Association of snoring with metabolic syndrome in different ethnical populations in Xinjiang Boertala region

Objective To investigate the association of snoring with metabolic syndrome in Uygur, Kazak, Mongolian, Han ethnical populations of Xinjiang Autonomous Region.Methods The study sample comprised 4107 subjects aged 20-97years including Uygur 1103, Kazak 1019, Mongolian 807, Han 1178 by random cluster sampling from the Xinjiang Boertala region.Snoring status and frequency were collected by questionnaire according to self-reported or family-reported snoring.The metabolic syndrome (MS) was defined by the definition of International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) in 2005.Association of snoring with MS was assessed by comparison the prevalence of MS among the different levels of snoring and the prevalence of moderate-severe snoring among the different component numbers of MS and by test for linear trend and by non-conditional logistic model and by partial correlation after adjustment for potential confounders.Results The prevalence of MS increased with snoring degree increasing, and the prevalence of moderate-severe snoring increased with the component numbers of MS increasing in the four ethnic populations.There was a linear trend between the levels of snoring and the component numbers of MS.After adjustment for age, gender, ethnic, drinking, the risk ratio of MS among moderate-severe snorers as compared to no significant snorers was 2.4 (95% CI2.023-2.803, P=0.000).But the association was lost after controlling for waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) (r=0.019, P=0.227).Conclusions There is a significant association of snoring with metabolic syndrome in the four ethnic populations in Boertala region of Xinjiang. Key words: Snoring;  Metabolic syndrome X;  Epidemiology