UC San Diego

Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) affects one in three adults in the US and is characterized by abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. We explored differences in neighborhood conditions and psychosocial factors between men and women across low and high socioeconomic status (SES) groups, and how these differences contribute to the higher risk of MetS in low SES individuals. Our sample included 4,191 individuals aged 45-84 from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds; 3,005 of them were classified as low or high SES for further analyses. We examined the association of MetS with SES for women and men separately using separate Cox proportional hazards models for each group. The mean age was 61 years, 49.2% were women, 43% were White, 9.4% had no health insurance, and 15.2% had less than a high school education. The overall incidence of MetS was 33% for both low and high SES individuals. After adjusting for confounders, low SES women had a 66% higher risk of developing MetS compared to high SES women (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.38 to 2.00). Similarly, low SES men had a 66% higher risk of developing MetS compared to high SES men (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.36 to 2.02). Contrary to expectations, adjusting for these variables did not attenuate the risk, and significant disparities were observed for both men and women across SES groups. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking low SES with MetS incidence to address these SES disparities.