Metabolic Syndrome or “Central Obesity Syndrome”?
- Gary T.C. Ko, MD, FRCPI
- 1From the Department of Medicine, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Tai Po, Hong Kong
- Address correspondence to Gary T.C. Ko, Department of Medicine, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, 11 Chuen On Road, Tai Po, NT, Hong Kong. E-mail: gtc_ko{at}yahoo.com.hk
I read with interest the recent two articles on metabolic syndrome published in Diabetes Care, one by Ford (1) on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome defined by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) among adults in the U.S. and the other by Kahn et al. (2) that critically appraised the definitions of metabolic syndrome.
Ford reported a higher prevalence estimate of the metabolic syndrome than the estimate based on the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) definition (unadjusted prevalence 39.0 ± 1.1 vs. 34.5 ± 0.9%, respectively) in U.S. adults (1). The lower IDF criteria as compared with NCEP criteria for defining central obesity (men ≥94 vs. >102 cm and women ≥80 vs. >88 cm) appeared to account for much of this difference (3,4). The NCEP criteria suggest selecting three of five …
