Lower BMI cutoff for assessing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Thai population

Abstract

This article investigates the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and the benefits of lowered body mass index (BMI) cutoff point for assessing MS prevalence in a large, nationally representative population sample comprising of 15,365 Thai adults from metropolitan Bangkok who received annual checkup. Prevalence of MS was characterized using the International Diabetes Federation criteria and BMI 25 kg/m2 as cutoff revealed that 26.63% of male and 14.90% of female subjects had MS and the prevalence was age dependent. Traditional BMI cutoff of 30 kg/m2 underestimated MS prevalence in Thai population while BMI 25 kg/m2 was found to be a suitable solution. Common combinations of MS components were identified in order to find common occurrences that may be implicated in the development of diabetes and/or cardiovascular diseases. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.