title: Metabolic syndrome among 13 year old adolescents: prevalence and risk factors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obesity and metabolic syndrome is prevalent among Malaysian adolescents and has been associated with certain behavioural factors such as duration of sleep, screen time and physical activity. The aim of the study is to report the prevalence of overweight/obesity, metabolic syndrome and its risk factors among adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multi-staged cluster sampling method was used to select participants from urban and rural schools in Selangor, Perak and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. Participants underwent anthropometric measurement and physical examination including blood pressure measurement. Blood samples were taken for fasting glucose and lipids and participants answered a self-administered questionnaire. Overweight and obesity was defined using the extrapolated adult body mass index (BMI) cut-offs of >25 kg/m2 and >30 kg/m2, according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria. Metabolic syndrome was defined based on International Diabetes Federation (IDF) 2007 criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were collected from 1361 participants. After excluding incomplete data and missing values for the variables, we analysed a sample of 1014 participants. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in this population was 25.4% (N = 258). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 2.6% in the population and 10% among the overweight and obese adolescents. Participants who slept between 7 and 9 hours a day has a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome OR 0.38(0.15-0.94).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Malaysian adolescents. Adequate sleep between 7 and 9 hours per day reduces the risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fadzlina
authors.forename: Fatimah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Harun
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Nurul Haniza
authors.forename: Nabilla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al Sadat
authors.forename: Liam
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Marie M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Cantwell
authors.forename: Tin Tin
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Hazreen Abdul
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Majid
authors.forename: Muhammad Yazid
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Jalaludin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012890:Sleep; D013997:Time Factors