Prevalence and correlates of metabolic syndrome in Hong Kong Chinese adults—a random community sample study

Abstract

The study investigates the prevalence and correlates of metabolic syndrome (MS) among Hong Kong Chinese adults. Random cluster sampling design and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) MS criteria were adopted. Totally 737 adults participated in questionnaire survey and received waist circumference (WC) measurement. Among them 335 showed central obesity (WC > 80 and 85 cm for women and men respectively). Subsequently 229 accepted blood test. Totally 71 participants met MS criteria, suggesting an overall prevalence of 14.1%. Both central obesity and MS increase sharply with age. Chi-square/ANOVA analyses revealed significant positive associations between central obesity with: being male, marital status being married/cohabit, lower education level, occupation as manager or housewife, and alcohol consumption. For MS, the significant positive correlates were: lower education level, occupation as service workers or housewife, lower income level, and alcohol consumption. After controlling for age, binary logistic regression analyses suggested the significant risk factors for central obesity were being male (OR=1.4), married/cohabit (OR=1.8), longer working hours (OR=1.5), eating less vegetables (OR=1.5), and alcohol consumption (OR=1.8). For MS, after controlling for age, only alcohol consumption appeared to be significant risk factor (OR=2.3). The mMultivariate binary logistic regressions also supported that age group and alcohol consumption were significant predictors of MS. The past study applying IDF MS criteria in Hong Kong adults revealed a prevalence of 7.4% only. Adopting a convenience sample of active working adults may largely explain the underestimation in previous study. To conclude, adopting randomized cluster sampling and IDF criteria, the study revealed aA prevalence rate of MS at 14.1% revealed in the current study seems to be a better estimate since the randomized cluster sampling method was adopted. Alcohol consumption appears to be the strongest risk factor of MS, which however needs further investigation.