The present study evaluated the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in a representative sample (no.=2860) of adults from the Spanish region of Galicia using the definitions of a) the World Health Organization; b) the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults; c) the European Group for Study of Insulin Resistance; and d) the International Diabetes Federation. In addition, we assess concordance among the different definitions, and the relationships of MS with insulin resistance (IR) as assessed by the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR) index. Our results indicate a high prevalence of MS under all 4 definitions. MS prevalence was higher in men than women on all 4 definitions, and increased significantly with body mass index and age. IR was high among subjects with MS, and the HOMA index was a good discriminator of MS and non-MS on all 4 definitions, suggesting that HOMA index may be a useful predictive tool in clinical practice.
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