Clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors in young Indian adolescents

A total of 2640 healthy adolescents (1323 boys and 1317 girls) from a diverse urban socio-economic background living in Southern India were studied to investigate the occurrence of cardiovascular risk factors, their clustering, and their association with insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). One or more cardiometabolic abnormalities – i.e. low HDL-cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, elevated fasting plasma glucose or blood pressure – were present in nearly 68% of subjects, including children with normal weight. Insulin resistance was associated with the above abnormalities except with low HDL-cholesterol, and also showed significant positive association with BMI, waist circumference (WC), body fat percentage and total cholesterol (P<0.0001). Three distinct clusters were identified: (1) WC and blood pressure; (2) dyslipidaemia, WC and insulin; and (3) WC, glucose and insulin. In girls, insulin was a component of all three clusters.

Abstract

Keywords:
BMI –Cholesterol – Dyslipidaemia – HDL-cholesterol– Insulin resistance – Overweight – Plasma glucose – Triglycerides – Waist circumference