title: [Prognostic aspects of metabolic syndrome. Is the "good living" syndrome regarded seriously enough in general insurance medicine practice?].
abstract: Metabolic syndrome is characterized by a large number of metabolic disorders, the findings being generally a combination of insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension, dislipidemia and pathological glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus type II. Metabolic syndrome is diagnosed too seldom in view of the fact that a prevalence of at least 10% must be assumed for the population as a whole. Besides genetic predisposition, environmental factors such as diet, physical inactivity and nicotine and alcohol consumption play a decisive role in its clinical manifestation. The paper briefly examines the pathophysiological connections between the individual findings, with the central role of insulin resistance being emphasized. With a multifactorial therapy, in which non-medicamentous treatment is predominant, it must be assumed that on the whole compliance will tend to be poor. Prognostically the syndrome is serious, very frequently resulting in premature atherosclerosis. The paper concludes with a consideration of the underwriting of metabolic syndrome, one of the points being that the extramortality rates of the individual impairments should not be applied additively.
authors.affiliation: Bereich Versicherungs-medizin der Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Regenauer
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance / Q000502:physiology*; D007352:Insurance, Life; D008019:Life Style; D012307:Risk Factors; D013577:Syndrome