[Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Chinese adults in 2010-2012]

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and distribution of metabolic syndrome (MS) in Chinese adults. Methods: Cross-sectional data on 104 098 men and women aged 18 years or above was gathered from 150 monitoring sites from 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities from the China National Health and Nutrition Surveillance (2010-2012) Project. Data was randomly selected by multi-stage stratified and Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) cluster random sampling method. Prevalence of MS was defined under the diagnostic criteria of China Diabetes Society (CDS). Complex sampling weighing method was used with demographic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2009, when calculating the prevalence and its 95%CI of MS. Results: The overall prevalence rate of the MS among adults was 11.0%, more seen in urban than in rural areas, and in men than in women. The prevalence showed a parallel increasing trend with age. As was observed in the comparison between the prevalence of four components of MS, the prevalence rates of dyslipidemia (33.7%) and overweight or obesity (32.3%) showed more serious than in hypertension (22.4%) or hyperglycemia (16.2%). Conclusion: The prevalence of MS among adults in China showed an increasing trend which had already become a significant public health problem, in the country.