Metabolic syndrome and serum ferritin level in postmenopausal women in urban cities in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThe health of girls and women is affected by developmental, psychological and physiological age. Women's lives are marked by a continuous transition from intrauterine life, infancy, adolescence, menarche, reproductive life, menopausal transition, postmenopausal to the frail elderly life. Across the life span of a woman, menopause probably has the greatest impact on the health of women.1 Menopause is the phase of aging during which women passes from reproductive to nonreproductive stage.2 Oestrogen deficiency is a major occurrence in postmenopausal women and is associated with symptoms and diseases that are of increasing importance to women's health. Physiological and biochemical changes that alter the general health of women are seen in menopause which includes an increase in adiposity, which is a risk factor for developing insulin ABSTRACT Background: Physiological and biochemical changes that alter the general health of women are seen in menopause which include increase in adiposity and elevated serum ferritin. There is a dearth of information on the prevalence and common risk factors of MS and their association with iron stores of the body among postmenopausal women (POMW) in Enugu. Hence, this study was carried out to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, the most prevalent components of metabolic syndrome and its relationship with serum ferritin level in postmenopausal women in Enugu, Nigeria. Methods: The study was a cross sectional study, carried out from February to August 2013 among two hundred and twenty four (224) apparently healthy postmenopausal women aged 40 to 83 years. Metabolic syndrome was defined using National Cholesterol Education Programme, Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Results:The most frequent components of metabolic syndrome (MS) seen among the subjects were high waist circumference (WC) (70.1%), high blood pressure (66.5%) and low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (25.4%). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among the women was 29.0% while the mean level of serum ferritin of subjects with metabolic syndrome showed no significant (p >0.05) difference when compared to subjects without MS. Conclusions: The most frequent cluster of the risk factor of MS in the population studied was high WC, high blood pressure and low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL). Although serum ferritin is slightly associated with FPG and WHR, it may not be used as diagnostic tool for MS in the group studied.

Response of Gait Output and Handgrip Strength to Changes in Body Fat Mass in Pre- and Postmenopausal Women

“…Ninety consenting female staff members of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, including 45 women at premenopause (mean age = 33.98 (16.99) years; mean height =1.607 m) and 45 women at postmenopause (mean age = 49.22 (24.5) years; mean height =1.611 m), were examined in a cross-sectional observational study for responses of gait output to HGS and BFM at postmenopausal stages. Enugu was selected because many studies have been done on menopause in Enugu,24, 25 most of which have investigated functional decline associated with menopause, 26 and therefore the results of this study would be easily situated in the current literature for easy comparison. The sample size for the study was calculated using the Fisher equation based on an estimated national menopause prevalence of 3.6%, giving a sample size of 58 participants.…”