Obesity related to metabolic syndrome: comparison of obesity indicators in an older french population

Abstract Objectives Metabolic syndrome (MS) represents a cluster of metabolic abnormalities. Insulin resistance is a major component of the syndrome. We analyze in this study the relationship between body fat composition and MS in comparison to usual obesity indicators in an older adult population. Design : The PROgnostic indicator OF cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (PROOF) study is a prospective longitudinal community cohort study among the inhabitants of Saint-Etienne, France. Methods The study is a cohort study of 1011 subjects, mean age 65.6 ± 0.8 years old at inclusion, recruited from the electoral list of the town in 2000. Among them, 806 subjects realized a Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) used to evaluate body fat and lean mass repartition. We evaluate biological metabolic parameters according to usual techniques. The indices of obesity were calculated according to standard formula. MS presence and its components were simultaneously evaluated. Results All obesity parameters were significantly higher (p