Egg Consumption and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Adults: Results from the Health Examinees Study

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a cluster of metabolic alterations such as abdominal obesity, dyslipidemias, elevated fasting glucose, and hypertension. Studies on the association between egg consumption and MetS are limited and inconsistent. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted to examine the association of egg consumption with MetS among Korean adults aged 40-69 years. A total of 130,420 subjects (43,682 men and 86,738 women) from the Health Examinees Study were selected for the final analysis. Egg consumption was estimated using a validated 106-item food frequency questionnaire. MetS was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the association of egg consumption with MetS via odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after adjusting for potential variables. Among 130,420 subjects, 34,039 (26.1%) people had MetS. Consumption of more than 7 eggs/week was associated with a lower odds of MetS risk compared to those who consumed less than one egg/week in women (OR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.70-0.84, p trend < 0.0001). Higher egg consumption was inversely associated with the MetS components: elevated waist circumference (OR: 0.80, 0.75-0.86), elevated triglyceride (OR: 0.78, 0.72-0.85), reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (OR: 0.82, 0.77-0.88), elevated blood pressure (OR: 0.86, 0.80-0.92), and elevated fasting glucose (OR: 0.94, 0.83-0.99) in women; reduced HDL-C (OR: 0.89, 0.80-1.00) in men. Our results suggest that higher egg consumption may be associated with a reduction in the odds for MetS and all five metabolic components in women, and the risk of reduced HDL-C in men.