Metabolic Syndrome versus Framingham Risk Score for Association of Self-Reported Coronary Heart Disease: The 2005 Korean Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUND Several studies in Western populations have indicated that metabolic syndrome (MetS) is inferior to the Framingham risk score (FRS) in predicting coronary heart disease (CHD). However there has been no study about the predictability of MetS vs. FRS for CHD in Korea. METHODS Among the 43,145 persons from the third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005, laboratory test and nutritional survey data from 5,271 persons were examined. Participants were also asked to recall a physician's diagnosis of CHD. RESULTS The median age was 46 (range, 20 to 78) in men (n=2,257) and 44 (range, 20 to 78) years in women (n=3,014). Prevalence of self-reported CHD was 1.7% in men and 2.1% in women. Receiver operating characteristic curves and their respective area under the curve (AUC) were used to compare the ability of the FRS and the number of components of MetS to predict self-reported CHD in each sex. In men, AUC of FRS was significantly larger than that of MetS (0.767 [0.708 to 0.819] vs. 0.677 [0.541 to 0.713], P<0.01). In women, AUC of FRS was comparable to that of MetS (0.777 [0.728 to 0.826] vs. 0.733 [0.673 to 0.795]), and was not significant. CONCLUSION The data suggested that FRS was more closely associated with CHD compared to MetS in Korean men.