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Prevalence of metabolic syndrome high in US adults
More than one-third of U.S. adults and half of those aged 60 years or older were estimated to have metabolic syndrome in 2011-2012, according to findings in a new report.
Using 2003-2012 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers evaluated trends in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among U.S. adults aged 20 years or older. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III.
Overall prevalence was 33% from 2003 to 2012 and was significantly more prevalent in women compared with men (35.6% vs. 30.3%; P < .001). The highest prevalence was observed in Hispanic adults (35.4%), followed by non-Hispanic white adults (33.4%) and black adults (32.7%).
Overall prevalence increased from 32.9% in 2003-2004 to 34.7% in 2011-2012. However, prevalence among women decreased from 39.4% in 2007-2008 to 36.6% in 2011-2012 (P = .03).
The researchers observed an increase in prevalence with rising age. Overall prevalence was 18.3% among adults aged 20 to 39 years compared with 46.7% among those aged 60 years or older. In the older group, more than 50% of women and Hispanics had metabolic syndrome.
Greater awareness of metabolic syndrome may have contributed to improvements in risk factor control, the researchers said. “Furthermore, recent NHANES data demonstrate that obesity prevalence in the United States also appears to have stabilized, which also may contribute to the stabilizing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome,” they wrote. – by Katie Kalvaitis
For more information:
- Aguilar M, et al. JAMA. 2015;doi.10.1001/jama.2015.4260.
Disclosure:
- The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures..
Perspective
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The prevalence of metabolic syndrome continues to creep upward, becoming a popular condition to track over the past 15 years. The Adult Treatment Panel III Guidelines for Cholesterol in the U.S. emphasized the importance of five key features, all of them easy to measure in a clinical setting: abdominal adiposity, elevated blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides and impaired fasting glucose. Emphasis was placed on having three or more of the five features. A variety of refinements have been made to the diagnostic criteria since the turn of the century. It is now thought to be more meaningful if persons with diabetes mellitus are not identified as having metabolic syndrome, and waist circumference criteria were modified for Asians and other groups. The key issue for metabolic syndrome is that these elements are reliable and validated risk factors for the development of diabetes mellitus. In an analysis of the Framingham Offspring, it was shown that each of the five factors was associated with approximately a 1.5-fold greater risk for developing diabetes over time and the effects were multiplicative. For example, a person with three factors compared with a person with no metabolic syndrome factors had a 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 3.75 times greater chance of developing diabetes over 8 years of follow-up. To halt the trend upward in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, American adults need to exercise more, eat healthy foods and consume fewer calories.