Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in Health Care Workers: A Cohort Study at a Designated COVID-19 Hospital in Taiwan.

Objectives: This cohort study aimed to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among health care workers at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Taiwan.

Methods: This study recruited 397 health care workers who completed health checkups before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The differences of MetS and its components prevalence before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared using the paired samples t tests for normally distributed variables, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for nonnormally distributed variables.

Results: The prevalence of MetS among health care workers significantly increased from 20.9% to 28.7% during the pandemic ( P < 0.001). Central obesity and hypertension were the primary contributors to the development of MetS.

Conclusions: COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increasing prevalence of MetS in health care workers, necessitating health-promoting measures to mitigate this risk.