RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of age on patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and normal persons. METHODS: Data was gathered from 8280 persons including 4873 males and 3407 females who were randomly selected. All subjects were divided into normal group and MS group. According to the interval of ten years, the subjects were divided into seven age groups, to calculate the difference of impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG) between patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and normal people, as well as the related portions. RESULTS: (1) The risk of IFG and DM appeared to be different among age groups among the target subjects as well as in the normal and the MS groups (P < 0.05). (2) Among the whole subjects, the overall prevalence of IFG was increasing with age. The prevalence of DM had an increasing trend with age augment in 20 - 79 years group, whereas a decreasing trend appeared in people over 80 years of age. (3) For normal persons, the prevalence of IFG and DM were all increasing with age augment in 20 - 79 years group, and then decreasing with age augment in the over-80-years group. (4) For MS patients, the prevalence of IFG had an increasing trend with age augment in 20 - 69 years group, whereas a decreasing trend appeared in people over 70 years of age. There was no tendency of variation with age augment in DM. CONCLUSIONS: (1) For normal persons, high prevalence rates of IFG and DM were correlated to age augment, especially in senior persons. (2) For MS patients, high prevalence of IFG was also correlated to age augment, but no association between prevalence of DM and age augment was seen. (3) Age from 70 to 79 years appeared to be in high risk with MS.