Coronary risk factors in Turkish school children--report of a pilot study

In 432 school children aged 7-15 years we investigated the following parameters; body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Only 2.8% of children were considered to be obese. Of the children, 3.5% had systolic, 4.9% had diastolic and 3.9% had both blood pressures higher than the acceptable age- and sex-stratified values. The mean total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were 3.37, 1.93 and 1.33 mmoll-1, respectively. In 31 (7.1%) of the children, total cholesterol levels were found to be above the risk cut-off level of 4.4 mmoll-1; in 39 (9%) of the children, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were elevated above an acceptable upper limit of 2.84 mmoll-1. Significantly reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol values were observed in 8.8%. Mean total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol values were elevated significantly in hypertensive cases, while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels showed no difference. Sensitivity and the positive predictive value for selected total cholesterol cut-off points for determining elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were 67% and 54%, respectively. These levels of risk are considerably lower than those found in studies in Western countries.