Prevalence of metabolic syndrome, its risk factors and associated lifestyles in Myanmar adult people: A community based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is the constellation of cardio-metabolic risk factors, and it can illustrate the coming burden of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Myanmar faces larger pressure from cardio-metabolic diseases and there is no existing data to understand the magnitude of MetS in adult population. This study aimed to investigate the extent of existing people with MetS in the community and to know the related lifestyle factors to MetS. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was performed in convenient sample of 302 Myanmar adult people. Prevalence of MetS and associated risk factors were identified by collecting sociodemographic information, anthropometric measurements, and blood investigation of glucose and lipid profiles. Logistic regression analysis was performed for developing statistical models to estimate the odd ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Prevalence of MetS is 29.1%, and there is no significant difference between male and female prevalence. Abdominal obesity is the highest component of MetS (OR: 28.37, CI: 12.41–64.85, p < 0.001) especially for female (OR: 44.52, CI: 17.19–115.31, p < 0.001), and hypertriglyceridemia (OR: 11.05, CI: 6.20–19.66, p < 0.001) is the commonest in male. Age is the constant risk for developing MetS (OR: 4.06, CI: 1.91–8.64, p < 0.001) whereas the practice of midday nap is the behavior related to increased occurrence of MetS (OR: 1.97, CI: 1.16–3.38, p < 0.05). Dietary pattern, smoking status, drinking alcoholic beverages and physical activity involvement do not impact on the development of MetS. Education, occupation, income and other sociodemographic factors do not produce significant effect on cardio-metabolic status. Obesity, diabetes, and hypertensive conditions of community residents are also explored. CONCLUSIONS: Modifiable pathophysiological conditions such as abdominal obesity, and obesity play a vital role in preventing MetS before it occurs while unmodifiable risk factor such as getting older and female sex are not as much important as changeable lifestyle habits.