Metabolic Syndrome Among Adults in China: The 2010 China Noncommunicable Disease Surveillance

Context: In China, data on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome have been rare recently.

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components in 2010.

Design, setting, and participants: The study covered all 31 provinces of mainland China and consisted of a nationally representative population sample of 98,658 Chinese adults aged ≥18 years. Of these, 97,098 participants were eligible for the data analysis reported here.

Main outcome measures: Estimates of the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components were calculated. To further explore whether metabolic syndrome is associated with the 10-year coronary heart disease risk, sex-stratified logistic regression models were used.

Results: The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 33.9% (31.0% in men and 36.8% in women), which indicates that metabolic syndrome affects approximately 454 million adults in China. More than half of total adult population was suffering from low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and nearly half of participants had high blood pressure. Abdominal obesity and low HDL-C were more prevalent in women than in men, whereas high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and high triglycerides were more common in men. Metabolic syndrome was associated with a higher 10-year coronary heart disease risk after adjustment for potential risk factors and each component of metabolic syndrome as continuous variables.

Conclusion: Our results showed a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components in the general adult population in mainland China. Metabolic syndrome was independently associated with a higher 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease.