Table 1.
Descriptive characteristics of the participants and frequency of MetS
| Overall (n=1628) | MetS | P value* | ||
| Yes (42.7%) | No (57.3%) | |||
| n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | ||
| Site | ||||
| Kingston | 289 (17.8%) | 92 (31.8%) | 197 (68.2%) | <0.0001 |
| St. Hyacinthe | 310 (19.0%) | 96 (31.0%) | 214 (69.0%) | |
| Tirana | 344 (21.1%) | 171 (49.7%) | 173 (50.3%) | |
| Manizales | 374 (23.0%) | 172 (46.0%) | 202 (54.0%) | |
| Natal | 311 (19.1%) | 164 (52.7%) | 147 (47.3%) | |
| Sex | ||||
| Female | 844 (51.8%) | 424 (50.2%) | 420 (49.8%) | <0.0001 |
| Male | 784 (48.2%) | 271 (34.6%) | 513 (65.4%) | |
| Educational attainment | ||||
| Primary/illiterate | 760 (46.7%) | 366 (48.2%) | 394 (51.8%) | 0.0001 |
| Secondary | 217 (13.3%) | 91 (41.9%) | 126 (58.1%) | |
| Postsecondary | 651 (40.0%) | 238 (36.6%) | 413 (63.4%) | |
| Current living arrangements | ||||
| Alone | 254 (15.6%) | 100 (39.4%) | 154 (60.6%) | 0.0001 |
| Spouse only | 609 (37.4%) | 225 (36.9%) | 384 (63.1%) | |
| Other | 765 (47.0%) | 370 (48.4%) | 395 (51.6%) | |
| Adult occupation | ||||
| Non-manual | 593 (36.4%) | 211 (35.6%) | 382 (64.4%) | <0.0001 |
| Service | 160 (9.8%) | 67 (41.9%) | 93 (58.1%) | |
| Agriculture | 94 (5.8%) | 41 (43.6%) | 53 (56.4%) | |
| Manual | 607 (37.3%) | 274 (45.1%) | 333 (54.9%) | |
| Housewife | 174 (10.7%) | 102 (58.6%) | 72 (41.4%) | |
| Current income | ||||
| Poor | 417 (25.6%) | 189 (45.3%) | 228 (54.7%) | 0.001 |
| Middle | 704 (43.2%) | 315 (44.7%) | 389 (55.3%) | |
| Upper middle | 346 (21.3%) | 145 (41.9%) | 201 (58.1%) | |
| High | 161 (9.9%) | 46 (28.6%) | 115 (71.4%) | |
| Perceived income sufficiency | ||||
| Very sufficient | 339 (20.8%) | 102 (30.1%) | 237 (69.9%) | <0.0001 |
| Sufficient | 537 (33.0%) | 215 (40.0%) | 322 (60.0%) | |
| Not (at all) sufficient | 752 (46.2%) | 378 (50.3%) | 374 (49.7%) | |
| Childhood economic adversity | ||||
| No adversities | 858 (52.7%) | 351 (40.9%) | 507 (59.1%) | 0.0291 |
| One adversity event | 453 (27.8%) | 186 (41.1%) | 267 (58.9%) | |
| Two adversity events | 212 (13.0%) | 102 (48.1%) | 110 (51.9%) | |
| Three adversity events | 105 (6.4%) | 56 (53.3%) | 49 (46.7%) | |
| Childhood social adversity | ||||
| No adversities | 1231 (75.6%) | 505 (41.0%) | 726 (59.0%) | 0.0792 |
| One adversity event | 245 (15.0%) | 113 (46.1%) | 132 (53.9%) | |
| Two adversity events | 119 (7.3%) | 59 (49.6%) | 60 (50.4%) | |
| Three adversity events | 33 (2.0%) | 18 (54.5%) | 15 (45.5%) | |
| Smoker | ||||
| Regular | 138 (8.5%) | 64 (46.4%) | 74 (53.6%) | 0.109 |
| Occasional | 37 (2.3%) | 18 (48.6%) | 19 (51.4%) | |
| Used to be | 676 (41.5%) | 265 (39.2%) | 411 (60.8%) | |
| Never | 777 (47.7%) | 348 (44.8%) | 429 (55.2%) | |
| Current employment status | ||||
| Worked with remuneration | 185 (11.4%) | 66 (35.7%) | 119 (64.3%) | 0.011 |
| Worked without remuneration | 201 (12.3%) | 105 (52.2%) | 96 (47.8%) | |
| Had a job, but did not work | 25 (1.5%) | 9 (36.0%) | 16 (64.0%) | |
| Retired or pensioned | 1119 (68.7%) | 468 (41.8%) | 651 (58.2%) | |
| Did not work | 98 (6.0%) | 47 (48.0%) | 51 (52.0%) | |
| Median(Q1, Q3) | Median(Q1, Q3) | Median(Q1, Q3) | ||
| Age (years) | 69 (67, 72) | 69 (67, 72) | 69 (67, 71) | 0.0451 |
| Physical activity (min/week) | 20 (9, 39) | 15 (6, 32) | 24 (10, 43) | <0.0001 |
| SBP (mm Hg) | 138 (126, 152) | 143 (134, 157) | 132 (122, 146) | <0.0001 |
| DBP (mm Hg) | 79 (71, 86) | 81 (74, 88) | 77 (70, 84) | <0.0001 |
| Waist (cm) | 96 (88, 104) | 101 (94, 108) | 92 (85, 100) | <0.0001 |
| HbA1c (%) | 5.8 (5.5, 6.2) | 6.1 (5.8, 6.6) | 5.7 (5.4, 6.0) | <0.0001 |
| Triglyceride (mg/dL) | 126 (91, 172) | 165 (125, 211) | 105 (78, 134) | <0.0001 |
| HDL (mg/dL) | 50 (43, 60) | 45 (39, 53) | 55 (47, 63) | <0.0001 |
*P values obtained from χ2 tests of association between MetS (yes/no) and categorical explanatory variables, and t-tests for difference in MetS (yes/no) for continuous variable.
DBP, diastolic blood pressure; HbA1c, glycosylated haemoglobin; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; MetS, metabolic syndrome; SBP, systolic blood pressure.