Background: Increases in the number of obese population is an international issue, and Korea is not an exceptional case. In postmenopausal women changes in hormonal profiles may raise a problem of obesity. Obesity is correlated to chronic degenerative diseases and the antioxidant status. The purpose of this study was to compare the antioxidant enzyme activities and serum lipid of obese postmenopausal women to those of non-obese subjects, and investigate the relationship among nutritional status, BMI, and antioxidant enzyme activities in postmenopausal obese women.
Methods: In this study, we classified the subjects in to the obese postmenopausal women(n=27) and non-obese (n=33) according to their BMI, and measured dietary intakes, serum lipid, SOD (Superoxide dismutase activity), GPx (Glutathione peroxidase activity) and TA (Total antioxidants capacity).
Results: The average age of obese and non-obese were 65.4 yrs and 64.2 yrs, respectively and there was no significant difference. Body weight (p<0.001), body mass index (P<0.00l), waist-hip ratio (p<0.001) of obese were significantly higher than those of non-obese. The mean daily intake of energy in obese and non-obese subjects were 1551.4 kcal (89.4% of RDA) and 1516 kcal(85.9% of RDA), respectively and there was no significant difference. The mean daily nutrient intakes of obese was not significantly from those of non-obese subjects. The obese consumed significantly greater quantities of potatoes (P<0.0l) and eggs (P<0.01) compared those consumed by non-obese. Serum total cholesterol (p<0.05), triglyceride (P<0.05) of obese were significantly higher than those of non-obese. There was no significant difference in SOD, GPx, TA activities. A significantly positive relationship was present between total cholesterol and SOD (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Obese postmenopausal women had higher serum total cholesterol and triglyceride than those of the non-obese. Obesity is associated with elevated antioxidant enzyme activities. And that perdisposes the cardivovascular disease to oxidative stress.

Keywords: Postmenopausal women, obesity index, Antioxidant capacity