Response to the letter by Kawada et al. regarding the manuscript entitled "The metabolic syndrome and CVD outcomes for a central Australian cohort"

[Extract] We thank Dr. Tomoyuki Kawada for their letter and for the important issues raised. We reiterate that the purpose of the study was to assess the clinical utility of the standard definitions of the metabolic syndrome for their application to central Australian populations. Our primary analyses therefore examined the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with each definition, adjusting for age and gender as the potential major confounders of these relationships. The WHO, IDF and NCEP definitions all have previously demonstrated utility in predicting excess risk of CVD