Backgrounds and aims: Currently, over 20,000 North Korean defectors(NKD) are staying in South Korea and more than 2,000 people are coming every year. It is reported that North Koreans have different type of diseases or mortality compared to South Koreans(SK), as they have been lived at different political, social, medical environments in spite of having the same genetic background. In addition, health status of NKD is expected to undergo the change according to exposure of their life style to different, so called Westernized environments of South Korea. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in terms of lifestyle related disease and atherosclerosis markers among NKD in South Korea.
Material and methods: The intended sample was NKD aged 30 or more residing in Nowon area in Seoul. They were interviewed and examined their medical and psychological status. To compare the results of a total of 440 NKD with those of SK, the data of Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination survey 2008 and the examinees of health checkups from Korea University Ansan Hospital were used.
Results: Most of anthropometric measures of NKD were smaller than those of SK. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome had no statistically difference between NKD and SK (20.8% vs 24.8%, p=0.445 in men, 15.3% vs 17.5% p=0.395 in women). The odds ratios for metabolic syndrome of ≥5% weight gain group within the cohort was 8.73(CI 2.62 29.03), while it was compared to the no weight gain group after adjusting for various confounding factors. High sensitive Creactive protein(hsCRP) and ankle brachial index(ABI) as atherosclerosis marker have no difference between NKD and SK, but adipokines of NKD were higher than those of SK.
Conclusion: The health status of NKD is not better than that of SK in the aspect of the metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis markers. Furthermore, it may be possible that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in NKD will exceed that of SK in the future. This study suggest that NKD are high risk group for metabolic syndrome and diabetes and healthy life style is extremely important for them.

1. 서 론 1
2. 연구 대상 및 방법 3
1) 대상자 모집 3
2) 조사 과정 3
3) 비교군 선정 4
4) 측정 항목 4
5) 대사증후군 진단 기준 7
6) 분석 방법 8
3. 연구 결과 9
4. 고 찰 13
5. 결 론 26
6. 참고 문헌 27
7. 표 40