Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in medical students at tertiary health care center

Abstract

The most accepted hypothesis to describe the pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance, which is caused by a defect in insulin action. It is increasingly recognized worldwide, and estimated that 20%–25% of adult population in south Asia have developed metabolic syndrome. This cross-sectional observational prevalence study of metabolic syndrome was conducted over a period of 1 year (2018–2019) on a sample of 150 randomly selected medical students comprising of different semesters of MBBS course in Indira Gandhi Institute of medical sciences, Patna. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria was 20% comprising 23.3% in males and 17.8% in females. The prevalence of individual parameters for metabolic syndrome was increased waist circumference (42%), low high-density lipoproteins levels (35.3%), increased triglyceride level (32.7%), increased fasting blood sugar (0.02%), and hypertension (0.03%).