Resting heart rate and risk of metabolic syndrome in adults: a dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies.

The magnitude of the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) with increased resting heart rate (RHR) has been inconsistently reported in some observational studies, and whether a dose-response relationship exists between RHR and MetS is unclear. We performed a meta-analysis including dose-response analysis to quantitatively evaluate this association in adults. We searched PubMed, Web of Knowledge, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and WanFang databases for articles published up to April 2, 2016. A random-effects model was used to pool relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs); restricted cubic spline function was used to assess the dose-response relationship. Seven prospective cohort studies and 10 cross-sectional studies with a total of 169,786 participants were included. The pooled RR was 2.10 (95% CI 1.80-2.46, I (2) = 79.8%, n = 13) for the highest versus reference RHR category and 1.28 (95% CI 1.23-1.34, I (2) = 87.7%, n = 15) for each 10 beats per minute (bpm) increment in RHR. We found no evidence of a nonlinear dose-response association between RHR and MetS (P nonlinearity = 0.201). The relationship was consistent in most subgroup analyses and robust on sensitivity analysis. No significant publication bias was observed. This meta-analysis suggests that risk of MetS may be increased with elevated RHR.