Epidemiological profile and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome in Marrakesh, Morocco

INTRODUCTION: the purpose of this study was to bring out some epidemiological and clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome. METHODS: a total of 300 subjects willingly participated in the present study which was conducted at Ibn Zohr regional hospital in Marrakesh. We were interested in socio-demographic variables, body mass index (BMI) which assesses the degree of obesity of each subject. The blood parameters were determined by an adequate biochemistry automaton. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software. RESULTS: among the 300 subjects who participated in the study, 57.3% were females and 42.7% were males with a sex-ratio of 0.74. The average age was 51.6 ± 13.42 years old. Seventy nine of the participants (26.3%) had a metabolic syndrome, with a predominance of women: 60 women (34.9%) and 19 men (14.8%). Illiterates (33.8%) and married subjects (25.6%) were the most affected by the metabolic syndrome. The high waist circumference found in 97.5% was the predominant criteria in our study. Finally, the statistical analysis showed a significant association between high waist circumference, BMI and the presence of metabolic syndrome (P = 0.001>) and (P < 0.001) respectively. CONCLUSION: the metabolic syndrome is slowly but surely setting. Implementing prevention strategies and encouraging healthy lifestyles will surely minimize serious public health problems in the city.