Assessing prediabetes and cardiometabolic risk in Danish youth with obesity

To investigate how four different prediabetes definitions (by fasting plasma glucose (FPG), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), FPG-or-HbA1c, or FPG-and-HbA1c) affect prediabetes prevalence estimates and their association with cardiometabolic risk in Danish children and adolescents referred for tertiary obesity treatment.

This cross-sectional study included 5-18-year-olds with BMI SDS above 1.28 and blood samples taken within 30 days of obesity treatment initiation. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, and blood samples were analysed to determine prediabetes prevalence and calculate odds ratios for hypertension, dyslipidaemia, abdominal obesity, high alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and BMI SDS ≥99th percentile.

Among 2,849 children and adolescents, prediabetes prevalence was 12.8 %, 6.6 %, 17.2 %, and 2.2 % when applying the FPG, HbA1c, FPG-or-HbA1c, and FPG-and-HbA1c definitions, respectively. Hypertension, dyslipidaemia, abdominal obesity, high ALT, and BMI SDS ≥99th percentile phenotypes were common, with increased prevalence among individuals with prediabetes defined from FPG-or-HbA1c. The FPG-derived definition of prediabetes was associated with hypertension and abdominal obesity, while the HbA1c-derived definition of prediabetes was associated with dyslipidaemia, high ALT, and BMI SDS ≥99th percentile. The strongest association was between the FPG-derived definition and hypertension.

The FPG-derived definition identified more individuals with prediabetes than the HbA1c-derived definition. Children and adolescents with prediabetes defined from FPG-or-HbA1c exhibited a high burden of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, abdominal obesity, high ALT, and BMI SDS ≥99th percentile. No single diagnostic test proved superior, as each associated with different cardiometabolic risk factors.