title: A systematic review and meta-analysis on screening lipid disorders in the pediatric age group.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Different viewpoints exist about lipid screening in all children or only in children with positive family history (FH) of premature cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) or hypercholesterolemia. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to assess the effectiveness of lipid screening in children and adolescents according to the existence of positive FH of CVD risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, Scopus, and Google scholar were searched to identify relevant papers that were published from November 1980 until 30 November 2013. Irrelevant studies were set aside after studying their title, abstract, and full text. Then, the relevant studies were assessed by using a quality appraisal checklist. We used random effect model for meta-analysis and calculating the total estimation of sensitivity, specificity, and the positive predictive value (PPV) of FH in predicting dyslipidemia among children and adolescents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 17,214 studies were identified in the primary search, out of which 19 primary studies were qualified for study entry. The sensitivity of positive FH of premature CVD or dyslipidemia for predicting dyslipidemia among children varied between 15 and 93. Moreover, the effectiveness of screening children for dyslipidemia according to premature CVD or dyslipidemia in their relatives was low in 86.9% of the primary studies. The total estimation of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value was 42.6, 59, and 20.7, respectively, according to the meta-analysis results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present meta-analysis indicated that selecting target population for screening children and adolescents for dyslipidemia according to their FH has low sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Roya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kelishadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Akbar
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Haghdoost
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Health Sciences Research Center, School of Health, Mazandaran University of Medical sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moosazadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keikha
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Research Center for Health Services Management, Institute of Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aliramezany
keywords: Children; family history (FH); lipid; meta-analysis; screening