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Aim: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major culprit in cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Western populations. We studied the longitudinal association between MetS and incident CKD in Chinese adults., Methods: A cohort study was conducted in a nationally representative sample of 4248 Chinese adults in Taiwan. The MetS was defined according to a unified criteria set by several major organizations and CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and serum levels of total cholesterol., Results: The prevalence of MetS among participants at baseline recruitment was 15.0% (637/4248). During a median follow-up period of 5.40 years, 208 subjects (4.9%) developed CKD. The multivariate-adjusted HR of CKD in participants with MetS compared with those without was 1.42 (95% CI = 1.03, 1.73). Additionally, there was a significantly graded relationship between the number of the MetS components and risk of CKD. Further, the relation between MetS and incident CKD was more robust in subjects with BMI >27.5 kg/m(2) than in those with lower BMI., Conclusion: The results suggest that the presence of MetS was significantly associated with increased risk of incident CKD in a Chinese population. These findings warrant future studies to test the impact of preventing and treating MetS on the reduction of the occurrence of CKD., (© 2012 The Authors. Nephrology © 2012 Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology.)

Purpose: This prospective cohort study of 11,889 women was conducted to determine significant factors associated with the risk of breast cancer among Chinese women in Taiwan, a low-incidence area., Methods: In-person interviews were completed for subjects to solicit information on hormonal factors. Measurements of height, weight, and waist-and- hip circumferences were performed by well-trained assistants using standardized techniques. Cox proportional hazards models were employed to estimate relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)., Results: During an average follow-up time of 10.3 years (range: 1 to 11 years) with an accumulation of 134,063 person-years, 104 incident breast cancer cases were identified through data linkage with national cancer registry profile. There was a significant elevation in breast-cancer risk with increasing duration of the interval between age at menarche and age at first full-term pregnancy (FFTP). Additionally, central adiposity reflected by hip circumference was a significant predictor of breast cancer in this Chinese female population., Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated common mechanisms responsible for the higher incidence of breast cancer in Western populations may also explain the risk of breast cancer development in Taiwan, a low-incidence area.