Background: As studies on ethnic disparities in metabolic syndrome and its risk factors in Taiwan are still rare, the aims of this study were: (1) to detect the differences in the rates of metabolic syndrome, obesity and health behaviors between two ethnic groups (indigenous Tsou and nonindigenous Han) living in the same area and with similar age and sex distributions; (2) to examine whether ethnicity per se plays a significant role in the occurrence of metabolic syndrome, while taking other risk factors including sociodemographic characteristics, obesity and health behaviors into consideration.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using data from a community survey conducted in Chiayi County in southwestern Taiwan. A frequency matching strategy by age and sex with a ratio of 1 (Tsou) to 3 (Han) was applied to select a comparable sample between both ethnic groups (667 Tsou and 2001 Han) from among the survey participants.