Distribution of obesity-related metabolic markers among 5–15 year old children from an urban area of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Background: Obesity-associated metabolic consequences are commonly seen among young South Asians.Objective: To assess the nutritional status, prevalence of metabolic derangements and to identify the validity of different obesity diagnostic criteria in the detection of metabolic derangements among 5–15 year old school children in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka.Materials and procedures: After a 12-hour overnight fast, blood was drawn for glucose, lipid profile and alanine amino transferase (ALT) enzyme. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was done with blood taken for random blood sugar 2 hours after glucose load. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure were measured.Results: Nine hundred and twenty children were studied (boys, n = 547). Thirty-two (3.5%) were obese according to IOTF classification. Five (0.5%) and 57 (6.2%) children had systolic and diastolic hypertension. Twelve (1.3%) and three (0.3%) had impaired fasting glucose and 2-hour OGTT, respectively. One hundred and thirty-nine (15.1%) had hypercholesterolemia and 36 (3.9%) hypertriglyceridaemia. Two hundred and fifteen (23.3%) had low HDL. Fifteen (1.6%) had metabolic syndrome according to IDF definition. Two hundred and eighty-three (30.7%) had one metabolic derangement; 95 (10.3%) had two metabolic derangements; and 16 (1.7%) had three or more metabolic derangements. Sri Lankan BMI and WC obesity cut-offs had a higher sensitivity in detecting metabolic abnormalities than international cut-offs.Conclusion: Metabolic derangements are prevalent in children who were detected to be non-obese by anthropometric measures, and clinicians should actively look and correct them. New research is needed to study the long-term effects on health.