Heart-kidney-metabolic syndrome affected most US adults
An estimated 89.2% of US adults were at stage 1 or higher, compared with 10.8% at stage 0.
Limit: Only the survey's fasting subsample contributed data to the national prevalence estimates
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In a cross-sectional observational study, researchers analyzed 2,958 US adults aged 20 or older from the 2021–2023 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The sample represented 245.2 million US adults. They assigned stages of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, which groups excess body fat, problems with the body's chemical processes, chronic kidney disease, and heart and blood vessel disease.
Stage 2 was the most common, affecting an estimated 51.3% of adults. Advanced stages 3 and 4 affected 14.7%. Across stages 2 through 4, 50.3% to 66.9% had blood pressure of at least 130/80 millimeters of mercury. Among adults eligible for cholesterol-lowering medication in those stages, 30.1% to 59.2% were not taking it.
Why it matters
Managing heart and kidney disease risks is important for healthy aging. These estimates provide a benchmark for tracking gaps in risk-factor control and treatment.
Caveats
Cross-sectional survey data provide a snapshot, not evidence of what caused these patterns or whether treatment would improve outcomes. The estimates came from the survey's fasting subsample and do not cover people under 20.
The paper
Lakeland Regional Medical Center
Journal of the American Heart Association, Oct 23, 2026, Open access
