Predictors of Metabolic Syndrome in the Elderly: A Review

Abstract

The article aimed to critically analyse studies which evaluated the capacity of anthropometric and clinical indicators to predict MetS in the elderly. Bibliographical research was performed using the electronic databasese Medline/PubMed, LILACS e SciELO , references from selected articles and contact with several authors. Twenty one articles involving anthropometric and clinical indicators in the elderly were analysed, using different MS criteria. Fourteen studies report anthropometric indicators, being the waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), described as the best MS predictors, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) over 0.70 (p < 0.05). The neck circumference was also described as an alternative indicator but with less discriminatory power. Lipid accumulation product (LAP) was the parameter with the best performance to identify MS, with an AUC over 0.85 and efficiency greater than 70%. The WC, WHtR and LAP indicators were the most sensitive for predicting MS. The use of these parameters may facilitate the early identification of MS, with good accuracy and low cost. In addition, it is important to determine specific cutoff points for the elderly, since obesity alone does not appear to be a strong predictor of MS in the elderly.

Obesity Indices to Use for Identifying Metabolic Syndrome among Rural Adults in South Africa

“…However, this results in the insulin resistance of the muscle and the liver caused by reduced insulin production by the pancreatic β-cell [ 42 ] giving rise to metabolic complications. Body mass index in both males and females was not the best indicator of MetS, similar findings were reported by [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Several studies have indicated that, although BMI is extensively used in a population to assess overall body weight it has limitations that it cannot differentiate between fat mass and fat-free mass [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ,…”

“…In the general population of Ellisras, WC, WHtR and NC were the best indices to determine MetS than BMI. Similar results were reported by [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ] although, the studies used different sample size, had different ethnicity and used different variables in the methodology. The use of obesity indices in these population can help screen and diagnose MetS as well as identify individuals at risk of health complications.…”

Dietary supplementation with camu-camu and continuous exercises in the treatment of obesity

“…The growth in the number of people with diseases associated to the weight excess make the experts consider obesity a disease with serious problems to public health [1]. The excess of adipose tissue with abdominal distribution, has been associated to the growth of incidence of several kinds of diseases especially the ones related to the metabolic syndrome [2].…”

Predictive capacity of indicators of adiposity in the metabolic syndrome in elderly individuals

“…However, there is still no consensus about which adiposity indicator is the best predictor of cardiovascular events resulting from body fat accumulation within this age group [5,[8][9][10][11].…”