Evaluation of abdominal obesity prevalence in diabetic patients and relationships with metabolic syndrome factors

Obesity is one of the primary risk factors of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Considering that appropriate treatment of several metabolic syndrome disorders is a key for effectively decreasing of mortality, morbidity and disability and also because of the increasing incidence of obesity in the past century, this study was conducted to detect the incidence of abdominal obesity and its statistical relationhip with other components of the metabolic syndrome. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 1,392 type 2 diabetic patients between the ages of 30 and 83. Following laboratory and clinical evaluations and completion of questionnaires, data were statistically analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests for the qualitative data and t tests for the quantitative data. Among 1,392 patients with type 2 diabetes, 810 patients (58.2%) had abdominal obesity, including 46 men (5.7%) and 764 (94.3%) women. According to NCEP ATPIII1, 768 patients (94.8%) had metabolic syndrome. Significant relationships were observed between abdominal obesity and sex, hypertension, decreased HDL, and metabolic syndrome. (P < 0.01). However, no significant relationships were found between abdominal obesity and age or high TG (P < 0.01) The results of this study indicated that obesity had the strongest relationship with metabolic syndrome, indicating the necessity of its control appropriately in diabetic patients.