Early death caused by metabolism-related risk factors has increased by 50%, study finds

The latest findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD), recently published in The Lancet, offered insights into health challenges and the risk factors contributing to metabolism-related death.

An increase in people experiencing metabolic risk factors, such as high systolic blood pressure (SBP), high fasting plasma glucose (FPG), high body mass index (BMI), high LDL cholesterol, and kidney dysfunction, demonstrates the consequences of an aging population and changing lifestyles on a global scale.

Metabolic risk factors lead to significant health problems by disrupting the body's normal physiological functions. These factors strain the cardiovascular system, impair kidney function, and disrupt glucose metabolism, resulting in overall decreased organ efficiency. Over time, this chronic strain can cause systemic inflammation, reduced immune response, and impaired healing processes, leaving individuals more susceptible to infections, chronic fatigue, reduced quality of life and increased mortality risk.

According to the study, there was a 49.4% increase in the number of global disability-adjusted life years (lost years of healthy life due to poor health and early death), attributable to metabolism-related risk factors between 2000 and 2021. Over this period, ill health in people ages 15–49 was increasingly attributable to a high BMI and high FPG – also known as high blood sugar – which increases the risk of developing diabetes. Other metabolic risk factors were also in the top 10 risk factors for people in this age group.

“Though metabolic in nature, developing these risk factors can often be influenced by various lifestyle factors, especially among younger generations. They also are indicative of an aging population that is more likely to develop these conditions with time. Targeting the reduction of preventable, non-communicable diseases through modifiable risk factors presents an enormous opportunity to pre-emptively alter the trajectory of global health through policy and education,” said Dr. Michael Brauer, Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

“Risk factors that currently lead to ill health, such as obesity and other components of metabolic syndrome, exposure to ambient particulate matter air pollution, and tobacco use, must be addressed via a combination of global health policy efforts and exposure reduction to mitigate health risks and improve population health. With increasing exposure to risk factors such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, low physical activity, and diet high in sugar-sweetened beverages—there is an urgent need for interventions focused on obesity and metabolic syndromes,” said the authors.

Reference: GBD 2021 Risk Factors Collaborators- Michael Brauer*, Gregory A Roth*, Aleksandr Y Aravkin, Peng Zheng, et al.; Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021; The Lancet; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00933-4