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Response to Oda

International Journal of Obesity volume 32, page 394 (2008)Cite this article

We thank Dr Oda for his interest and comments regarding our article.1 Moreover, we are pleased to hear that he found results similar to ours in Japan.2 Our study suggested that International Diabetes Federation definition could miss high-risk patients who lacked central obesity but who nevertheless showed a clustering of metabolic risks. We also found that these at-risk patients had worse lifestyle behaviors, such as physical inactivity, cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, especially in older age groups, despite lower body mass index and waist circumference.

Several recent studies that compare the predictive ability of different definitions on metabolic syndrome for all-cause or cardiovascular disease mortality showed that the International Diabetes Federation requirement of an elevated waist circumference warrants caution, given that a large proportion of men with normal waist circumference have multiple risk factors and an increased risk of mortality.3, 4, 5 And our recent study also found that these missed high-risk subjects had a considerably higher HOMA-IR index than non-metabolic syndrome persons.6

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References

  1. Yoon YS, Lee ES, Park C, Lee S, Oh SW . The new definition of metabolic syndrome by the International Diabetes Federation is less likely to identify metabolically abnormal but non-obese individuals than the definition by the revised national cholesterol education program: the Korean NHANES Study. Int J Obes 2007; 31: 528–534.

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  2. Oda E . No existing definition of metabolic syndrome meets criteria as a syndrome. Int J Obes advance online publication, 4 September 2007 (DOI:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803716).

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  3. Guize L, Thomas F, Pannier B, Bean K, Jego B, Benetos A . All-cause mortality associated with specific combinations of the metabolic syndrome according to recent definitions. Diabetes Care 2007; 30: 2381–2387.

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  4. Qiao Q, DECODE Study Group. Comparison of different definitions of the metabolic syndrome in relation to cardiovascular mortality in European men and women. Diabetologia 2006; 12: 2837–2846.

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  5. Katzmarzyk PT, Janssen I, Ross R, Church TS, Blair SN . The importance of waist circumference in the definition of metabolic syndrome: prospective analyses of mortality in men. Diabetes Care 2006; 2: 404–409.

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  6. Lee ES, Oh SW, Yoon YS . Metabolic syndrome defined by IDF or NCEP and insulin resistance. Korean J Obes 2006; 15: 1–8.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Center for Health Promotion, Ilsan-Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea

    Y S Yoon

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Obesity Clinic, and Center for Health Promotion, Dongguk University International Hospital, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea

    S W Oh

Authors
  1. Y S Yoon
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  2. S W Oh
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Yoon, Y., Oh, S. Response to Oda. Int J Obes 32, 394 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803747

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