Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether adherence to the Korea Healthy Eating Index (KHEI) was associated with metabolic syndrome and risk markers.
Methods: The participants included 8,345 adults, aged 20–59 years, who took part in the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The data were analyzed using a complex-sample t-test, the Rao Scott χ2 -test, and logistic regression analysis on the SPSS v. 26.0 software. The participants were divided into four groups by quartiles of KHEI scores.
Conclusion: Based on these results, we conclude that higher adherence to the KHEI was associated with lower metabolic syndrome risk factors and incidence of the metabolic syndrome.