Indicators of the metabolic syndrome in obese adolescents

To assess the prevalence of metabolic risk indicators for the metabolic syndrome (MS) in a sample of obese Egyptian adolescents and to compare anthropometric and biochemical parameters in subjects with one or two parameters of the MS with those who meet MS criteria.

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 obese adolescents, with a mean age of 15.45 ±2.54 years. Variables examined included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), insulin and insulin resistance (IR) measured by Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the predictive powers of anthropometric parameters associated with increased risk for the MS.

The overall prevalence of the MS was 20%. Individuals meeting 3 or more MS criteria had significantly higher levels of BP, TG, glucose, insulin and HOMA-R and low HDL levels compared with those who had 1 or 2 MS criteria. Area under the curve (AUC) for identifying the MS risk factors was the highest for WHR, followed by WC and BMI in both genders (p < 0.001).

The most prevalent metabolic risk factors that compose the MS were arterial hypertension, low HDL and hypertriglyceridemia; BMI tended to be the weakest index for identifying MS risk factors, while WHR was the best predictive index in both genders.