Most US adults estimated to have subclinical cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome
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Key takeaways:
- The majority of the U.S. population is estimated to have stage 1 to 3 cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome.
- Only 1.8% of those aged 65 years or older are calculated to have no CKM syndrome.
More than 70% of the overall U.S. population is estimated to have subclinical cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, according to a research letter published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“In light of emerging data on the CVD risk conferred by comorbidity risk factors, the American Heart Association introduced the framework for the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome,” Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas, MD, clinical fellow in preventive cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.
CKM syndrome is divided into five stages:
- stage 0, with no CKM syndrome risk factors;
- stage 1, with excess and/or dysfunctional adiposity;
- stage 2, with metabolic risk factors and kidney disease;
- stage 3, with subclinical CVD; and
- stage 4, with clinical CVD.
“The prevalence of CKM syndrome in the United States has not been well characterized. Therefore, we sought to determine the prevalence of each stage of the CKM syndrome from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,” the researchers wrote.
Minhas and colleagues used national data from four NHANES cycles from 2011 to 2018, excluding pregnant women. Data on CVDs and comorbidities were provided in responses to a standardized questionnaire, physical examination and/or laboratory examination.
The researchers identified weighted percentages for the prevalence of each CKM syndrome stage for various groups based on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and over time.
In the overall cohort, Minhas and colleagues identified signals of stage 0 CKM syndrome in 17.35% of people aged 20 to 44 years; in 5.45% of people aged 45 to 64 years; and in 1.8% of people aged 65 years or older.
Moreover, subclinical CKM syndrome — defined as stages 1 through 3 — were present in 80.94% of people aged 20 to 44 years; 85.95% of people aged 45 to 64 years; and 72.03% of people aged 65 years or older.
“The high prevalence of multimorbidity that defines the newly described CKM syndrome highlights the urgent need for public health intervention to optimize the health of individuals in the United States,” the researchers wrote. “Understanding the burden of interrelated comorbidities and convergence of risk factors is important for public health efforts behind the identification and management of the CKM syndrome, particularly given the increasing number of therapeutic management options for these conditions. Such efforts may include targeted screening and prevention efforts among individuals with early stages of the CKM syndrome to prevent progression to higher stages and symptomatic CVD.”
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