Abstract

Metabolic syndrome is a complex of metabolic disorders that is associated with some increased risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, dyslipidemia and diabetes, which has challenged people in the advanced and developing countries and increased the diseases such as cardiovascular diseases or some other chronic ones. Stress, especially occupational stress, is one of the important factors in increasing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome components. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in nurses and university staff of Arak Medical Sciences is in 2016. In this retrospective cohort study, two groups of 190 nurses and administrative staff of the University of Medical Sciences were randomly selected using random sampling. The data collection tool was a demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire related to the components of the metabolic syndrome based on the NCEP-ATP3 criteria (waist circumference, triglyceride, hypertension, HDL-C and fasting blood sugar). Information about the metabolic syndrome was extracted from health records of the subjects and analyzed by SPSS version 16 software. The subject's age range was 22 to 54 years old. The majority of participants were women N = 268 (70.5) and the rest N=112(29.5) with a mean age of 11.24 years. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in nurses and administrative staff was N=34 (17.9) and N=43(22.6) respectively. Regarding the prevalence of this syndrome in nurses in intensive care unit and administrative staffs, administrative staff were affected with metabolic syndrome more than nurses, but this difference was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among nurses and administrative staff of Arak University of Medical Sciences is lower than the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the general population. The prevalence of this syndrome among administrative staff is higher than nurses in this center. It seems that administrative personnel Nurses need to increase awareness about metabolic syndrome preventative factors such as promoting lifestyle, increasing physical activity and improving nutritional status.