Frequency of occurrence of metabolic syndrome risk factors in children and adolescents from the city of Wrocław and surroundings

Background: A recently growing number of children and adolescents with overweight or obesity is indicative of the need for diagnosing their complications that may appear in the early childhood. For this reason, diagnostic criteria were developed for components of the metabolic syndrome (MS) also for these groups of the population.

Objective: This study was aimed at evaluating the frequency of metabolic syndrome risk factors occurrence in children and adolescents from the city of Wrocław and surroundings depending on gender, age and physical activity.

Material and methods: Investigations on the frequency of occurrence of dietary and non-dietary risk factors of the metabolic syndrome were carried out in the years 2010-2017 among 771 children and adolescents aged 10-18 year, attending to primary schools, gymnasiums and secondary schools in Wrocław.

Results: The lack of any components of the metabolic syndrome was demonstrated in 14.78% of the children aged 10-12 years as well as in 17.38% of both adolescents aged 13-15 and 17-18 years. One risk factor was most frequently diagnosed in children aged 10-12 years (17.89%) and it was arterial hypertension (16.08% of the whole surveyed population). Three MS components were demonstrated in 15 persons (1.95% of the whole surveyed population), including in 7 girls and 8 boys. The persons with three MS risk factors from the age category 13-15 years constituted 0.26% whereas these from the age category 17-18 years constituted 1.69% of the whole surveyed group.

Conclusions: It shall be concluded that the incidence of the fully symptomatic MS depended significantly on the age of the surveyed, but not on their gender. Among the three adopted components of MS, the most frequently demonstrated disorders included: arterial hypertension, abdominal obesity and increased concentration of triglycerides in blood serum.