Abstract Body: Background
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death around the world. Metabolic syndrome is a set of health conditions that increase the risk of CVD, Diabetes Mellitus, and fatty liver, which includes hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and abdominal obesity. Direct improvement of these metrics have been shown to decrease risk of CVD, with studies showing that 70% of CVD cases can be prevented through proper management of these risk factors. Notwithstanding, many Americans, notably food insecure populations, are unaware of their CVD risk factors and how to manage them. Moreover, food insecurity has been correlated with a greater risk of developing CVD. This study aims to examine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in a food insecure population in West Chicago and illuminate a possible mechanism to combat this issue through lifestyle modification health coaching.

Methods
The Cardiometabolic Health Initiative (CHI) is a student-run organization seeking to address cardiometabolic disease in food insecure communities. Between August 2023 and August 2024, CHI screened 154 food-insecure patients in Southwest Chicago. During this screening a full cardiometabolic history, blood pressure, lipid levels, A1C, and BMI were collected and an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score was calculated. Based on their results, patients then received targeted health counseling on evidence-based lifestyle modifications such as diet changes, exercise prescriptions, sleep improvement, and stress reduction in an effort to reduce their cardiometabolic risk factors.

Results
154 patients underwent cardiometabolic screening. Of these patients, 69.5% were hypertensive, 65.9% were overweight, 65.8% had dyslipidemia, and 13.8% had hyperglycemia. Of the patients with a full metabolic screening, 82.5% had 1 or more CVD risk factors. Overall this resulted in 41.4% of patients possessing an intermediate or high risk ASCVD Risk Score.

Conclusion
Our results suggest a high prevalence of risk factors for metabolic syndrome within food insecure populations of West Chicago. Community-based preventative screening and health literacy education offers a potential solution to combat this disparity.