Metabolic syndrome among women: A study from bursa turkey

Abstract

AIM: Obesity is one of the risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its prevalence is rapidly increasing in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of MetS and obesity among women aged 20 years and older. METHOD: This is a cross- sectional study, undergone in a primary health care setting in Bursa /Turkey in the year 2008. A total of 807 women were included in the study. Body weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure, total and HDL cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose and triglyceride levels were measured. Metabolic Syndrome definition was made according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. RESULTS: The mean age was 42.7±13.2 years, 96.4% were married, 50.7% had education of less than 8 years, 93.7% were housewives and 85.3% had a monthly family income of $650 or less. The prevalence of MetS and abdominal obesity were 17.5% and 87.7% respectively. Those with diabetes mellitus and elevated plasma lipids had increased risk of developing MetS 11.3 and 4.5 times more than those without these situations respectively. The risk of MetS increases with age and increasing BMI. CONCLUSION: In conclusion it can be stated that obesity and central obesity are alarmingly frequent among the adult Turkish women who participated in our study. Despite the high prevalence of elevated waist circumference and body mass index the low prevalence of MetS could not be explained. The low levels of triglycerides and high levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol should be studied further. Because of its cross-sectional and single center oriented design the results of this study should not be generalized.