Latent class analysis of the metabolic syndrome.

Attempts to explain the associations among metabolic syndrome (MetS) features using factor analysis to identify unobserved potential causes have resulted in inconsistent findings. We examined whether an unobserved categorical factor explains the associations among MetS features using latent class analysis. A cross-sectional analysis of 499 non-diabetic Japanese-Americans who underwent measurements of fasting blood, waist circumference (WC) and CT-measured intra-abdominal fat (IAF) area was conducted.