Impact of metabolic syndrome definitions on prevalence estimates: a study in a Portuguese community

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Abstract
This study compared the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) according to World Health Organization (WHO), National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) definitions, to evaluate how well the different classifications agreed. The study also compared their 10-year predicted risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) with the Framingham risk score (FRS). Some 886 women and 547 men aged 18–92 years were included in the study. Demographic and personal medical history data were obtained at interview. Four operational definitions of MS were used (those of the WHO, NCEP-ATP III, AHA/NHLBI and IDF). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 26.4% (WHO criteria), 24.0% (NCEP-ATP III criteria), 41.9% (IDF criteria) and 37.2% (AHA/NHLBI criteria). According to the definition used, central obesity ranged from 41.9% to 75.1% and high blood pressure from 52.9% to 65.8%. Agreement between classifications ranged from 75.2% (κ=0.47) to 90.4% (κ=0.80) and was lower in males. The 10-year predicted risk of CHD by FRS was similar between the different definitions. IDF and AHA/NHLBI definitions resulted in a higher prevalence of MS than the NCEP-ATP III or WHO definition. Overall, however, good agreement was found between definitions, and the predicted 10-year of CHD risk was similar.

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