RESUMO
AIM: To investigate the association between socioeconomic, demographic, behavioral, and reproductive factors and the metabolic syndrome (MS) in climacteric women. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 527 women aged 40-65 years seen at an outpatient menopause and gynecologic surgery clinic in Southern Brazil. MS was defined according to NCEP-ATP III diagnostic criteria. Poisson regression was used to calculate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and their respective 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: The prevalence of MS was 54.8% (95% CI 50.6-59.1%), varying with menopausal status (45.7% before menopause, 56.3% in perimenopause, and 57.5% in postmenopausal women). Among the components of MS, hypertension and abdominal obesity were the most prevalent (84.8% and 66.8%, respectively). The prevalence of MS rose with advancing age and increasing parity. Women with low education (years of schooling) showed a higher prevalence of MS compared to those with a high education level (64% vs. 36.8%). Women with early menarche (≤11 years of age) showed an increase of 32% in MS prevalence (95% CI 1.08-1.62) compared to those with a late menarche (≥14 years of age). CONCLUSION: These findings are relevant to public health, particularly as they show the significance of exposure to long-term, hard-to-reverse effects, such as early menarche and low educational achievement, in the development of metabolic syndrome.
