Abstract

Background: Metabolic syndrome is associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is among the most cause of death in noncommunicable diseases. The use of contraceptive is incriminated to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome. However, there is no clear evidence and metabolic syndrome among contraceptive users is not well described. This study is therefore focused to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among contraceptive users in Harar. Methods: A facility based cross sectional study was conducted from April – June 2014 to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and associated factors in Harar town. 365 hormonal contraceptive users from three health centers and one hospital were consecutively included in the study. Socio-demographic data and anthropometric measurements were obtained. Venous blood was drawn from each study subjects and lipid profile and fasting serum glucose were measured photometrically. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome was determined using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis with 95% CI using statistical package for social science (SPSS, version 20 for windows). Result: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 27.7%. Metabolic syndrome was found about 9 times more likely among women with age ≥40 years than those with age <20 years (Odds Ratio (OR) 8.571; 95% CI 1.004, 73.210, p = 0.050); about 2 times more likely among those with income >1,500 Ethiopian birr (ETB) than those with those <1,500 ETB (OR 1.637, 95% CI 1.032-2.599, p = 0.036) and about 6 times more likely among those who used hormonal contraceptive for more than 42 weeks than those who used it for 6-17.9 weeks (OR 5.897, 95% CI 2.924-11.891, p = 0.000) Conclusion: This study revealed that metabolic syndrome is high among contraceptive users and higher than the rate of metabolic syndrome among community and other healthy working population. Contraceptive users with older age, with higher income and those who used the drug for longer time were found to have more metabolic syndrome than their counter parts.

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