Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the clinical practice of general medicine in Italy

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) in the clinical practice is still debated, due to different diagnostic criteria, target populations and clinical settings. Thus, the main purposes of the study were: (I) to evaluate prevalence of MS; (II) to estimate prevalence of additional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and concomitant conditions in patients with MS followed by general practitioners (GPs) in Italy. METHODS: GPs from three different macro-areas were asked to evaluate the first and the last three outpatients, consecutively seen during 20 consecutive weeks in 2007, whatever the reason for clinical consultation. MS was defined according to Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III definition. Clinical data were collected locally and centrally analysed. RESULTS: The overall population sample included 4,513 outpatients, among which 1,574 (34.9%) from Regione Lazio, 1,498 (33.2%) from Regione Piemonte, and 1,441 (31.9%) from Regione Umbria. The population analysis included 4,418 (97.9%) adult outpatients [52.1% females, (mean age, 58.0±11.8 years); mean body mass index (BMI), 26.7±4.7 kg/m(2)]. MS was diagnosed in 1,456 (33.0%) outpatients. High-normal blood pressure (BP) was the most common risk factor for MS (n=1,382; 94.9%), followed by abdominal obesity (n=1,229; 84.4%), hypertriglyceridemia (n=1,032; 70.9%), abnormal fasting glucose (n=819; 56.3%) and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels (n=730; 50.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Using this sample of outpatients followed by GPs in Italy, our study reports a relatively high prevalence of MS and a high prevalence of associated CV and metabolic risk factors in patients with than in those without MS.