title: Prediction of metabolic syndrome among postmenopausal Ghanaian women using obesity and atherogenic markers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is an important health problem which puts individuals at risk for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes as well as obesity-related cancers such as colon and renal cell in men, and endometrial and oesophageal in women.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study was aimed at examining how obesity indicators and related determinants influence metabolic syndrome, and how the factors can be used to predict the syndrome and its cut-offs in postmenopausal Ghanaian women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and fifty (250) Ghanaian subjects were involved in the study with one hundred and forty-three (143) being premenopausal women and one hundred and seven (107) postmenopausal women. The influence of traditional metabolic risk factors including high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and glucose intolerance on obesity and atherogenic indices i.e. body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), Waist-to-thigh ratio (WTR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), high density lipoprotein cholesterol to total cholesterol ratio (HDL-C/TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol to low density lipoprotein ratio (HDL-C/LDL-C) and triglyceride to high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C) were identified according to the Harmonization (H_MS) criterion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The predominant anthropometric marker that significantly influence metabolic risk factors among the pre- and postmenopausal women was waist-to-hip ratio (premenopausal: p- 0.004, 0.026 and 0.002 for systolic blood pressure (SBP), fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HDL-C; postmenopausal: p-0.012, 0.048, 0.007 and 0.0061 for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), FBG, triglyceride (TG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) respectively). Using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the area under the curve for WC, WHR, TG/HDL-C and HDL-C/TC among postmenopausal women were estimated at 0.6, 0.6, 0.8 and 0.8 respectively. The appropriate cut-off values for WC, WHR, TG/HDL-C and HDL-C/TC that predicted the presence of metabolic syndrome were 80.5 cm, 0.84, 0.61 and 0.34 respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of metabolic syndrome among Ghanaian postmenopausal women can be predicted using WC, WHR, TG/HDL-C and HDL-C/TC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. fareedarthur@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Fareed K N
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Arthur
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Adu-Frimpong
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Osei-Yeboah
authors.forename: Faustina O
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Mensah
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Owusu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001786:Blood Glucose; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood*; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D017698:Postmenopause; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D055105:Waist Circumference; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D001786:Blood Glucose; D008055:Lipids