Gender differences in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components among adults with disabilities based on a community health check up data.

Metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent in society gradually and has important implications for public health in recent years. The present study aims to examine the gender effect on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among adults with disabilities. A cross-sectional study was conduct to analyze annual health check-up chart of 419 people with disabilities whose age ≥ 20 years in east Taiwan. We used to diagnose the metabolic syndrome was defined by the Taiwan Bureau of Health Promotion as the presence of three or more of the following five components: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high fasting glucose level, high triglyceride level, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level. The results showed that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 19.3% in the study subjects (16.8% in men and 23.1% in women; p = 0.110). Our study also indicated that the genders were significantly different in the followings (men vs. women): abdominal obesity (33.2% vs. 50.9%; p<0.001), high blood pressure (36.4% vs. 23.7%; p = 0.006), high fasting glucose level (18.4 vs. 14.8%; p = 0.334), high triglyceride level (24.0% vs. 14.2%; p = 0.014) and HDL-C (21.6% vs. 35.5%; p = 0.002) among the sample. To prevent the metabolic syndrome occurrence and consequences, the study suggests that the health authorities should put greater efforts to address the metabolic syndrome components, particularly in higher rates of obesity-related health conditions to avoid significant health and health care costs in the future.

High blood pressure in adults with disabilities: influence of gender, body weight and health behaviors.

The aims of this study were to explore the mean and distribution of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and to examine the influence of gender, body weight and health behaviors on hypertension in adults with disabilities. We analyzed the 2010 annual community health examination chart of adults with disabilities in east Taiwan. The study samples included 833 adults with disabilities whose age 30 years and over participated in the analyses. The mean value of diastolic and systolic blood pressure (mmHg) of the study participants was 76.51 ± 12.65 (range = 40-155) and 127.39 ± 20.32 (range = 77-221). Fifteen percent and 23.4% of the participants have high diastolic (>/=90 mmHg) and systolic (>/= 140 mmHg) blood pressure. There were 27.4% of the participants who had hypertension, high diastolic or/and systolic blood pressure. Finally, we found that the factors of older age (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 1.22-4.93), overweight or obese in BMI (OR = 6.72, 95% CI = 1.90-23.78; OR = 6.76, 95% CI = 1.84-24.84), waist circumference (OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.03-2.61) and vegetable/fruit intake (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.39-0.94) were variables that could significantly predict the hypertension condition of the subjects after controlling factors of marital status, type and level of disability. To improve the healthcare for people who suffer with and prevention for hypertension, the study highlights the health authorities should pay much attention to blood pressure condition and their determinants for people with disabilities in the communities.