Objective: Metabolic syndrome is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The predominant cause of metabolic syndrome is an unhealthy lifestyle. Healthy habits are represented by Breslow's 7 healthy practices, Morimoto's 8 items and Ikeda's 6 healthy habits. This study was done to determine which set of healthy habits was most likely to result in a reduced risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.
Methods: From April 1, 2000 through March 31, 2007, 6,765 males and 2,789 females underwent a medical check-up at Jikei University Hospital in Japan. They completed a simple, self-administered lifestyle questionnaire based on the 3 classifications of healthy habits. The responses were divided into 3 groups (poor, moderate and favorable) according to each of the healthy habit criteria. The incidence of metabolic syndrome was defined in participants who were newly diagnosed during the follow-up using Japanese-specific diagnostic criteria. The Kaplan-Meier cumulative 7-year incidence was calculated. Kaplan-Meier curves were compared using the long-rank test adjusted for age.
Results: In females, Breslow's, Morimoto's and Ikeda's healthy habits showed significant differences in the incidence between poor and moderate groups, and between poor and favorable groups. In males, a significant difference was observed among the poor, moderate and favorable groups for Ikeda's healthy habits. However, no significant difference was observed for Breslow's healthy practices. Morimoto's items only showed a significant difference between the poor and moderate groups.
Conclusion: Among the 3 models tested, Ikeda's healthy habits were the most useful for decreasing the risk of metabolic syndrome in Japanese.