Metabolic syndrome among pre- and post-menopausal rural women in Bangladesh: result from a population-based study

Abstract

BackgroundPrevalence of non-communicable diseases are a challenging problems among menopausal women specially in a least developed country like Bangladesh, where majority of women suffering from at least one chronic diseases after menopausal age. So, the main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and related risk factors in Bangladeshi pre- and post-menopausal women living in the rural setting.MethodsThis study is based on a community based cross-sectional survey among 1802 rural women aged ≥15 years. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the criteria of NCEP-ATP III. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between menopausal status and metabolic syndrome and its components.ResultsMetabolic syndrome was presented in 25.6% respondents and it was more prevalent among post-menopausal (39.3%) as compared to pre-menopausal (16.8%) women. Logistic regression analysis reveals that prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 1.78 times higher in post-menopausal women than pre-menopausal women (P = 0.001). Prevalence of high blood pressure, elevated fasting blood glucose, and high triglyceride were significantly higher in post-menopausal women than pre-menopausal women (P < 0.05). However, prevalence of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was significantly lower in post-menopausal women than pre-menopausal women (P < 0.001).ConclusionsMetabolic syndrome seems to be a major health problem among post-menopausal women in many developing countries like Bangladesh and proper policy emphasis should be given on its prevention and control.

Metabolic Syndrome: Can We Keep Check?

“…Studies done in different countries like Bangladesh [7] and Iran [17] are also in an agreement with our findings.…”

“…Low HDL cholesterol also had no significant difference between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Some studies [6,8] agreed with our conclusion and some [7,16] differed. The transition from premenopausal to postmenopausal is associated with significant increase in systolic blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperglycemia.…”

“…The transition from premenopausal to postmenopausal is associated with significant increase in systolic blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperglycemia. Similar results were obtained by studies where significant increase in blood pressure [6,7,9,10,16], hypertriglyceridemia [6,7,10], and hyperglycemia [6][7][8] were seen in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. When the average values of the components were evaluated according to the presence or the absence of MetS, the biggest variation occurred in the average of serum triglycerides (increase of 47.78) followed by fasting blood sugar (increase of 22.92).…”

“…It is commonly believed that there is weight gain with menopause and WC is significantly related to MetS [15], but most studies [6][7][8]10] including ours did not find any significant differences in WC and BMI between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Although there is no increase in weight, there is, however, a change in body fat distribution with menopause owing to preferential increase in abdominal adiposity.…”

Metabolic syndrome in pre and post menopausal women of Bangladesh

“…Different factors [13][14][15][16][17] had been identified for the occurrence of MetS including lifestyle, diet, body mass, risky behavior, abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, glucose metabolism, dyslipidemia, increased blood pressure and even non-alcoholic fatty liver. South Asians also showed a considerable proportion of MetS [18][19][20][21] including Bangladesh but the study to assess MetS in pre and post menopausal women 22 are scarce. So identifying the community risk for MetS in menopausal women had been chosen an important study to reject the primary null hypothesis that there was no difference of MetS factors between pre and post menopausal Bangladeshi women.…”