Consequences of the Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) among African Americans, Hispanics and Whites

Abstract

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of risk indicators that appear to promote the development of chronic diseases. It is also described as a group of risk factors that increase the chance of having heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the consequences of MetS among adult Whites, African Americans and Hispanics aged 40 years or more. Methods: The proposed study used data abstracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2016. The following variables were utilized: sociodemographic data (age, gender, marital status, educational level and household income);  the criteria for MetS diagnosis (levels of blood pressure, fasting plasma blood glucose, blood triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and waist circumference); and the consequences of MetS (coronary eart disease, heart attack, stroke, breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and prediabetes, overweight and obesity). The data were analyzed using SUDAAN software (RTI international, INC., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina). The relationship of MetS and its individual components to theconsequences of MetS was compared among the three ethnic groups using chi-square and t-tests. The level of significance was 5%. 
Results: The findings demonstrated that participants who were diagnosed with MetS criteria are more likely to have higher risk of the following consequences: Diabetes and prediabetes, overweight and obesity. The findings show that of all the ethnic groups evaluated, those who had high blood glucose levels were significantly more likely to be diagnosed at risk of diabetes and obesity. Conclusions: Diabetes/Prediabeteswere found (considering the sentence-has a high association with high waist among Whites, African Americans and Hispanics.  There is an assassination between high waist circumference levels and overweight/obese among all ethnic groups.