The association between metabolic syndrome and risk of severe infection: A population-based cohort study

The association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and severe infection remains inconclusive. We investigated the potential associations between MetS and its components and severe infection in a large population-based cohort.

We used data from Shanghai Suburban Adult Cohort and Biobank which includes 35,193 participants who were enrolled in 2016 and 2017 with follow-up until March 2024. Severe infections, defined as those requiring hospital admission or resulting in mortality, were identified through medical records. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the associations between MetS and its components with incident severe infection.

During a median of 6.96 years of follow-up, a total of 1143 (11.78 %) severe infections occurred in participants with MetS and 2337 (9.18 %) in No MetS group. MetS was associated with an increased risk of severe infection compared to the No MetS group (HR, 1.19; 95 % CI, 1.11-1.28). Among the individual components, elevated waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, and reduced HDL cholesterol were associated with increased severe infection risk, whereas elevated blood pressure alone was associated with reduced severe infection risk (HR, 0.91; 95 % CI, 0.85-0.98). The risk of severe infection also increased with increasing number of MetS components, with the highest risk found in the presence of all 5 components (HR, 1.70; 95 % CI, 1.39-2.07).

MetS was associated with an increased risk of severe infection. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the association between MetS and severe infection.