RESUMEN
Background: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) varies according to the different definitions available for clinical practice. The study aimed to estimate and compare the prevalence of MS according to the definitions of the American Heart Association (AHA)/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHBI), International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and Joint Interim Statement (JIS) in a sample of climacteric women in Brazil. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study, using a probabilistic sampling by clusters, involved 874 climacteric women. Clinical and anthropometric variables were acquired while fasting, and MS was defined according to three recommendations. To define the agreement between different definitions on MS, we calculated the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of MS based on AHA/NHBI and IDF in relationship to the JIS definition. Results: The prevalence of MS was 56.9% according to the AHA/NHBI definition, 61.6% by the IDF, and 64.8% by the JIS definition, without statistical significance. When prevalence of MS was stratified by climacteric stages, the ability of the different definitions identifying MS was also similar among groups. It was observed that the MS definition proposed by AHA/NHBI identified 87.4% of MS cases from the total cases diagnosed by JIS, with agreement levels by the Kappa index of 0.835. The IDF detected 95.3% of MS cases compared to the JIS definition and the agreement level was 0.934. Conclusions: The study indicates a high prevalence of MS in climacteric women regardless of the definition used (AHA/NHBI, IDF e JIS). We did not observe significant divergences between definitions.