Assessment of Metabolic Syndrome in a sample of Central and South Americans living in the Washington, D.C. area

Abstract

The Central/South American population is growing rapidly in the U.S., but little is known about the health status. The purpose of this study was 1) to estimate the prevalence of MS and its individual components, 2) compare risk factors among Hispanic sub-groups, and 3) examine how metabolic syndrome (MS) prevalence estimates have changed from 1993–1994 to 2008–2009 in a sample of Central/South Americans living in the D.C. area. In this cross-sectional, medical record extraction survey, data from 1993–1994 were compared with data from 2008–2009 on 1,042 male and female adults collected by questionnaire. 28% of our subjects had MS. The most prevalent MS components were low HDL (43.2% men; 50.7% women), elevated triglycerides (37%), and high BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (75.6%). Among Central/South Americans, Salvadorans had the highest prevalence of MS (30.7%). MS prevalence was significantly greater for the 2008–2009 subjects (27.9%) compared with 1993–1994 subjects (19.7%) (p ≤ 0.05).