Obesity and the metabolic syndrome in a student cohort from Southern Italy

Metabolic syndrome among children and adolescents from Southern Italy: Contribution from the Calabrian Sierras Community Study (CSCS)

“…The selection of ≥ 90th quantile distributions for WC, triglycerides, blood glucose, and systolic or diastolic BP is symmetric with the criterion of ≤10th for HDL cholesterol and provided prevalences of isolated MS components slightly different from 10% of the entire casebook. On the other hand, when stricter criteria (b10th quantile distribution for HDL cholesterol and N90th for the other parameters) were used, as we did previously among 7-14-year old children and adolescents, MS prevalence was clearly less (2.2 to 2.9%) [8] than that observed here (3.4% to 4.9%), pointing again to the instability of MS diagnosis as stressed by Goodman et al [3].…”

“…However, especially in the lower age ranges it should be important to accrue the representativeness [15] of the population which is for further studies to be launched. In a previous report where the distributions were not shown, a tentative exercise accrued 2-year intervals to investigate trends and the MS prevalence, using more restricted criteria [8]. The MS components' distributions seem not being affected by gender as no statistical trend differences were noted.…”

“…1, 2 and Supplementary tables 1-6) and they might be used both for comparative and applicative purposes in the age range of 6-14 years in investigations from Italy [21] and probably from Southern Europe [19][20][21] since the population wherefrom the data were obtained is a residential community in a well defined geographic area [8,9]. However, especially in the lower age ranges it should be important to accrue the representativeness [15] of the population which is for further studies to be launched.…”

“…On the other hand, in spite of the recognized need to use local population databases and the usefulness to adopt the epidemiological criterion of age-and gender-related distributions [6] to predict cardio-metabolic risk like in adults [7], neither the AHA nor the IDF criteria provided suggestions, among 6-to 14-year old children and adolescents, as to diagnose MS based on the percentile assessment of all 5 diagnostic characteristics: WC, triglycerides, blood glucose, HDL cholesterol and BP (systolic or diastolic). This resulted in a certain degree of instability in MS diagnosis [3], largely depending on the criteria adopted [1,7,8].…”

Is Plasma Alpha-Tocopherol Associated with Electronegative LDL in Obese Adolescents?

“…Beyond the implications for social and individual health in terms of emotional welfare (4), the effect of overweight on the physical health of adolescents has been widely recognized (5,6). Development of obesity is reflected in the early occurrence of cardiovascular events like type 2 diabetes and hypertension (7,8).…”