Impact of metabolic syndrome compared with impaired fasting glucose on the development of type 2 diabetes in a general Japanese population: the Hisayama study.

Description

The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between metabolic syndrome and the development of type 2 diabetes in a Japanese population. A total of 1,935 nondiabetic subjects aged 40-79 years were followed prospectively for a mean of 11.8 years. During the follow-up, 286 subjects developed type 2 diabetes. The present study found that metabolic syndrome identified by the clinical criteria of NCEP-ATP III was an independent risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes in both sexes even after controlling for confounding variables. Furthermore, metabolic syndrome and impaired fasting glucose each independently increased the risk of type 2 diabetes and the coexistence of both conditions increased even more the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. These results suggest that metabolic syndrome is a valuable tool to identify Japanese individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes.