[Metabolic syndrome in childhood]

The World Health Organization has described obesity as the world epidemic of the twentieth century, ranking as the main problem in public health. In Spain, the enKid study, undertaken in a population aged between 2 and 24 years, shows prevalences of 13.9 % for obesity and 12.4 % for overweight. Longitudinal studies suggest that childhood obesity after the age of 3 years correlates with a greater risk of obesity in adulthood, with an increase in morbility and mortality due to the persistence of associated metabolic disorders. Among these disorders is the metabolic syndrome, defined as the association of several risk factors that herald arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in adulthood, with insulin resistance playing a major role in its pathophysiology. Despite its importance, there is still no universally accepted pediatric definition of this syndrome, hampering exact knowledge of its scope, although the prevalence observed in numerous studies performed in obese pediatric patients ranges from 20-30 %.