A practical continuous score to evaluate the risk of the metabolic syndrome - (12/06/06)
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Although the risk associated with each component of the metabolic syndrome is more likely to be continuous than dichotomous, as well as partly overlapping regarding the underlying risk factor(s), the syndrome definitions in current use all count the number of measures that exceed certain thresholds. Using an appropriate mathematical technique to summarize highly correlated measures (principal components analysis), T. A. Hillier et al. determined a continuous metabolic syndrome score in 5024 participants of the Data from an Epidemiological Study on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome (D.E.S.I.R.) cohort. Over the 9-year follow up, each standard deviation increase in the metabolic syndrome score was associated with a markedly increased age-adjusted risk of developing diabetes and an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Interestingly, the score predicted CVD even in men who did not become diabetic over the follow-up, thus indicating that the effect of the syndrome is not just diabetes-related.
