Key Points
- To establish optimal visceral fat area cutoffs for identifying metabolic syndrome and to assess its prevalence among middle-aged Japanese adults.
- Analyzed cross-sectional computed tomography data from 3574 Japanese employees (2947 men and 627 women, aged 40–59 years) at a single large corporation.
- Applied receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to determine the visceral fat area (VFA) thresholds that predict at least two metabolic syndrome components.
- Optimal VFA thresholds were 100 cm² for men (sensitivity 0.67, specificity 0.60; corresponding waist circumference 86.0 cm) and 65 cm² for women (sensitivity 0.73, specificity 0.70; corresponding waist circumference 77.0 cm).
- Using these CT-derived thresholds, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 25.5% in men and 11.0% in women.
Structured PICO
PPopulation3,574 middle-aged Japanese adults (2,947 men and 627 women, aged 40-59 years) from a large telecommunication company in the Kinki area of Japan.
OOutcomeOptimal visceral fat area (VFA) cutoff value by computed tomography to predict the presence of at least two components of metabolic syndrome, and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome.surrogate
In a Japanese working population, the optimal visceral fat area cutoff for diagnosing metabolic syndrome is lower in women (65 cm2) than in men (100 cm2), revealing a substantial prevalence of the syndrome despite lower overall obesity rates compared to Western countries.
Limitations
- Study population limited to employees of a single company in one geographic area
- Need for further studies including other age groups and populations from different geographic areas