RESEARCH ARTICLE SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE 12 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 1 • July 2022 independent variables. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were generated and used to determine the independent strength of the relationship. Significance was considered at p < 0.05. Results Three hundred and twenty-nine informal settlers participated in the study. Sample size variations were observed due to the difficulty of full participation experienced during data collection. The demographic characteristics of participants are presented in Table 1. Participants were characterised by singlehood (56%) and unemployment (81%), and they lived in households with a monthly income below R5 000 (73%). A parity of one to two children was found in 55%, and 35% had more than two children. Some participants (41%) had never visited a healthcare facility, while 34% reported having visited a healthcare facility a year or more ago. Alcohol use was observed among 35% while only 14% used cigarettes. Medians of variables are compared between males and females in Table 2. Forty-eight per cent of participants were male, while females accounted for 52%. The median (IQR) for age of the participants was 35 years (25–42), ranging from 18 to 81 years. Significant differences of medians were observed for BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR, SBP and DBP between males and females. Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the participants Variables Category Frequency Percentage Age groups (years) < 35 186 59 35–59 109 35 ≥ 60 20 6 Marital status Ever married 47 29 Single 90 56 Cohabiting 23 14 Employment Yes 30 19 No 29 81 Receiving social grant Yes 60 38 No 97 62 Household income No income 14 9 < R5 000 114 73 ≥ R5000 28 17 Parity 0 21 13 1–2 86 55 > 2 51 32 Household members 1–4 123 78 ≥ 5 35 22 Visited healthcare facility No 65 41 Within 6 months 40 25 One/over a year 54 34 Alcohol use Yes 56 35 No 104 65 Tobacco use No 129 81 Cigarette 23 14 Snuff/pipe/other 8 5 Table 2. Comparison of medians of cardiometabolic risk factors stratified by gender Variables All, median (IQR) Males, median (IQR) Females, median (IQR) Normal RR p-value Age (years) 35 (25–42) 34 (26–39) 35 (24–44) ≥18 0.325 BMI (kg/m2) 25.9 (22.1–28.2) 24.0 (21.4–25.3) 27.8 (23.2–30.4) ≥19 ≤ 24.99 ≤ 0.0001* WC (cm) 84.5 (75–93) 82.1 (72–90) 87.1 (74–95) ≥ 80 F; ≥ 94 M 0.026* WHR 0.84 (0.78–0.88) 0.87 (0.80–0.91) 0.81 (0.74–0.85) > 0.85 F; > 0.90 M 0.001* WHtR 0.52 (0.44–0.57) 0.50 (0.43–0.53) 0.55 (0.48–0.61) < 0.5 0.02* SBP (mmHg) 136 (113–145) 138 (135–150) 133 (120–141) < 130 0.02* DBP (mmHg) 86 (79–94) 88 (81–95) 85 (77–93) < 85 0.008* Cholesterol (mmol/l) 4.5 (4.0–5.0) 4.7 (4.0–5.2) 4.4 (3.9–4.8) < 5 0.094 Glucose (mmol/l) 5.9 (4.9–6.6) 5.9 (4.7–5.7) 6.0 (.5.0–6.5) ≤ 7.8 0.814 BMI, body mass index; WC, waist circumference; WHR, waist–hip ratio; WHtR, waist-to-height ratio; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; IQR, interquartile range; RR, reference range; F, females; M, males. *Indicates significant difference. Table 3. Cardiometabolic risk factors and the MetS stratified by gender All Male Female Variables n (%) n (%) n (%) p-value Blood pressure Normal 112 (34) 48 (31) 64 (37) Hypertension 217 (66) 109 (69) 108 (63) 0.205 BMI Normal 172 (55) 107 (69) 65 (40) Underweight 6 (2) 3 (2) 3 (2) Overweight 76 (24) 30 (19) 46 (28) Obesity 66 (21) 16 (10) 50 (30) ≤ 0.0001* WC Normal 86 (54) 61 (74) 25 (32) Abdominal obesity 73 (46) 21 (26) 52 (68) ≤ 0.0001* WHR Normal 116 (73) 60 (73) 56 (73) Abdominal obesity 43 (27) 22 (27) 21 (22) 0.950 WHtR Normal 45 (28) 33 (40) 12 (16) Abdominal obesity 114 (72) 49 (60) 33 (40) ≤ 0.0001* Cholesterol Normal 136 (86) 67 (83) 69 (88) Elevated 23 (15) 14 (17) 9 (12) 0.303 Glucose Normal 297 (93) 142 (92) 155 (93) Elevated 24 (7) 13 (8) 11 (7) 0.549 MetS No 273 (83) 136 (86) 137 (80) Yes 56 (17) 21 (13) 35 (20) 0.093 BMI, body mass index; WC, waist circumference; WHR, waist–hip ratio; WHtR, waist-to-height ratio; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; MetS, metabolic syndrome; n, number of participants; %, percentage. *Indicates significant difference.
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