Epidemiology of metabolic syndrome

This article provides a global overview of the current trends and distribution of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome (also known as the cardiometabolic syndrome) refers to a cluster of related risk factors for cardiovascular disease that includes abdominal obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol.

Data from the World Health Organization suggests 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. The WHO defines “overweight” as a BMI greater than or equal to 25, and “obesity” as a BMI greater than or equal to 30. Both overweight and obesity are major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, specifically heart disease and stroke, and diabetes.

The International Diabetes Federation reports that as of 2011, 366 million people suffer from diabetes; this number is projected to increase to over half a billion (estimated 552 million) by 2030. 80 percent of people with diabetes live in developing countries and in 2011, diabetes caused 4.6 million deaths and approximately 78,000 children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Different definitions of the cardiometabolic syndrome have been proposed by different public health organizations, but recently the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the American Heart Association (AHA), and others proposed a definition for diagnosing the cardiometabolic syndrome that includes the presence of 3 out of the following 5 risk factors:

Approximately 20 – 25 percent of the world’s adult population has the cluster of risk factors that is metabolic syndrome. In 2000, approximately 32% of U.S. adults had the metabolic syndrome. In more recent years that figure has climbed to 34%.

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