What makes people obese in Incheon's Ongjin County?

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By Yoon Ja-young

Incheon's Ongjin County is a collection of 100 islands known for their fishing villages and remote tourist getaways. But this region is becoming famous for something else: having the highest obesity rate in Korea.

According to research led by Kim Bong-jeong, a professor in the Department of Nursing at Cheongju University, 45.2 percent of Ongjin residents are obese, double the 23.5-percent rate for Busan's Geumjeong District, the area with the lowest percentage of obese residents in the nation. The average obesity rate of the country's 229 cities, counties and districts stood at 34.1 percent according to the research.

It is not the first time that Ongjin's elevated obesity rate has drawn attention. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency even started looking into what is behind the high number. According to the agency's interim report, submitted to Rep. Heo Jong-sik of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, it seems like it has to do with the high percentage of males and single-person households, where people usually eat alone. The area also had a high proportion of people who drink heavily.

In the report, residents say they do not eat meals regularly on time. "When you are engaged in agricultural work, you can have meals on time, but (in fishing) you often miss meal times if your work schedule is highly affected by the tide times. And after work comes binge eating," a 65-year-old male resident reported.

Another resident pointed out that they are engaged mainly in manual labor, not exercise. While the percentage of people engaged in moderate to heavy labor was high in Ongjin, they were less likely to go walking intentionally for their health.

"It is notable that the obesity rate is especially high in males and relatively young people in Ongjin. As they miss meal times, they end up eating too much. Also, energy-consuming labor such as fishing leaves them with little room for exercise. They end up growing even fatter in the later years of life," the interim report noted.

As they reside on small islands, they rarely engage in physical activity during the evenings. They also lack easy access to community health centers, which should lead programs to control obesity among residents, the report notes.

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