title: Stability of the factorial structure of metabolic syndrome from childhood to adolescence: a 6-year follow-up study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metabolic 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  We 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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A 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.
authors.affiliation: Social and Health Care Research Center, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain. Vicente.Martinez@uclm.es
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Martínez-Vizcaino
authors.forename: Francisco B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Solera-Martínez
authors.forename: Jonatan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ruiz
authors.forename: Idoia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Labayen
authors.forename: Diva
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eensoo
authors.forename: Jaanus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harro
authors.forename: Helle-Mai
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Loit
authors.forename: Toomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Veidebaum
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sjöström
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000502:physiology*