The recent global rise in obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) among young adults has become a public health concern. Moreover, lifestyle changes were widely reported as a result of preventive measures against the novel coronavirus disease 2019. We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate lifestyle factors associated with a pre-disease condition prior to MetS in young adults during/post-pandemic era. A survey was distributed to fourth-year students at Nagasaki University in 2023, and medical examination data were collected. Participants who met both high intra-abdominal fat area (IAFA >71.1 cm²) and at least one of the Japanese diagnostic criteria for MetS were categorized as having pre-MetS. The pre-MetS group was compared with the control (non-pre-MetS) group to examine its characteristics using Fisher's exact test and binomial logistic regression. A total of 856 students participated in this study; of them, 43 (5.0%) were classified as the pre-MetS group. Fisher's exact test identified significant associations between pre-MetS and breakfast frequency of 2-3 times/week, dining out ≥4 times/week, no or infrequent part-time job, late bedtime, and longer gaming time. Multivariable logistic regression revealed that after mutual adjustment, pre-MetS remained associated with no or infrequent part-time job and longer gaming time. After further adjustment for age, sex, and body mass index, only no or infrequent part-time job and gaming time of ≥4 h/day were significantly associated with pre-MetS. These factors were associated with pre-MetS and might reflect early metabolic alterations; further prospective studies are needed in this regard.
Copyright: © 2026 Arimori et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.