The Association between Metabolic Syndrome-Related Indicators and Ten-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: An Epidemiologic Assessment

Objectives. This study explored the association between metabolic syndrome-related indicators and the ten-year risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the middle-aged and elderly population. Methods. Data were collected from residents in Southern Taiwan through a health screening program, carried out from March 2007 to May 2008. The present study used the risk assessment tool of the Framingham Heart Study and adopted ≦10% as low risk, 11~20% as medium risk, and >20% as high risk for CVD. Results. We found that subjects with abdominal obesity and hypertension had significantly higher 10-year risk for CVD than those who had normal waist circumference and blood pressure (OR=2.07 and 24.52, resp.). Subjects with hypertriglyceridemia were 1.86 times more at risk for developing medium risk of CVD than those who had normal triglyceride levels. Furthermore, individuals with reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) had significantly higher 10-year risk for CVD than those who had normal HDL-C. Conclusions. Metabolic syndrome-related indicators were positively associated with 10-year risk for CVD. Waist circumference (WC), blood pressure, triglyceride and HDL-C might be good indicators for predicting the risk of CVD for middle-aged and elderly populations.