Association between metabolic syndrome and bone mineral density in Korea: the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV), 2008

Little is known regarding the exact relationship between osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, previous research on the relationships between components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and bone mineral density (BMD) has primarily focused on women and older men; there have been few studies in younger men. We performed a cross-sectional study to assess whether MetS is associated with BMD in the femoral neck or lumbar spine in Korean adults. We further attempted to identify the MetS component, which is the most important factor in BMD. We performed a multiple regression analysis to analyze data on 2,989 subjects from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We examined the association between MetS and individuals MetS components and BMD. After adjustment for age, height, weight, smoking status, alcohol consumption and exercise, waist circumference (WC) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) showed independent negative associations with femoral neck and spine BMD in men in all age groups. Triglyceride concentration was also negatively associated with femoral neck BMD in younger men (< 45 years). In premenopausal women, WC, DBP, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were negatively associated with spine BMD. In postmenopausal women, WC was negatively associated with femoral neck BMD. These results suggest that WC in men in all age groups may be the most important factor in bone mineral density.