Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and Its Risk Factors among Urban Sikh Population of Amritsar

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MS) refers to a cluster of various interrelated cardiometabolic risk factors that promote the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). South Asians also seem to have a peculiar body phenotype known as South Asian Phenotype, characterized by increased waist circumference, increased waist hip ratio, excessive body fat mass, increased plasma insulin levels and insulin resistance, as well as an atherogenic dyslipidemia, with low levels of HDL cholesterol and increased triglyceride levels. Epidemiologists in India and international agencies such as the world health organization (WHO) have been sounding an alarm on the rapidly rising burden of CVD for the past 15 years. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of ms in the Urban Sikh Population of Amritsar by means of a door-to-door survey. A secondary aim was to identify the risk factors for the development of ms. The sample size of 1089 subjects was calculated. This study focused on Urban Sikhs living in Amritsar, Punjab. The overall prevalence of ms in Urban Sikh population of Amritsar was 34.3% with a higher prevalence among women (41.4%) compared with men (28.2%). We also found that the prevalence of ms increases with age in both sexes. We infer that out of 1089 subjects there were only 84 subjects who reported with not a single abnormal component of the ms. The rest 1005 subjects had either one or more component abnormal in them.