power Party, who sits on the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, Mounjaro was prescribed 1,501,161 times over a 10-month period from August of last year, when it was launched in South Korea, to May of this year.

This figure represents the records checked by medical institutions via the DUR to prevent duplicate prescriptions of pharmaceuticals.

Because Mounjaro and Wegovy are non-reimbursable drugs, exact prescription volumes cannot be tallied, so prescription trends and patterns are gauged using DUR check data.

By age group, people in their 20s and 30s accounted for 52.9%, or 794,781 cases, of the total prescriptions during the 10 months following the launch.

Experts point out that while obesity treatments are effective therapeutic tools for obese patients, individuals with normal weights must be cautious of the risk of side effects if they use them.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.