This study examined the variations in blood HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels based on the data from the Seventh (2016) KNHANES. Further, the data was analyzed to correlate blood HDL-C levels with general characteristics, obesity and health behavior. Females showed higher HDL-C levels than males, and the levels decreased with age in males (P<0.001). HDL-C levels showed significant variations based on the household income in males (P<0.01). Males with obesity, as defined by both body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, had lower HDL-C levels than normal but females with obesity defined only by BMI had lower levels (P<0.001). The HDL-C level showed significant variations based on the smoking and drinking frequency among the studied health behaviors (P<0.001). The distribution of low, moderate, and high groups classified by blood HDL-C levels showed significant variations by sex, age, obesity, smoking and drinking. Also, the distribution of the groups showed significant variations based on education levels, waist circumference and frequency of eating breakfast and eating outside in females. Similar variations were observed based on high-intensity physical activity in both males and females, and medium intensity physical activity in males (p<0.05). HDL-C levels correlated negatively with obesity and smoking and positively with physical activity. Drinking frequency, however, was associated positively with HDL-C levels and this implies that further studies on the relation of blood HDL-C with drinking are needed. In conclusion, HDL-C is closely related to general characteristics, obesity, and health behavior. Therefore the importance of using HDL-C as the standard parameter for dyslipidemia treatment should be emphasized.

Keywords: HDL-cholesterol, obesity, health behavior, physical activity, dyslipidemia