Metabolic Syndrome and 10-year Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Among Male Taxi Drivers in 2016: A Cross-sectional Study in Yazd, Iran

The evidence indicates that drivers -- including taxi drivers – are involved have high rates of metabolic syndrome and also have a higher risk of cardiovascular events than other occupations. Only few studies have been conducted to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among urban taxi drivers. The aim of this research was to estimate prevalence of metabolic syndrome and risk of cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years among a group of Iranian male taxi drivers in Yazd.
In this cross-sectional survey, 120 male taxi drivers in Yazd, Iran in 2016 were selected using simple random sampling and studied to evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome using Adult Treatment panel III criteria and 10-year risk of cardiovascular events by Framingham risk score. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software using the chi-squared test and Student’s t-test.
The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 37.5%. Mean and standard deviation of number of MetS components was 2.09±1.30 among drivers. Hypertriglyceridemia was the most prevalent component of MetS. This study showed that 40% of drivers with MetS had an intermediate 10-year risk of cardiovascular events, and 4.4% of them had a high 10-year risk. The results of this study indicated that drivers with metabolic syndrome had a higher risk of cardiovascular events than drivers without MetS.
Based on the findings, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and risk of cardiovascular events were high among Iranian taxi drivers in Yazd. In this regard, proper preventive programs should be conducted for early diagnosis and appropriate interventions are recommended.