Prevalence and characteristics of metabolic syndrome among HIV-infected patients from a mediterranean cohort

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of the metabolic syndrome in patients with HIV infection from a Mediterranean cohort. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Cross-sectional study performed in consecutive HIV-infected patients attended in an outpatient's HIV clinic at the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) new diagnostic criteria. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 210 patients, 160 (76,19%) of whom were undergoing antiretroviral therapy. Most of them (47,14%) were receiving combinations of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, whereas 22.8% of them were being treated with protease inhibitors. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 11.42% (95% Cl, 6.89%-15.97%). Hypertriglyceridemia was present in 68 (32.38%) patients and low HDL-cholesterol levels were observed in 98 (46.6%). Body mass index [OR = 1.40; 95% Cl, 1.21-1.62; p = 0.001] and age [OR = 1.062; 95% Cl, 1.018-1.108; p = 0.001] were independently associated with metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with HIV infection from this Mediterranean cohort had a low prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Body mass index and age are the main factors associated with this syndrome.