As Asians adopt western diets and lifestyles, the prevalence rates of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease have risen toward Western levels, according to an article in the April 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“The metabolic syndrome has become increasingly common in this Asian population and the prevalence is about to catch up with that in Western populations. That’s a very dangerous sign in terms of cardiovascular disease,” said Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health.

The researchers, including lead author Yao He, MD, PhD, from Harvard and the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing, China, interviewed and examined 2,334 people age 60 years or older who lived in the Beijing metropolitan area. Roughly one third to almost one half had metabolic syndrome, recognized by central obesity defined by waist circumference, high blood pressure, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high blood glucose levels.

“There have been some reports from developing countries, including China, on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, but this is actually the first study to look at the urban elderly population in a systematic way and to document not only the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, but also its relationship with cardiovascular disease,” Hu said.

According to the definition of metabolic disease from the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), just over 30 percent of participants had metabolic syndrome. However, 46 percent of the people in the study met the criteria for metabolic syndrome used by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). The presence of metabolic syndrome was also associated with higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease.

“Using the IDF definition, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased substantially, because a lower cut-off point for central obesity was used. And what’s interesting is that in this study it appears that metabolic syndrome as defined by the IDF is more strongly correlated with cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease, than the metabolic syndrome defined by the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program criteria,” Hu said. “This is not surprising given that Chinese people develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease at much lower Body Mass Index compared to Caucasians.”

“So the population is undergoing the transition from under-nutrition to over-nutrition and from underweight to obesity. In the next several decades, I think the obesity problem will get worse and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and also its consequences, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, will continue to increase. This will create a huge burden for the health care system,” Hu said.

Hu pointed out that this study just took a snapshot of the health of a selected urban population. He said future studies should follow people in China over time to track metabolic syndrome and how well it predicts the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.