Background and objective: Information about the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in elderly population is scarce. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of MS in Spanish population=60 years-old and the associated factors.
Patients and method: Epidemiological population-based cross-sectional study carried out on a randomized representative simple of subjects aged=60 years-old across the Spanish territory, stratified according to autonomous communities, census and population setting. Demographic, clinical, biochemical and electrocardiographic data were collected. MS was defined following the National Education Cholesterol Program (NCEP) criteria.
Results: 7331 subjects -53.4% women; mean age (standard deviation): 71.6 (6.9) years- were included. The prevalence of MS was 39.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 34.5-42.4) and was greater in women (45.2%; 95% CI, 43.7-46.8%) than in men (33.8%; 95% CI, 32.3-35.4%) (p<0.001), and lower in the urban setting. High blood pressure (HBP) was the most prevalent criterion, followed by abdominal obesity and hypertriglyceridemia. Subjects with MS were younger, with higher body mass index and blood pressure, and had more prevalence of organ damage and cardovascular disease (p<0,001). In the multivariate analysis, female gender, HBP, diabetes and abdominal obesity were the most strongly related factors.
Conclusions: Four out of 10 subjects aged 60 years-old or more had MS, and this was related mainly to female gender, HBP, obesity and diabetes.