In Tunisia, demographic changes and social transition lead to many changement within the Tunisian population. The relationship between social class and metabolic syndrome has received little attention in recent years. In this study we sought to evaluate the consequences of these transitions in a sample of Tunisian subjects with metabolic syndrome.

Three hundred ninety three of the general population, aged between 18-75 years, participated in this study. Education level, occupation, monthly income, age, body weight, body height, waist circumference, blood pressure were collected. Glycaemia, triglycerides, total cholesterol and HDLcholesterol were measured. Participants were classified into two groups according to the health state: healthy (Group 1, n=105) and patient having metabolic syndrome according to the recent diagnostic criteria of the International Diabetes Federation and the American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2009) (Group 2, n=288).

Individuals with metabolic syndrome are older than healthy group (55.1±15.4 years vs 42.2±13.8 years), the most common in the healthy group are manufacturing and liberal profession while in patient group are retired or unemployed participants. Within the whole population 40% had primary level of study. Illiteracy is more frequent in group 2 than group 1 (34.1% vs 22.5%). Smoking behavior and alcohol drinking are similar in both group. Additionally, our results show that the highest quintile of income (Q5) was recorded in group 1 with 15.9% against 1.4% in group 2.

The current study strengthens that healthy participants are younger and more educated than patients. Lower education and monthly income level are associated with higher risk of metabolic syndrome among the Tunisian individuals.