Metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents with obesity

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity, one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century, generally affects all countries. Objective: To characterize obese children and adolescents with metabolic syndrome from a clinical and humoral point of view. Methods: An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2022 in 106 children and adolescents with the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome attended by the obesity outpatient clinic of the Central Military Hospital "Dr. Luis Díaz Soto". The variables to be measured were: age, sex, degree of obesity according to body mass index, arterial hypertension, altered fasting blood glucose, hypertriglyceridemia and HDL-c. Results: The age group between 15-18 years (51.9%), male sex (58.5%) predominated, while hypertriglyceridemia (61.3%) and moderate obesity (60.4%) had a higher incidence. On the other hand, arterial hypertension, altered fasting blood glucose and dyslipidemia were more frequent in patients with moderate and severe obesity. Conclusions: The clinical components of the metabolic syndrome such as body mass index and arterial hypertension, and the humoral components such as dyslipidemia and altered fasting blood glucose have a greater incidence as the degree of obesity increases.

Keywords

• síndrome metabólico
• obesidad
• adolescentes
• niños.