Interaction of physical activity level and metabolic syndrome among the adult Asian Indians living in Calcutta, India.

OBJECTIVES

The present community-based cross-sectional study was aimed to study the interaction of physical activity level (PAL) and metabolic syndrome (MS) among the adult Asian Indians.

METHODS

A total of 448 adult (> 30 years) individuals (males and females) inhabiting in and around Calcutta, India participated in the study. Anthropometric measures, blood pressure, metabolic profiles and intake of dietary fatty acids were obtained from participants using standard guidelines. Metabolic syndrome (MS) was defined accordingly. The dietary intake (gram/week) of fatty acids namely total fat (TFA); saturated fatty acids (SFA); monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were obtained using nutritive values of Indian foodstuffs. Physical activity level (PAL) was categorized in to three different level: 1) high PAL - who exercised regularly and had physically demanding occupation 2) moderate PAL - who either exercised regularly or had physically demanding occupation, and 3) low PAL - who neither exercised regularly nor had physically demanding occupation.

RESULTS

The prevalence of MS was found to be inversely related with PAL. Individuals with low PAL had higher prevalence of MS as compared to their counterparts. Moreover individuals with low PAL had significantly higher BMI, WC, WHR as well as TFA and SFA than individuals with moderate and high PAL.

CONCLUSION

PAL is playing a vital role in the constellation of risk factors associated with MS. Habitual physical activity may be beneficial to prevent growing incidence of MS phenotypes in people of Asian Indian origin.