Predictive value of body mass index to metabolic syndrome risk factors in Syrian adolescents

Abstract

Background: Obesity has become a serious epidemic health problem in both developing and developed countries. There is much evidence that obesity among adolescents contributed significantly to the development of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in adulthood. Very limited information exists on the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and associated metabolic risk factors among Syrian adolescents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between obesity determined by body mass index and the major metabolic risk factors among Syrian adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study of a randomly selected sample of 2064 apparently healthy Syrian adolescents aged 18 to 19 years from Damascus city, in Syria, was performed. Body mass index and blood pressure were measured. Serum concentrations of glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were determined. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the national criteria for each determined metabolic risk factor. Individuals with a body mass index 25 to 29.9 were classified as overweight, whereas individuals with a body mass index ≥30 were classified as obese. A receiver operating characteristics curve was drawn to determine appropriate cut-off points of the body mass index for defining overweight and obesity, and to indicate the performance of body mass index as a predictor of risk factors. Results: The obtained data showed that blood pressure and the overall mean concentrations of fasting blood sugar, triglycerides, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and triglycerides/high-density lipoproteincholesterol were significantly higher in overweight and obese adolescent groups (p <0.0001) in comparison with the normal group. Based on receiver operating characteristics calculation for body mass index and some metabolic risks, the data suggest the best body mass index cut-offs ranged between 23.25 and 24.35 kg/m

Waist circumference and abdominal volume index are the strongest anthropometric discriminators of metabolic syndrome in Spanish adolescents

“…On the other hand, Al‐Bachir et al, in their study with a Syrian adolescent population, concluded that BMI, despite showing values of AUC lower than those obtained in our study, is still a powerful discriminator for abdominal obesity. In regard to C‐Index, in our study, this index resulted to be a less reliable discriminator for abdominal obesity than AVI, WC, BMI and BRI.…”

The relationship between lichen planus and metabolic syndrome

“…As in our study, classical lichen ruber planus is the most frequently reported lichen subtype in the literature 10,13 . Cutaneous involvement in the lichen planus is 70%‐75%, and it was found to be very close to the literature in our study 1 …”

“…But the data on the relationship between LP and MS are limited 2,4,7,8 . It has been shown to have a strong association between body mass index and metabolic syndrome components 7,8,13 . Body mass index in lichen planus patients was studied in a limited number of studies, Kar et al 7 found an average of 24.3, and Arias‐Santiago et al 8 found an average of 26.4.…”

The Correlation between Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) and Second to Fourth Digit Ratio (2D:4D) with an Increase in Metabolic Syndrome Scores in Obese Adolescent Girls

“…Other subject characteristics in terms of BMI showed that most of the subjects had obesity in nutritional status, with obesity I was found at 40% of the subjects and obesity II at 36.3%. The overweight and obesity in BMI category are related to the metabolic syndrome components, which is in line with research in Syria on the adolescent subjects who were 18-19 years (28). There are various medical and psychosocial complications related to overweight and obesity among adolescents such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, sleep disorders and other respiratory disorders (1).…”