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Friday, December 06, 2002The study of 1,209 men aged 42 to 60, over a 15-year period, found that those with metabolic syndrome were from 2.9 to 4.2 times more likely to die of a heart attack than those who did not have the condition. "To our knowledge, this is the first prospective population-based cohort study reporting the association of the metabolic syndrome using recently proposed definitions with cardiovascular and overall mortality," study author Dr. Hanna-Maaria Lakka of Louisiana State University wrote in the journal. Neither the article nor the paper say how many men with metabolic syndrome died of heart disease or how many men without the syndrome died of heart disease. Both only express the differences in relative risks. The paper, however, does say that overall, 27 men died of heart disease and 46 died of stroke. That’s for all the men in the study, regardless of their abdominal girth, regardless of whether or not they had the metabolic syndrome. If you think about it, that’s a remarkably low mortality rate out of 1,209 men over nearly fifteen years. So, the study is comparing very small numbers to begin with and inflating them by using relative risks. It’s hardly the ground-breaking work the authors and the media are making it out to be. posted by Sydney on 12/06/2002 08:17:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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