Association between Lifestyle Factors and Metabolic Syndrome among African Americans in the United States

Table 1

Descriptive characteristics of the study population by gender using weighted estimates: from the NHANES 1999–2006.

Variables	Men	Women	P value
	Mean or percentage (SE)	Mean or percentage (SE)
Age (yrs)	41.30 (0.58)	43.56 (0.64)	<0.05
Marital status (%)
Married	52.00 (2.27)	39.28 (1.65)	<0.0001
Single	48.00 (2.27)	60.71 (1.65)
Income (%)
Less than $20,000	28.91 (1.65)	37.08 (2.55)
$20,000–44,900	37.10 (1.94)	34.70 (2.16)	<0.05
$45,000 or above	33.99 (2.06)	28.22 (2.10)
Education (%)
Less than high school	31.70 (2.45)	24.09 (1.86)
High school	25.39 (1.83)	23.78 (1.67)	<0.05
College or above	42.91 (2.10)	52.13 (1.83)
Alcohol drinking (%)
Nondrinkers	34.15 (2.34)	49.26 (1.85)
Moderate drinkers	35.06 (1.73)	25.24 (1.33)	<0.0001
Heavy drinkers	30.79 (2.41)	25.50 (1.64)
Cigarette smoking (%)
Nonsmokers	71.41 (2.04)	84.13 (1.59)
Light smokers	15.78 (1.53)	10.20 (1.30)	<0.0001
Heavy smokers	12.80 (1.84)	5.67 (0.97)
Physical activity (%)
Inactive	39.03 (2.01)	45.40 (1.99)
Low activity	18.30 (1.56)	22.18 (1.75)	<0.05
Medium activity	11.26 (1.10)	12.83 (1.48)
High activity	31.42 (1.91)	19.59 (1.76)
Diastolic BP (mm Hg)	74.38 (0.61)	71.28 (0.54)	<0.05
Systolic BP (mm Hg)	128.28 (0.78)	126.58 (0.91)	0.15
Elevated BP (%)	49.71 (2.36)	50.06 (1.89)	0.53
Fasting glucose (mg/dL)	103.49 (1.33)	102.86 (1.29)	0.87
Triglyceride (mg/dL)	119.20 (4.24)	100.70 (2.29)	<0.05
HDL-C (mg/dL)	51.56 (0.55)	58.62 (0.59)	<0.0001
Abdominal obesity (%)	34.47 (2.16)	73.46 (1.65)	<0.0001
Waist circumference (cm)	97.02 (0.70)	99.68 (0.61)	<0.05
Metabolic syndrome (%)	26.77 (1.85)	39.43 (1.52)	<0.0001