Objective The global prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) appears to be increasing and the impact of this condition on potential comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease is high. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is also a potential comorbidity of MetS but the method of screening for this is somewhat controversial. Thus, predictive markers that can predict the risk of developing CKD are warranted for identification of patients with MetS at an increased risk.

Research methods/patients We investigated the occurrence of CKD in 6492 individuals, either with or without MetS.

Results Our results showed that the prevalence of CKD was markedly higher in those individuals with MetS, and increased progressively with the number of MetS components and age. Waist circumference, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were significantly (p<0.05) associated with altered levels of urea nitrogen, glomerular filtration rate and creatinine, and were related to the increased risk of CKD (eg, OR 1.293 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.52; p=0.002)). The relative risk of CKD remained statistically significant for uric acid following multivariate analyses and adjusting for MetS-associated factors.

Conclusions Our data demonstrated the association of MetS components with CKD in our population and revealed that susceptibility to CKD was increased with the number of defining features of MetS. These findings prompt prospective studies to determine the impact of preventing and detecting MetS on the risk of developing CKD.