Prevalence Of Visceral Obesity And Its Relation With Lipids Profiles And Blood Pressure In School Children Of Lanxi City

Background:Childhood overweight or obesity has become a critical health problem in the world, which results in the early onset of adulthood chronic disease such as cardio-cerebrovascular disease, etc. Recent epidemiologic studies have implicated visceral obesity as a major risk factor for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Evaluating the importance of visceral obesity in depth and taking necessary preventions early in children may reduce the morbidity and mortality of cardio-cerebrovascular events.Objectives:The present study was to evaluate the prevalence of visceral obesity in school children in Lanxi and its relation with lipids profiles and blood pressure and to look for a better anthropometric parameter for visceral obesity.Methods:A total of 1518 students aged 7-<15 years (10.9±2.0)y from three elementary schools and one junior middle school in Lanxi city of Zhejiang province were enrolled in this study in November 2009. Body weight, height, waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHpR), waist to height ratio (WHtR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein(HDL), low-density lipoprotein(LDL) were measured. Correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between lipids profiles, blood pressure and correlation factors. Stepwise multivariate linear regression analysis was used to explore the most important factors which influence the level of lipids profiles. The incidence of dyslipidemia and the odds ratios for cardio- cerebrovascular disease risk factors were compared between non-obese group, overweight group, visceral obesity group and overweight plus visceral obesity group. The risk for dyslipidemia was compared between elevated WC and elevated WHtR.Results:1. Overall prevalence rate of overweight and obesity was 14.1% and the prevalence was higher in boys than that in girls (17.2% vs.10.4%). Prevalence rate of visceral obesity was 6.1% while prevalence rate of overweight plus visceral obesity was 5.1% and no significant difference was found between boys and girls.2. WC levels were lower in Lanxi school children than that in Beijing children of same age and sex, especially the boys. WHtR in these two areas were similar, and changed slightly between different age groups.3. Prevalence rate of dyslipidemia was 26.2%, with a majority of high TG (21.3%).141 individuals (9.3%) were found to have hypertension, in which 132 individuals (8.7%) were found to have a high systolic blood pressure.Age was negative associated with several lipid profiles. BMI-z, WC-z and WHtR were significantly positive associated with TG, TC, LDL, SBP-z, DBP-z and significantly negative associated with HDL.4. Children in overweight group had significantly higher incidence of dyslipidemia than children in visceral obesity group. Odds ratios of visceral obesity children holding zero, any one, two or three of the selected five risk factors were higher than that of overweight children. The odds ratios of overweight plus visceral obesity children were the highest. WHtR is more important in predicting dyslipidemia than WC in school children.Conclusions:The incidence of overweight, obesity and visceral obesity in Lanxi school children were lower than that of Beijing school children. WHtR seemed to be the best predictor for dyslipidemia among BMI, WC and WHpR. Children with visceral obesity were more likely to have dyslipidemia and multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors clustering than overweight children without excess abdominal fat accumulation.