Prevalence of metabolic syndrome among obese school students

SummaryObjectiveAssessment of the prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome among Egyptian school students suffering from obesity.MethodsThis study included 462 Egyptian school students who suffer from obesity where their body mass index was >95th percentile. Their age ranged between 7 and 18 years. Clinical, anthropometric and laboratory assessment were done to all cases. The diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome was done according to modified WHO criteria adapted for children (1999).ResultsCases who were diagnosed as having Metabolic Syndrome represented 39.7% of the whole percentage of cases. The incidence rate among prepubertal students (45.5%) was higher than among pubertal ones (37%) (p < 0.001). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was higher in girls than boys in the pubertal group, while boys have the higher prevalence in the prepubertal age. Hypertension was significantly higher in pubertal (22.3%) than in the prepubertal group (14.8%) (p < 0.000). The prevalence of hyperinsulinaemia in the prepubertal group (13.6%) was significantly higher than in the pubertal group (3.3%) (p < 0.001). However, the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (25.0%) and insulin resistance HOMA-IR (22.8%) in the pubertal group was significantly higher than the prepubertal group (20.5% and 13.6% respectively) (p < 0.01). Dyslipidaemia in the prepubertal group was 93.2% and in the pubertal group was 91.3% with a significant differences (p < 0.000).ConclusionsThe prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in the studied sample was higher in prepubertal than pubertal students and in girls more than boys.