RESEARCH ARTICLE


Characterization of the Metabolic Syndrome in a Multi-Ethnic Sample of Children: Is it Useful?



Krista Casazza*, Pedro del Corral, Olivia Thomas, Akilah Dulin-Keita, Barbara A. Gower, Jose R. Fernandez
University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.


© 2009 Casazza et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA; Tel: 205-975-6226; Fax: 205-934-7050; E-mail: kristac@uab.edu


Abstract

The pathophysiological relevance of the metabolic syndrome is not currently understood, particularly when attempting to apply the diagnosis to children with varying degrees of adiposity or from ethnically diverse populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of the metabolic syndrome characterization when the associations are explored by sex, race/ethnicity, and weight status. Participants were 247 multi-ethnic (African American (AA); n=90; European American (EA); n=102; Hispanic American (HA); n=55) children aged 7-12y. Anthropometric measurements, body composition, blood pressure and fasting blood samples were obtained. Approximately 9% of the children met the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome. There were no differences in prevalence by sex, nor were there differences between girls and boys for mean values of each component. However, there were ethnic differences in characterization of having the metabolic syndrome, with HA more likely to meet the criteria. HA had greater waist circumference, higher triglyceride and glucose concentration and lower HDL-C concentration; whereas AA had higher blood pressure. Weight status was also positively associated with mean values for each component. Due to inherent variations in body composition, physiology and genetics, the usefulness of a characterization of the metabolic syndrome may be limited in the pediatric population.

Keywords: Pediatric health, race/ethnicity, cardiometabolic outcomes, obesity.