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MONDAY, Dec. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Risk factors for metabolic syndrome (MetS) are similar for both obese and nonobese individuals, according to a study published in the December issue of Preventive Medicine.
Ayako Kikuchi, from University of Tsukuba in Japan, and colleagues assessed risk factors for multiple MetS components in nonobese versus obese individuals. The analysis included data from 47,172 individuals (aged 40 to 64 years) who worked at one of five manufacturing companies in Japan in 2015.
The researchers found that for both groups, men, older age, current smoking, weight gain of ≥10 kg since age 20 years, slow walking speed, fast eating speed, and greater amounts of alcohol consumption were risk factors for having multiple MetS components. With the exception of walking speed and eating speed, the odds ratio of each risk factor tended to be higher in nonobese individuals than in obese individuals. For obese individuals, a lack of regular exercise was the only specific risk factor.
"These results suggest that almost all risk factors for possession of multiple MetS components were common to both obese and non-obese individuals, and the risk level of each risk factor tended to be higher in non-obese individuals," the authors write.