New insights into health challenges and risk factors leading to metabolic syndrome

The latest findings from the 2021 Global Disease, Injury and Risk Factor Survey (GBD) have been published today. lancet, Provides new insights into health problems and the risk factors that cause them.

An increasing number of people experience metabolically related risk factors, such as high systolic blood pressure (SBP), high fasting plasma glucose (FPG), high body mass index (BMI), high LDL cholesterol, and impaired renal function. Indicates the effect of an abnormality. Population aging and lifestyle changes are progressing on a global scale.

The study found that between 2000 and 2021, global DALYs, or disability-adjusted life years (years of healthy life lost due to poor health or premature death), attributable to metabolic risk factors increased by 49.4%. It is said that he did. During this period, poor health among people aged 15 to 49 years has been increasingly attributed to high BMI and high FPG (also known as hyperglycemia), which increase the risk of developing diabetes. Other metabolic risk factors such as high SBP and high LDL cholesterol are also among the top 10 risk factors for people in this age group.

Although metabolic in nature, the occurrence of these risk factors is often influenced by various lifestyle factors, especially in younger generations. They also indicate that the population is aging and is more likely to develop these conditions over time. Aiming to reduce preventable non-communicable diseases through modifiable risk factors presents a huge opportunity to preemptively change the trajectory of global health through policy and education. ”

Dr. Michael Brauer, Associate Professor, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

The GBD Risk Factor Analysis provides comprehensive estimates of the disease burden and their associated health outcomes for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021. For the first time, the GBD study incorporates IHME's new burden of proof methodology. Evidence linking risk factors, disease, and injury provides an additional lens to prioritize actions and highlight areas for further research.

Particulate air pollution, smoking, and low birth weight and short pregnancies are also the biggest contributors to DALYs in 2021, with considerable variation across age, gender, and location.

The study found that between 2000 and 2021, significant progress was made in reducing the global burden of disease due to risk factors related to maternal and child health. Dangerous water, sanitation and hand washing. Household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels.

“The current risk factors contributing to poor health, such as obesity and other components of metabolic syndrome, exposure to ambient particulate air pollution, and smoking, are subject to global health policy efforts to reduce health risks. A combination of efforts and exposure reduction must be addressed to improve population health,” said Dr. Emanuela Gakidou, Professor of Health Metrics Science at IHME.

“With increased exposure to risk factors such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, and diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages, interventions targeting obesity and metabolic syndrome are urgently needed,” said IHME Cardiovascular. said Dr. Greg Ross, Health Metrics Program Director and Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Metrics Science.

“The GBD highlights that future trends are likely to be very different from past trends due to factors such as climate change and increases in obesity and addictions, but at the same time, it also sets the health trajectory for the next generation. “There is a huge opportunity for change,” he said. . Liane Ong, IHME Principal Investigator.

The greatest reductions in disease burden occurred in risk factors related to maternal and child health, unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing. This is primarily due to reduced risk exposure, but also due to a proportionate decline in the infant and adolescent population. These numbers suggest that public health measures and humanitarian health efforts over the past three decades have been successful, with regions that rank low on the socio-demographic index, a measure of income and fertility. , the rate of decline in burden attributable to these risk factors is particularly high. ,education.

Between 2000 and 2021, age-standardized attributable DALY rates decreased by 71.5%, and low birth weight and short pregnancy rates decreased, increasing the risk of child and maternal malnutrition, including child growth failure. The global disease burden associated with the factor has been significantly reduced. It decreased by 33.0% during the same period.

The authors show that, despite declines at the global level, the disease burden attributable to risk factors associated with child and maternal malnutrition is increasing in the GBD superregion of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. We found that it is still high. Also includes parts of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.

The burden of disease associated with unsafe water sources, unsafe sanitation, and lack of access to handwashing facilities (all top 25 risks) was 66.3%, 69.2%, and 65.7 in age-standardized DALYs, respectively. % decreased. Fee.

In contrast, the burden attributable to smoking (age-standardized risk-attributable DALYs) rose more slowly with population aging, even though people's exposure to this risk factor decreased. The disease burden (age-standardized risk attributable DALYs) associated with ambient particulate air pollution, high BMI, high FPG, and high SBP will increase significantly as people's exposure to these risk factors increases and the population ages. increased to.

Also released today lancet is a GBD forecast analysis for 204 countries from 2022 to 2050 and shows that global life expectancy is likely to increase between 2022 and 2050.