title: The awareness to metabolic syndrome among hospital health providers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was shown to be related to a variety of diseases. High level of vigilance for the diagnosis of MetS is expected among health providers. We evaluated the level of awareness to MetS among physician and nurses working in a central hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A specially designed anonymous questionnaire was used, including both open and multiple choice questions set to evaluate the participant's awareness to MetS. The study included 126 participants, 71% physicians and 29% nurses. Mean age was 36.2±3.8 years. Among physicians, 68.5% were residents and 45.5% were internists. 98% of the participants stated that they were familiar with the term MetS and that they treat MetS patients regularly. Most participants knew the correct number of criteria included in MetS definition and the number of criteria needed for MetS diagnosis (84% and 90%, respectively). However, only 12% were able to discriminate correctly all MetS cases from non-MetS ones. Physicians performed better than nurses (15.6% and 3.1%, respectively, P=0.003). Neither, field of practice nor seniority was found to have a significant influence on the results. The frequency of recommendation for MetS risk factor modulation in the discharge files was also analyzed. Such recommendations were scarcely given, with cardiology department being the exception (80% of discharge files from cardiology department compared with less than 20% in other departments).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Though hospital workers showed high level of awareness to the existence of MetS, they failed to differentiate correctly MetS cases from non-MetS ones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Havakuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel. Electronic address: michalpela@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Michal Laufer
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Perl
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofir
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Praisler
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barkagan
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Gilad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Margolis
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Maayan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konigstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine "E", Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Lilly Veltman
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Fuks
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Keren
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chorin
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Affiliated to Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Yaron
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Arbel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards
keywords: Awareness; Education; Metabolic syndrome; Perception; Risk factors