Invited Commentary: Insulin Resistance Syndrome? Syndrome X? Multiple Metabolic Syndrome? A Syndrome At All? Factor Analysis Reveals Patterns in the Fabric of Correlated Metabolic Risk Factors

Factor analysis has emerged as a useful method for understanding patterns underlying the co-occurrence of metabolic risk factors for both type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis--often referred to as "insulin resistance syndrome." In factor analysis of data on 322 healthy elderly people from the Cardiovascular Health Study, Sakkinen et al. (Am J Epidemiol 2000;152:897-907) confirmed findings from a dozen prior studies that as many as four distinct...