In a cohort of 10,547 participants aged 65 years and older from four nationwide Health Screening Centres in Taiwan, Wen et al. investigated the relationship between the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and all-cause mortality in the elderly. The metabolic syndrome was identified using American Heart Association/National Heart Lung Blood Institute clinical criteria. The authors found that elderly participants with the metabolic syndrome had a higher risk of CVD and all-cause mortality compared to those without the metabolic syndrome and that this risk increased in a graded fashion according to the number of metabolic syndrome components. Moreover, different combinations of metabolic syndrome components yielded different risks of CVD and all-cause mortality. Therefore, as the authors noted, the identification of “true” high-risk elderly with the metabolic syndrome may require further refinement for effective use in clinical practice.
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