A pair of health reports from Statistics Canada show that metabolic syndrome (MetS) affects more than one in four Canadians and the prevalence of the syndrome increases with age.
MetS, in the studies, is defined by the presence of a group of factors that can include abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and high triglycerides. They say research shows that having MetS doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease and multiplies the risk of diabetes by five.
“The prevalence of MetS was similar between men (27 per cent) and women (25 per cent), but it increased significantly with age, rising from 11.1 per cent in young adults (18 to 39 years) to 30 per cent in adults aged 40 to 59 years and to 44.3 per cent in older adults (60 to 79 years). In the older adults age group, MetS was more common for men (51 per cent) than women (38 per cent),” Statistics Canada’s researchers write. “Overall, the prevalence of MetS in Canadian adults stayed about the same from 2007 to 2019.”
According to the first report, Metabolic syndrome in Canadian adults, 2007 to 2019, abdominal obesity was the most common risk factor, affecting 90 per cent of MetS-affected Canadians. High blood sugar affected 70.6 per cent, low HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol) affected 65.8 per cent.
Abdominal obesity
“The prevalence of abdominal obesity was higher among females (97.7 per cent) than males (86.6 per cent) and did not vary across age groups. The prevalence of high blood pressure was higher among males (73 per cent) than females (60.1 per cent), while the prevalence of high plasma triglycerides, high fasting blood glucose, and low HDL cholesterol did not differ by sex,” the report states.
The link between metabolic health and weight
The second report, Metabolic health and body mass index phenotypes in adults, found a strong association between being metabolically unhealthy and having a higher body mass index (BMI). Unhealthy was defined as having the presence of at least three out of five components, including elevated triglycerides, reduced HDL, elevated waist circumference, elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting glucose levels.
“Systemic inflammation was more common among adults with overweight or obesity, regardless of metabolic health status. However, metabolically unhealthy adults with overweight or obesity had an even higher likelihood of inflammation than their metabolically healthy counterparts,” they write. “These findings suggest that considering metabolic health and BMI together can improve identification of health risks.”
The study found that just under four per cent of adults with normal weight were metabolically unhealthy, compared to 24 per cent of overweight adults and 54 per cent of adults with obesity. They add that researchers found minimal differences between males and females in the sample. “The prevalence of being metabolically unhealthy in all BMI categories was higher in older age groups,” they note.
