Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diet modification is an important part of the metabolic syndrome’s management but there is limited data regarding a direct relationship between food groups and the metabolic profile.

Aim: Evaluation of the influence of food groups on the elements of metabolic syndrome in a group of subjects with abdominal obesity.

Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in the Endocrinology Outpatient Clinic between February 2013 and April 2014. A sample of 290 subjects was analysed. Inclusion criteria: abdominal obesity defined according to IDF definition. Exclusion criteria: treatment for the metabolic syndrome’s elements. Variables: age, sex, environment, waist, BMI, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, food pyramid.

Method: Anthropometric evaluation, fasting blood sample, blood pressure measurement, food pyramid constructed based on an adapted food frequency questionnaire with 126 items analyzed with a web-based application especially developed. Statistical analysis used GraphPad Prism v. 5 and SPSS v17 with a level of significance α=0.05.

Results: Mean age was 50.6±13.1 years with a sex distribution F:M 6.8:1 with the majority of subjects coming from urban areas (68.27%). In multiple regression analysis, the food pyramid elements explain 6.26% of the triglycerides variation (P=0.02), 3.14% of the HDL cholesterol (P=0.31), 4.55% of the blood glucose (P=0.09), 7.25% of the blood pressure value (P=0.08) and 5.75% of the waist circumference (P=0.01). All of the metabolic syndrome elements are correlated with waist circumference and significantly influence each other’s variability.

Conclusion: The main food groups explain a small percentage of the metabolic syndrome’s elements underlying the need for a more detailed dietary evaluation to define specific patterns associated with increase cardio-vascular risk.

Disclosure: Project partly supported through an Internal Research Grant of University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tirgu Mures, no. 13/30.01.2013.