Is the Metabolic Syndrome Associated with Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, and Increased Physical Limitations in an Elderly Population if Multiple Chronic Illnesses are Taken into Consideration?

Summary 

Background

The concept of metabolic syndrome (MetS) was initially designed for long-term outcome prediction in middle aged or younger individuals, but it is unclear whether MetS can be applied in older people. We explored the clinical utility of MetS for prediction of various outcomes in older people. First, we investigated whether MetS is associated with CVD and DM in the short term. Second, we took multiple chronic illnesses into consideration to examine whether MetS is associated with increased physical limitations.

Methods

Participants were selected from the “Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study, 2000” and the “2003 Survey of Health and Living Status of the Middle-Aged and Elderly in Taiwan” aged ≥65 years for whom complete data were available. A total of 543 older Taiwanese were included.

Results

For older people who had MetS compared to those without the syndrome in 2000, the risk of CVD was 1.94 times higher in 2003 (p<0.01) and that of DM was 3.02 times higher in 2003 (p<0.01) after controlling for age, sex, and chronic illnesses. Hierarchical regression models of physical functions showed that MetS did not increase the explained variance in physical functional limitations.

Conclusions

MetS has short-term (3 years) effects on CVD and DM. After taking chronic illnesses into consideration, no association between MetS and physical functioning was obvious. More studies are needed to clarify the relationship among MetS, chronic illnesses, and physical functioning.

Keywords: activities of daily living, chronic illnesses, elderly, metabolic syndrome, Taiwan