Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Feb 25, 2025
Date Accepted: Jul 24, 2025
Clustering of lifestyle behaviors and their association with risk of metabolic syndrome among adults in Taiwan: a nationwide cross-sectional design
ABSTRACT
Background:
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a multifaceted health condition influenced by physiological and lifestyle factors, leading to increased risks of cardiovascular disease and other chronic health issues. Lifestyle behaviors often manifest in various clustering patterns, and evidence of their impact on MetS remains limited.
Objective:
This study explores the relationship between latent classes of lifestyle behaviors and the risk of MetS and its components.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study used data from Taiwan’s 2020-2022 Adult Preventive Health Services (APHS) Database. The study included 244,214 adults aged 35 and older who participated in APHS between 2020 and 2022. Lifestyle behaviors were assessed through smoking, alcohol consumption, betel quid chewing, and physical activities. Latent class analysis was used to identify lifestyle behavior patterns, while binary logistic regression examined the association between these patterns and risks of MetS and its components.
Results:
The latent class analysis identified five distinct lifestyle behavior patterns, with a MetS prevalence of 31.50%. Compared to the 'healthy lifestyle' group (11.35% prevalence), the 'insufficiently physically active (IPA)' group (75.52%), the 'occasional drinking but physically active' group (7.61%; except for a reduced likelihood of low HDL), the 'occasional drinking and regular smoking with IPA' group (3.88%), and the 'unhealthy in all behaviors' group (1.64%) showed significantly higher odds of developing MetS and its components, with the strongest effects observed in the latter two groups.
Conclusions:
Engaging in sufficient physical activity and adopting multi-behavior interventions tailored to specific lifestyle patterns are crucial for effectively preventing MetS in adults. Clinical Trial: none
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.