The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in non diabetic patients with a previous history of Bell’s palsy

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the prevalence and each parameter of metabolic syndrome between non diabetic patients with previous Bell’s palsy and non diabetic healthy subjects. Material and method: A number of 454 Bell’s palsy patients (aged 15 years old and over) were initially recruited as the study group. 874 non diabetic healthy participants of a metabolic syndrome surveillance study were randomized by R program as the control group to make up a 1:3 ratio of case to control. Metabolic syndrome was defined by International Diabetes Foundation criteria. The descriptive statistics analysis, t-test and Chi-Square test were applied for statistical analysis. Results: Seventy two non diabetic, previous Bell’s palsy cases (30 males and 42 females) were eligible as the study group. Their mean age was 51 (39.8 - 63.2) years old. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the study and the control groups were 22.2% and 21.8% respectively (p = 0.93). Nevertheless, the prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in the study group (62.5% vs. 47.7%) (p = 0.04). Conclusions: No difference in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found. However, hypertension was significantly prevalent in the study group.