A Continuous Metabolic Syndrome Risk Score
Utility for epidemiological analyses
- Katrien Wijndaele, MA1,
- Gaston Beunen, PHD2,
- Nathalie Duvigneaud, MA3,
- Lynn Matton, MA2,
- William Duquet, PHD3,
- Martine Thomis, PHD2,
- Johan Lefevre, PHD2 and
- Renaat M. Philippaerts, PHD1
- 1Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- 2Department of Biomedical Kinesiology, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- 3Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- Address correspondence to Renaat Philippaerts, PhD, Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: renaat.philippaerts{at}ugent.be
This study was designed to validate a continuous metabolic syndrome risk score (cMSy) using the International Diabetes Federation risk factors (1). Increasing evidence supports using a cMSy instead of a binary definition for epidemiological analyses: 1) dichotomizing continuous outcome variables reduces statistical power (2); 2) cardiovascular risk is a progressive function of several metabolic syndrome (MSy) risk factors, eliminating the need to dichotomize these factors (3); and 3) cardiovascular and diabetes risk increase progressively with increasing numbers of MSy risk factors, eliminating the need to dichotomize …
