title: The Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Obese Children and Adolescents in Dalmatia: A Hospital Based Study.
abstract: Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS) are one of the biggest public health issues in child and adolescent population. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this hospital based study is the first report on the prevalence of MS in obese children and adolescents in Dalmatia, the Mediterranean part of Croatia. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of individual cardiovascular risk factors and MS. Between January 2009 and June 2014, 201 obese subjects aged 6 to 18 were analyzed retrospectively from our Pediatric Endocrine Unit database. The subjects were then classified in two groups of obesity; subjects with BMIzscore 2.0-3.0 were classified as moderately obese and subjects with BMIzscore > 3.0 were classified as severely obese. The overall prevalence of MS using the modified IDF criteria was 30.3%. The most common component of MS in both groups was arterial hypertension, while impaired fasting glucose was the least common component of MS. Our finding of high prevalence of MS underlines the importance of early childhood obesity treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Split, Spinčićeva 1, 21000 Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5720-0893
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Šimunović
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, University of Split, School of Medicine, Šoltanska 2, 21000 Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Joško
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1634-0635
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Božić
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Split, Spinčićeva 1, 21000 Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Lukrecija
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Milić
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Split, Spinčićeva 1, 21000 Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Unić
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Split, Spinčićeva 1, 21000 Split, Croatia.
authors.forename: Veselin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Škrabić