Association between the metabolic syndrome indices with physical activities level and dietary pattern in elderly women

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is considered as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes; While, physical activity and nutrition are considered as important factors in the evaluation of metabolic syndrome. This study aimed to investigate the association between the metabolic syndrome indices with physical activity levels and dietary pattern in elderly women.

In this descriptive study, 350 elderly women of Eslamabad-e Gharb city with metabolic syndrome volunteered to participate in this cross-sectional study in 2017. After completing the consent and then Semi-quantitative food frequency, Physical activity and general questionnaires for all participants, their anthropometric characteristics were determined. Factor analysis was used to identify major dietary patterns. For analyzing the data, one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression tests were used.

The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between healthy diet patterns with moderate (P<0.015) and high (P<0.009) physical activity level. Also, there is a significant relationship between western dietary patterns with low physical activity level (P<0.013). While, there was no significant correlation between mixed dietary pattern and physical activity levels (high, moderate and low). Also, the healthy food pattern has a significant inverse correlation with the metabolic syndrome, whereas the correlation of the Western food pattern (such as carbohydrate drinks, frozen foods and salty snacks) was significantly positive.

Findings of the present study can indicate the relationship between physical activity and dietary pattern with metabolic syndrome.