Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and its Components in Kanifing Municipality, The Gambia

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex syndrome with clustering of interre-lated risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Its rising worldwide prevalence has been largely related to the increasing obesity. In The Gambia, the last and only time a MetS related study was conducted, and then reported, was 21 years. Therefore, there is need for evaluating the prevalence of MetS and its components in the country. Objec-tive: This study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of MetS and its individual components in Kanifing Municipality (KM). Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted at Kanifing General Hospital, Kanifing Municipality. Data obtained from each participants included anthropometric indices, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein levels, and clinical information. Results: One hundred and thirty-six participants were included in the analysis. The overall MetS prevalence was 54.4% with significant female predominance (female, 58%; male, 29.4%; P=0.025). The most predominant component among the study population was central obesity (raised WC) (72.8%). Hyper-triglyceridemia was found to be the strongest predictor of MetS among our participants (OR: 118.13; 95% CI: 33.79-412.77; P < 0.001). Conclusion: Our study discloses a very high prevalence of MetS among the participants, and a significant female predominance, with central obesity the commonest Mets component. The results suggest that hypertriglyceri-demia is the strongest predictor of metabolic syndrome in our study participants.