Cluster Analysis of the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Women for Reproductive Age.

Definitions of the metabolic syndrome based on arbitrary cutoff points for several quantitative variables, where each variable is related linearly to cardiovascular risk. Even consensual definitions differ between international authorities and continue to change. Moreover, such cutoff s should be gender and ethic difference. Cluster analysis is a statistical method base on algorithms, which seek to minimize within-group variation and maximize between-group variation for the clustering variables. This technique is suitable for defining groups, reflecting the natural structure of data without relying on inappropriate arbitrary cutoffs. We conduct this retrospective study to review the medical records of female patients who visited our Reproductive Endocrinology Clinic from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2012. Cluster analysis was performed in our studied cases to evaluate the correlation between clinical/biochemical characteristic and risk of metabolic risk in women with reproductive age.