Table 1.

Characteristics of Whitehall participants according to presence of the metabolic syndrome at phase 3 (1991–1993)

	Metabolic syndrome*		P
	No	Yes
n	4,685	547
Women	29.5	20.1	<10−4
Age (year)	49.4 ± 6.1	50.7 ± 6.0	<10−4
White participants	93.7	91.6	0.002
Single or divorced	19.8	21.0	0.85
Low employment grade	12.5	16.4	0.03
No academic level or lower secondary	45.2	49.3	0.06
Current smoker	11.5	12.2	0.62
Alcohol consumption (ml/day)	12.5 ± 14.1	13.0 ± 15.7	0.48
Low level of physical activity	23.8	27.8	0.002
Waist circumference (cm)	84.2 ± 10.5	98.6 ± 10.0	<10−4
Systolic blood pressure	119.2 ± 12.9	131.2 ± 11.6	<10−4
Diastolic blood pressure	78.8 ± 8.9	87.8 ± 7.7	<10−4
HDL cholesterol	1.48 ± 0.40	1.03 ± 0.25	<10−4
Triglycerides	1.26 ± 0.83	2.91 ± 1.52	<10−4
FBG	5.18 ± 0.53	5.77 ± 1.31	<10−4
CHD	2.3	5.1	<10−4

Data are means ± SD for continuous variables or percent.

^*Diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome was based on the NCEP definition (ref. 17).