The metabolic syndrome and mortality: the Singapore Cardiovascular Cohort Study.
OBJECTIVE
This study assesses the effect of the metabolic syndrome on all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in healthy Chinese, Malays and Asian Indians in Singapore. The utility of the metabolic syndrome is also compared with the Framingham risk score for prediction of mortality.


METHODS
Healthy participants (n = 5699) were grouped by the presence or absence of the metabolic syndrome, and followed up (mean 14.1 years) by data linkage with the National Death Register. Risk of mortality was obtained by Cox's proportional hazards model with adjusted hazard ratios (HRs). Area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare the metabolic syndrome and Framingham risk score for prediction of mortality.


RESULTS
During a follow-up of 80,236 person-years, there were 382 deaths, of which 128 were due to CVD. Individuals with the metabolic syndrome had an increased risk of mortality for 'all-causes' (males: HR 1.4, 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) 1.1-1.8; and females: HR 1.8, 95%CI 1.3-2.6). There was also an increased risk of mortality due to CVD (males: HR 3.0, 95%CI 1.9-4.8; and females: HR 2.1, 95%CI 1.1-4.0). The area under ROC for Framingham risk score was higher for both all-cause and CVD mortality than metabolic syndrome.


CONCLUSIONS
Although an increased risk of 'all-cause' and CVD mortality due to the metabolic syndrome was found, the Framingham risk function still performed better than the metabolic syndrome in an Asian population. However, the metabolic syndrome should not be disregarded as it is a clinically useful entity for identifying individuals for management of its component CVD risk factors.
Lee
Jeannette
J
Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore. cofleejm@nus.edu.sg
Heng
Derrick
D
Ma
Stefan
S
Chew
Suok-Kai
SK
Hughes
Kenneth
K
Tai
E-Shyong
ES
D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012846:Singapore