[Obesity and insulin resistance among adolescents from Chiapas]

The aim of this study was to assess the association of overweight and obesity with insulin resistance, hypertension, and hyperlipidemic among 12 to 15 year olds from private and public schools in Chiapas.

This was a cross-sectional study with a random selection of 259, 12 to 15 year old teenagers from private and public middle schools. Conventional methods were used to measure body weight, height and blood pressure. After a 14-hour fasting period, a blood sample was taken for glucose, total lipids, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin levels. HDL-cholesterol and HOMA-IR were estimated. Weight-for-age, height-for-age and BMI-for-age were calculated using the CDC tables for growth. To assess the difference between overweight and obesity by gender and type of school a X2 and t-test was performed in order to evaluate the mean difference between biochemical indicators of normal and overweight adolescents. The Mann-Whitney test was conducted to assess differences in blood pressure.

Observations included high prevalence of overweight (19%) and obesity (13%) with no difference between type of school, gender, or group of age (Table 2). High prevalence of hipercholesterolemia (26%), LDLcholesterol (7%), HDL hypolipoproteinemia (3%), triglycerides (10%), systolic blood pressure (6%), and metabolic syndrome (1.6%) were also observed. The BMI was associated to total lipid, total cholesterol, insulin, and HOMA-IR levels. The Overweight and obese had higher levels of insulin, HOMA-IR, triglycerides, and blood pressure and lower levels of HDL-cholesterol.