BACKGROUND
The prevalence of diabetes in Korea is increasing rapidly, however we do not have much reliable data to prove it. Thus, the Southwest Seoul Study (SWS Study) designed to investigate the prevalence of diabetes (Clinical impact of new diagnostic criteria of ADA compare to the one of WHO), other metabolic diseases, and the proportion of diabetes related mortalities in the elderly Korean southwest Seoul population in prospectively. However, in this report we summarized the prevalence of diabetes only. METHODS: Randomly selected 1,737 elderly subjects over 60 years who lived in southwest area of Seoul were recruited in this study. Subjects underwent 75 gOGTT, interviewed using the standardized questionnaire, and careful physical examinations during the evaluation. Biochemical data were collected from 1,652 subjects and were analysed for this report. Of 1,652 subjects, we identified 196 pre-diabetics. However, these subjects were included in this analysis. ADA criteria [FBS>or=126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L)] and WHO criteria [75 gOGTT, pp2h >or= 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L)] were used as the criteria for diagnosis of diabetes. ADA and WHO criteria for impaired glucose tolerance [IGT, WHO: FBS<7.0 mmol/L, 7.8 mmol/L