The Cooper Institute - Study on Metabolic Syndrome in Women

New Study: Low Fit Women are Much More Likely to Have Metabolic Syndrome

DALLAS — A new study from The Cooper Institute shows that low fit women are much more likely to have metabolic syndrome, a deadly combination of risk factors for cardiovascular disease – the leading cause of death in U.S. women. Only one other previously published study on this topic in women exists. That study used only 146 women compared to 7,104 women in The Cooper Institute study.

In the study, published this month in Obesity Research, metabolic syndrome was identified using the standard criterion of having three or more of the following: low HDL cholesterol levels, high blood triglyceride levels, elevated blood pressure, abdominal obesity and elevated fasting blood glucose levels. The group of women, average age of 45, was compiled from a database of patients assessed at Cooper Clinic between 1979 and 2000. Their cardiorespiratory fitness level (CRF) was measured via a maximal treadmill exercise test and the women were divided into five fitness categories based on their age and treadmill performance.

Blood tests, as well as measures of abdominal girth and resting blood pressure were used to identify women with metabolic syndrome. Low CRF was a strong predictor of the presence of metabolic syndrome. When examining the women from the lowest to the highest of the five fitness categories, metabolic syndrome was present in 19 percent, 6.7 percent, 6 percent, 3.6 percent, and 2.3 percent of the women respectively. Age was also a strong predictor of the presence of metabolic syndrome; only 2.4 percent of 20- to 29-year-old women were found to have metabolic syndrome, compared to more than 15 percent of women ages 60 and older.

The results of this study show that low CRF levels are strongly related to the risk of having metabolic syndrome. "This study should lead physicians and other health care professionals to spend more time counseling their sedentary female patients to become more physically active," said Steve Farrell, Ph.D., lead researcher of the study. "Simply moving from the lowest fitness category to the next highest fitness category decreased the likelihood of having metabolic syndrome by nearly three-fold. This can be accomplished by just being moderately active for at least 30 minutes a day, and it doesn't have to be done all at once."

ABOUT THE STUDY
"Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome across Cardiorespiratory Fitness Levels in Women."
Obesity Research, Volume 12:5 May 2004. Farrell, S.W., Cheng, Y.J., Blair, S.N.

ABOUT THE COOPER INSTITUTE
The Cooper Institute is the nonprofit division of The Cooper Aerobics Center and focuses on preventive medicine research and health education, promotion and certification. Areas of research include epidemiology, exercise physiology, behavior change, cancer prevention, children's health, obesity, nutrition, aging, diabetes, hypertension, weight management, health communication and other health issues. Certification and training courses are delivered to more than 6,500 health and fitness professionals each year. In addition to the Dallas location, The Cooper Institute has a research center in Denver, Colo., and an outreach center in the Oak Cliff area of South Dallas. For more information about The Cooper Institute, visit www.cooperinst.org.

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