Objective Cigarette smoking increases the circulating white blood cell (WBC) count and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. We investigated the association between cigarette smoking, WBC count, and metabolic syndrome as defined by the Japanese criteria.
Method Cross-sectional data from 3,687 men undergoing general health screening between 2005 and 2006 were analyzed.
Results After adjustment for age and total cholesterol, former and current smoking were associated with the highest WBC quartile (≥6.3 × 10³ cells/μL) with an odds ratio of 1.35 (95% CI 1.09-1.66, P=0.0055) and 4.45 (95% CI 3.69-5.37, P<0.0001), respectively. It was found that increased WBC count was a risk factor for metabolic syndrome; on the other hand, the current smoking was not found to be a predictor for metabolic syndrome, when each WBC count quartile was separately analyzed.
Conclusions Our data suggest that the risk for MetS, defined by Japanese criteria, might be estimated by the WBC count in Japanese men irrespective of their smoking status, although it should also be noted that the cigarette smoking increases the number of circulating WBC count.