Association between high sensitivity C-reactive protein and metabolic syndrome in subjects completing the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-10.

AIMS

Metabolic syndrome and elevated high-sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with an increase in risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, and diabetes but the relationship between the two is unclear. The purpose of this study is to identify any association between metabolic syndrome and hs-CRP concentrations.

METHODS

Subjects 20 years or older completing the 2009-10 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included. Metabolic syndrome was defined as having at least 3 of the following: hypertension, insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or high waist circumference. Elevated hs-CRP was defined as >3 mg/L. Multivariate logistic regression modeling was used to assess the relationship between hs-CRP and metabolic syndrome while controlling for potential confounders.

RESULTS

A total of 5728 subjects met the inclusion criteria, of which 69% were 20-55 years old, and 52% were female. Overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 34% and hs-CRP concentrations were elevated in 32% of subjects. Number of metabolic syndrome conditions was significantly associated with increasing odds of elevated hs-CRP concentrations. Subjects with one, two, three, four, or five metabolic syndrome conditions had 2.4, 3.3, 5.1, 10.7 and 11.1 times greater odds of elevated hs-CRP as compared to subjects with no metabolic syndrome conditions (p<0.05 for all comparisons).

CONCLUSIONS

Presence of metabolic syndrome was common in subjects from NHANES 2009-10 and a significant "dose-related" association was confirmed between number of metabolic syndrome conditions and increasing odds of elevated hs-CRP concentration.