Effect of Smoking, Alcohol and Exercise on the Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in a Cohort of Royal Jordanian Air Pilots

Prevalence of MS affected by smoking, alcohol and exercise

Khazale and Haddad developed an exploratory research regarding the effect of smoking, alcohol and exercise on the prevalence rate of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) among a group of Royal Jordanian Air Pilots. The summary and re-analysis of original result will be generalized further in this article.

The overall prevalence of MS calculated in the previous research was 15.3%. As show in Table 1, there was no significant difference between smoker and non-smoker who suffered MS as p=0.3 (>0.05). Similarly, alcohol and non-alcohol and subjects who do exercise or not were not statistically significant either since the P-value were 0.14 (>0.05) and 0.39 (>0.05) respectively.

Table 1. Rates of MS in each sub-groups and its corresponding P-value

Cofounder State Number of MS Percentage (%) P-value
Smoking YES(72) 11 15.3 0.3
NO(39) 8 20.5
Alcohol YES(59) 13 22 0.14
NO(52) 6 11.5
Exercise YES(13) 3 23.7 0.39
NO(98) 16 16.3

For further research, Khazale and Haddad found out that for each individual group (smoking vs non-smoking, exercise vs non-exercise, alcohol intake vs non-alcohol), there was not statistically significant between six items, which were waist circumference (WC), SBP/DBP, HDL-C, triglyceride (TG) and blood glucose (FBS). By comparing each group we can conclude that only the mean score of triglyceride in the all groups (155.4 vs 167.7 in smoking and non-smoking respectively, 161.2 vs 158 in exercise and non-exercise group, 177.5 vs 157.3 in alcohol and non-alcohol group) were higher than the standard level (150 mg/dl). However, according to National Cholesterol Education Program and Adult Treatment Panel III, only when three or more items meet the standard values as mentioned above, MS can be identified and therefore, this item can be ignored. Moreover, as the statistic results shown in the flowing tablets, the P-value can be calculated, and because of all the P-values (not including TG between smoking vs non-smoking, exercise vs non-exercise, alcohol intake vs non-alcohol) were larger than 0.005, we considered that whether participants smoking, drinking alcohol, doing exercise or not, there was not impact on the MS getting.

Significant Differences in SMOKING VS NON-SMOKING

Smoking WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 92.4 122.2 80.2 42.3 155.4 97.2
SD 7.04 9.2 6.3 10.1 78 9.8
N=72
Non-smoking WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 95.5 126.7 81.4 48.1 167.7 99.6
SD 5.8 9.2 6.7 12.5 105.7 11.2
N=39

Significant Differences in EXERCISE VS NON-EXERCISE

Exercise WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 92.9 122.3 80.2 44.4 161.2 99.2
SD 7 9.1 6.6 11.1 85.2 11.8
N=59
Non-Exercise WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 92.2 125.5 81.1 44.2 158 96.7
SD 6.3 9.6 6.3 11.6 92.8 8.2
N=52

Significant Differences in ALCOHOL INTAKE VS NON-ALCOHOL INTAKE

Alcohol WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 94.1 122.7 80.4 12.6 177.5 98.1
SD 8.3 10.1 6.5 48.8 92.9 8.2
N=13
Non-Alcohol WC SBP DBP HDL-C TG FBS
Mean 93.4 123.8 80.6 184.6 157.3 98
SD 6.6 9.4 6.5 44.2 88 10.6
N=98

Scope of the Study

This study was only conducted in a cohort of Royal Jordanian air pilots and it could be said that the physical fitness of pilots was similar and hence, the findings of the research can be generalized if the population is similar.

Methods

Research approach

This study explored whether the prevalence rate of MS on RJ pilots was influenced by smoking, alcohol and exercise through exploratory research.

Sample

111 male pilots in RJ Air Force were randomly selected as the participants. Both of them matched the conditions related to the experiment and none of them had diabetes and hypertension.

Variables

Khazale and Haddad established the research by defining participants who smoking, drinking alcohol and doing regular exercise or not as the independent variables, and determined MS by measuring the dependent variables (level of waist circumference, SBP, DBP, triglyceride, fasting blood sugar and high density lipoprotein) through blood drawing.

Additionally, there were several extraneous variables had to be concerned during the experiment to ensure the validity of the result. Firstly, during the alcohol group experiment, alcohol concentration needed to be monitored in order to prevent excess alcohol intake. Secondly, during the exercise group experiment, activities were monitored regularly to ensure normal metabolism and avoid fatigue. Lastly, all participants were measured under a stable and equal environment in order to reduce the error of blood test.

Discussion

There were some limitations in this research. Firstly, the sample size in this research was deemed too ambiguous. It was difficult to identify if the participants drink alcohol, do regular exercise and smoke at the same time or optional combination. Therefore, this might influence the result of the research. Secondly, data collected was not precise enough as this research just focuses on male only and hence, if conduct the experiment in all gender, data might be different.

Reference

Khazale, N. & Haddad, F. (2011). Effect of smoking, acohol and exercise on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in a cohort of Royal Jordanian air pilots. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SERVICES, Vol. 18, 34-38.

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