Amid a craze among young Koreans for extremely thin body types — known as "ppyeo-malla," or "bone-thin" — the share of women who are underweight has reached 3.9 times that of men, according to government data. By region, women living in Seoul had the highest underweight rate, with roughly one in 12 falling below a healthy weight.
The underweight rate among women stood at 6.2% last year, far above the 1.6% recorded for men, according to data that Rep. Heo Jong-sik of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, obtained from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on the 23rd. The rate for all adults was 4.2%.
Seoul posted the highest underweight rate for women at 8.2%, about 5.1 times the 1.6% rate for men in the capital. Sejong followed at 7.7%, then Busan at 7.2%, Gyeonggi at 6.6%, and Daegu, Incheon and Gwangju at 6.5% each.
For men, underweight rates were 1.9% in South Jeolla Province, 1.8% in Jeonbuk State and North Gyeongsang Province, 1.7% in Gangwon State, North Chungcheong Province and South Chungcheong Province, and 1.6% in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju and South Gyeongsang Province.
While women were more likely than men to be underweight in every region, obesity showed the opposite pattern. The obesity rate last year was 41.5% for men, well above the 24.2% for women.
Male obesity rates were highest in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province at 49.0%, followed by Ulsan at 46.7%, Incheon, Gyeonggi and South Chungcheong Province at 44.7%, South Jeolla Province at 43.8% and Gangwon State at 43.6%. For women, the highest rates were in Gangwon State at 27.5%, South Jeolla Province at 27.2%, South Chungcheong Province at 27.0%, Incheon at 26.0% and Ulsan at 25.4%.
"Men had higher obesity rates than women, and women had higher underweight rates than men," Heo said. "Preventing and managing obesity matters, but we need to examine whether a social climate that demands excessively thin bodies of women is leading to underweight conditions that damage their health."
Heo added that with the spread of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, which produce significant reductions in body weight, prescribing practices and safety oversight need to be strengthened so that people of normal weight or those who are already underweight do not use the medications simply for cosmetic purposes. Medical professionals say a considerable number of people at normal weight are using prescription drugs intended for obesity treatment.
