Obesity Rates Increase, Fewer Meet Diagnostic Criteria for Metabolic Syndrome

Obesity and hyperglycemia rates continue to incease despite fewer Americans meeting diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome. MedPage Today reports:

Fewer Americans met diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, but rates for some syndrome components continued to increase, data through the first decade of the millennium showed.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in adults decreased from 25.5% in 1999-2000 to 22.9% in 2009-2010. Rates of hypertension and high triglycerides also declined.

However, waistlines -- particularly women's -- continued to expand, such that more than half of adults met the diagnostic criterion for obesity by 2009 to 2010. And the prevalence of hyperglycemia increased by 65%, so that by the last 2 years of the study period, a fifth of all U.S. adults had elevated fasting glucose, as reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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