Approved Research

Personalised risk estimation, prevention and early management of metabolic syndrome and subsequent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Lay summary

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of health conditions that occur together, increasing one's risk of severe cardiometabolic disease outcomes such as heart disease, stroke and hypertension. These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

However, current efforts in preventative medicine are not easily scalable and are insufficient to keep up with the increasing number of individuals with metabolic syndrome and other non-communicable diseases worldwide. Together, these largely preventable non-communicable diseases kill more than 41 million people annually.  A number that is expected to grow up to 52 million by 2030. Given this grim prognosis, more practical and scalable prevention tools are urgently needed.

In this proposal, we aim:

1) to understand which body measures, biomarkers and lifestyle factors influence the onset of metabolic disease and subsequent cardiometabolic events;

2) to develop a dynamic and quantitative personalised risk score for metabolic syndrome that will be used in our digital therapeutics application to help prevent and manage metabolic syndrome and consecutive disease risks.