Aim of the study:
This study aimed to compare the prevalence of MetS and cardiovascular risk factors in antipsychotic naïve schizophrenia (AN-SZ) and chronic schizophrenia (C-SZ) patients. Also, the effects of lifestyle, physical activity and clinical characteristics of these patients on metabolic syndrome were explored.

Subject or material and methods:
In this cross-sectional study, 150 patients, 16-65 aged years were included. All subjects were recruited from the Psychiatric clinic of a tertiary hospital, ---, ---. The severity of symptoms was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Physical activity and lifestyle were evaluated by the Baecke and Lifestyle questionnaires.

Results:
Fifty AN-SZ patients and 100 C-SZ patients participated. The rate of abdominal obesity was 29.2% for females and 10.3% for males. The C-SZ patients had significantly fewer healthy habitual physical activity and lifestyle, compared with AN-SZ patients. The prevalence of MetS in the AN-SZ and C-SZ groups was 8% and 23%, respectively (odds ratio [OR] 3.13). Binary logistic regression revealed age and unhealthy lifestyle to be significant predictors of MetS (adjusted OR 1.09 and 0.65, respectively).

Discussion:
We found with increasing each 10 years, the odds of MetS to increase 2.37 times. There was a significant negative association between a healthy lifestyle of SZ patients and MetS. The results showed A decrease in the score of the Lifestyle questionnaire by each one-point to increase the odds of MetS by 45%.

Conclusions:
Future studies are recommended to explore the importance of weight management and nutrition control for reducing the rate of MetS.