Title:Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and Its Associated Potential Factors
among the Elderly in the East of Iran
Volume: 19
Issue: 3
Author(s): Toba Kazemi, Bita Bijari, Farshad Sharifi, Mitra Moodi, Farhad Saeedi, Saeede Khosravi Bizhaem, Fatemeh Hoseinzadeh-Chahkandak, Saeed Samarghandian and Tahereh Farkhondeh*
Affiliation:
- Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Social Determinants of Health Research Center,
Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
Keywords:
Metabolic syndrome, obesity, lipid-related parameters, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, elderly.
Abstract:
Background and Aims: This cross-sectional study aimed to determine potential factors
with a strong association with metabolic syndrome (MetS) among obesity and lipid-related parameters,
and liver enzymes, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and blood pressure (BP) as well as some sociodemographic
factors in elderly over 60 years old from a sample of Birjand Longitudinal Aging Study (BLAS).
Methods: A total of 1366 elderly Birjand participants were enrolled and divided into non-MetS (n
= 512) and MetS (n = 854) groups based on the status of MetS from January 2018 to October 2018.
The anthropometric parameters, blood lipid profiles, liver enzymes, and disease history were evaluated
and recorded.
Results: 62.5% of the participants from our sample of elderly Birjand have MetS (33.4% in males
and 66.6% in females). The prevalence of MetS in females was significantly higher than in males
(P < 0.001). The increasing trend in the number of MetS components (from 0 to 5) was observed
in females (p < 0.001). Odds ratio showed a strong association between female gender [8.33 (5.88-
11.82)], obesity [8.00 (4.87-13.14)], and overweight [2.44 (1.76-3.40)] with MetS and acceptable
association between TG/HDL [(1.85 (1.62-2.12)] with MetS.
Conclusion: This study indicated that the female sex, overweight and obesity have a strong association
with MetS and TG/HDL has an acceptable association found in the sample of the elderly Birjand population.
However, due to the obvious limitations of our study including the homogeneous sex and race of
population, and no adjustment for several important confounding factors including sex, different ages,
stage in the elderly, alcohol consumption, smoking, married status, physical activity, diet, and family history
of CVD, more epidemiological investigations are needed to address this question.
