White blood cell count and the metabolic syndrome in older Chinese: The Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

Aims: To examine the association between white blood cell count (WBC) and metabolic syndrome (MS) in an older Chinese population. Methods: Three thousand and twenty men and 7256 women aged 50-85 years were recruited and received a medical check-up including measurement of complete blood count, blood pressure, obesity indices, fasting total, LDL-, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and c-reactive protein (CRP). Information on socioeconomic and lifestyle factors was also collected. Results: Vascular risk factors including waist circumference, body mass index, triglyceride, total-, LDL-cholesterol, CRP and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were all positively associated with WBC in both men and women (p from 0.0085 to