Lifestyle And Metabolic Syndrome Risk In A College Sample

PURPOSE: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is the presence of three or more component conditions that act as co-occurring cardiometabolic risk factors for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. MetS prevalence is increasing in US youth; lifestyle factors such as healthy diet and exercise may be key tools to decrease risk. We aimed to evaluate the influence of MetS component condition presence and lifestyle patterns as factors in diet quality in a collegiate sample. METHODS: At a large public university in the Northeast, 124 students responded to our online Qualtrics survey on MetS component conditions, lifestyle patterns, and diet quality. Questions used Likert Scale, Multiple Choice, and Text-Entry response options to generate data for calculation of: Weekly Exercise (moderate + vigorous + muscle-strengthening: h/week), Sleep Quality Score (5-21), Breakfast Timing (h post-wake), Food Accessibility Score (-5- + 12), and Nutrition Literacy (1-30). Our Diet Quality Score reflected 3 domains: food sources, food frequency, and nutrition self-tracking (20-100). Mann-Whitney U compared Diet Quality for individuals by MetS condition presence (0 vs. 1+). Multilinear regression evaluated variables for prediction of Diet Quality Score. We report semi-partial correlation coefficients (SPCC) and significance for influential variables [SPSS v.29; α =0.05]. RESULTS: Respondents with no MetS conditions had lower diet quality than those with 1+ conditions (mean rank = 36.1 vs. 51.4, M-W U p = 0.008). Nutrition Literacy was a positive correlate of Diet Quality (SPCC = +0.36, p = 0.005), whereas weekly exercise showed a weak trend toward a positive correlation (SPCC = +0.19, p = 0.122). No other predictors were significant (p > 0.38). CONCLUSION: Nutrition Literacy had the strongest predictive value for diet quality; exercise time had limited predictive value. In isolation, respondents with one or more MetS conditions had better Diet Quality than unaffected respondents. The cross-sectional survey design did not assess decision-making relative to MetS condition diagnosis timing or causality. Future work will look into other risk factors including stress and social pressure.