[Study of the metabolic syndrome and physical activity in a population from Marrakesh, in Morocco].

Introduction: the aim of this study was to correlate the metabolic syndrome with the level of the physical activity in a population from Marrakech, Morocco.

Methods: the study was conducted at Ibn Zohr Regional Hospital in Marrakech. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated to assess the degree of obesity of each subject. To determine the level of physical activity, we used the short version of the IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaire); Blood parameters were measured by a Biochemistry Automaton. All statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS software.

Results: a total of 300 subjects participated in the study, which 57.3% were female and 42.7% were male with a sex ratio of 0.74. The average age of our population was 51.6± 13.42 years old. Seventy-nine of the participants (26.3%) had a metabolic syndrome, with a predominance of female: 60 women (34.9%) and 19 men (14.8%). There is a significant relationship between level of physical activity and the presence of metabolic syndrome (P = 0.002), between physical activity level and BMI and waist circumference (p < 0.001) and (p = 0.003) respectively.

Conclusion: the result shows a significant association between obesity, metabolic syndrome and the level of the physical activity, which would encourage us to encourage the application of lifestyle rules, including physical activity, which remains one of the best preventive actions against this pathology.