Adherence to the Mediterranean diet moderates the association of aminotransferases with the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome; the ATTICA study

Table 1 Demographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics of males and females with and without the metabolic syndrome

Males, n = 1514	Metabolic syndrome	No metabolic syndrome	p
Subjects, n	379	1135
Age, years	50 ± 11	44 ± 13	< 0.001
Physical inactivity (n), %	(136) 36	(488) 43	0.002
Current smoking (n), %	(174) 46	(533) 47	0.81
Med Diet score (0–55)	23.4 ± 6.1	24.5 ± 5.5	0.01
Hypertension (n), %	(242) 64	(306) 27	< 0.001
Hypercholesterolemia (n), %	(216) 57	(420) 37	< 0.001
Diabetes (n), %	(72) 19	(45) 4	< 0.001
Overweight (n), %	(208) 56	(533) 47	< 0.001
Obesity (n), %	(167) 44	(136) 12	< 0.001
Body mass index (kg/m²)	29.8 ± 0.2	26.5 ± 0.1	< 0.001
γ-GT (IU/L)	28 ± 12	26 ± 14	0.24
AST (IU/L)	27 ± 14	27 ± 11	0.98
ALT (IU/L)	26 ± 17	23 ± 12	0.25
AST/ALT ratio	1.11 ± 0.3	1,28 ± 0,48	0.01
Females, n = 1528	Metabolic syndrome	No metabolic syndrome	p
Subjects, n	228	1300
Age, years	53 ± 14	43 ± 14	< 0.001
Physical inactivity (n), %	(62) 27	(520) 40	< 0.001
Current smoking (n), %	(78) 34	(520) 40	0.07
Med Diet score (0–55)	24 ± 6.8	28.2 ± 7.2	< 0.001
Hypertension (n), %	(128) 56	(234) 18	< 0.001
Hypercholesterolemia (n), %	(114) 50	(442) 34	< 0.001
Diabetes (n), %	(52) 23	(39) 3	< 0.001
Overweight (n), %	(87) 38	(377) 29	< 0.001
Obesity (n), %	(105) 46	(130) 10	< 0.001
Body mass index (kg/m²)	29.8 ± 4.9	24.5 ± 4.3	< 0.001
γ-GT (IU/L)	21 ± 12	17 ± 13	0.02
AST (IU/L)	23 ± 9	23 ± 11	0.76
ALT (IU/L)	20 ± 12	18 ± 10	0.18
AST/ALT ratio	1.26 ± 0.3	1.44 ± 0.6	0.018

Continuous variables are presented as mean values ± standard deviation, while categorical variables are presented as absolute number and frequencies.

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