Stability of the factorial structure of metabolic syndrome from childhood to adolescence: a 6-year follow-up study

Vicente Martínez-Vizcaino,Michael Sjöström,Toomas Veidebaum,Idoia Labayen,Francisco B Ortega,Montserrat Solera-Martínez,Diva Eensoo,Jonatan R Ruiz,Jaanus Harro,Helle-Mai Loit

doi:10.1186/1475-2840-10-81

Abstract

BackgroundMetabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors that is considered a predictor of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and mortality. There is no consistent evidence on whether the MS construct works in the same way in different populations and at different stages in life.MethodsWe used confirmatory factor analysis to examine if a single-factor-model including waist circumference, triglycerides/HDL-c, insulin and mean arterial pressure underlies metabolic syndrome from the childhood to adolescence in a 6-years follow-up study in 174 Swedish and 460 Estonian children aged 9 years at baseline. Indeed, we analyze the tracking of a previously validated MS index over this 6-years period.ResultsThe estimates of goodness-of-fit for the single-factor-model underlying MS were acceptable both in children and adolescents. The construct stability of a new model including the differences from baseline to the end of the follow-up in the components of the proposed model displayed good fit indexes for the change, supporting the hypothesis of a single factor underlying MS component trends.ConclusionsA single-factor-model underlying MS is stable across the puberty in both Estonian and Swedish young people. The MS index tracks acceptably from childhood to adolescence.

Highlights

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors that is considered a predictor of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and mortality
A number of studies have examined the relationships among the cardiometabolic risk factors included in the MS definition by using exploratory [4,5] or confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) [6]
There is no consistent evidence on whether the MS construct works in the same way in different populations and at different stages in life

Summary

Introduction

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors that is considered a predictor of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and mortality. A number of studies have examined the relationships among the cardiometabolic risk factors included in the MS definition by using exploratory [4,5] or confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) [6]. It would be of interest to know to what extent the clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors as well as the MS construct track from childhood to adolescence. A recent review identified seven studies that investigated the stability of the clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors from childhood to adolescence [10]. One study focused on the stability from childhood to adolescence of factorial structure of MS [15], and did not observe an adequate fit of the proposed models at baseline; further longitudinal analyses were not possible

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