A Population at Risk: A Metabolic Syndrome Study among African American Students at a Historically Black College and University

Abstract

The aim of the study was to obtain information about what African American undergraduate students attending a Historically Black College and University knew about metabolic syndrome and the risks associated with the syndrome. Approval from the Allen University Institutional Review Board was granted to administer an online anonymous questionnaire about metabolic syndrome to undergraduate students at Allen. The questionnaire was administered using the community based participatory research (CBPR) methodology. The sampling criteria consisted primarily of freshman that were enrolled in the Biological Sciences course, Biology I course, Biology II course, or Freshman Seminar course during the spring 2018 semester and the fall 2018 semester. The sample size consisted of 77 students that completed the online questionnaire on metabolic syndrome. The data from the metabolic syndrome questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics, utilizing percentages from a cross-tabulation of individual responses. The results of the study indicated that some students had a family history of diabetes (41%), high cholesterol (13.5%), heart attack (15%), and stroke (13.5%). Also, 54.1% identified the types of diabetes, 17.6% of the students knew the risk factors of obesity, 31% knew how high cholesterol is detected, 20.9% knew the symptoms of a heart attack, and 25.7% knew the symptoms of a stroke. Based on the results from our study, we hypothesize that introducing a multi-layered educational campaign centered around metabolic syndrome at Allen will increase student knowledge of the risk factors and decrease the number of the African American students that are diagnosed with high blood pressure, high blood glucose levels, and high cholesterol levels.

Keywords

• african american
• college students
• metabolic syndrome
• risk factors
• universities