Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Hungarian Children and Adolescents

Disease Activity Is Associated with Obesity in Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Malnutrition and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are interrelated conditions. Our aim was to assess the prevalence of malnutrition, to compare anthropometric parameters in the evaluation of nutritional status in pediatric IBD, and to investigate the association between anthropometric parameters and disease activity indices (AI). Pediatric patients with newly diagnosed IBD recorded between 2010 and 2016 in the Hungarian Pediatric IBD Registry were included in this cross-sectional study. Body weight, body mass index (BMI), weight-for-height, and ideal body weight percent (IBW%) were analyzed. Pearson linear and non-linear correlations and polynomial regression analyses were performed to assess correlation between nutritional status and AI. p-values < 0.05 were considered significant. Anthropometric data of 1027 children with IBD (Crohn’s disease (CD): 699; ulcerative colitis (UC): 328; mean age 13.7 years) were analyzed. IBW% identified more obese patients than BMI both in CD (7.02% vs. 2.28%) and UC (12.17% vs. 5.48%). Significant negative correlation was found among anthropometric parameters and AI in CD. In contrast, polynomial regression analysis revealed a U-shaped correlation curve between IBW% and AI in UC. Our findings show that obesity has a bimodal association with disease activity in pediatric UC. Furthermore, IBW% was more useful to identify obese pediatric patients with IBD.

The impact of obesity epidemic on type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM

To assess the impact of the obesity epidemic on type 2 diabetes (T2D), prediabetes and glycometabolic indices in children and adolescents.

METHODS

We searched four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science). Cross-sectional or cohort studies that reported on obesity and the prevalence of T2D or prediabetes in children and adolescents were reviewed. The study design, sample size and clinical outcomes were extracted from each study. The prevalence of T2D and prediabetes from the studies were pooled using meta-analysis methods.

RESULTS

Meta-analysis of 228184 participants showed that the prevalence of T2D was 1.3% (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.6-2.1%) in obese subjects, which was 13 times that in normal weight subjects (0.1%, 95% CI, 0.01-0.2%). The prevalence of prediabetes in obese subjects was 3 times that in normal subjects at 17.0% (13.0-22.0%) vs. 6.0% (0.01-11.0%). Moreover, BMI was positively correlated with the prevalence of T2D, prediabetes and glycometabolic indices in obese children and adolescents.

CONCLUSION

The pooled results confirm that obesity in children and adolescents leads to statistically significant increases in the prevalence of T2D and prediabetes and in glycometabolic indicator levels.

Impact of Genetic Factors on the Age of Onset for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Addition to the Conventional Risk Factors

It is generally accepted that the early detection of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is important to prevent the development of complications and comorbidities, as well as premature death. The onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus results from a complex interplay between genetic, environmental, and lifestyle risk factors. Our study aims to evaluate the joint effect of T2DM associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the age of onset for T2DM in combination with conventional risk factors (such as sex, body mass index (BMI), and TG/HDL-C ratio) in the Hungarian population. This study includes 881 T2DM patients (Case population) and 1415 samples from the Hungarian general population (HG). Twenty-three SNPs were tested on how they are associated with the age of onset for T2DM in the Case population and 12 of them with a certified effect on the age of T2DM onset were chosen for an optimized genetic risk score (GRS) analysis. Testing the validity of the GRS model developed was carried out on the HG population. The GRS showed a significant association with the age of onset for T2DM (β = -0.454, p = 0.001) in the Case population, as well as among T2DM patients in the HG one (β = -0.999, p = 0.003) in the replication study. The higher the GRS, the earlier was the T2DM onset. Individuals with more than eight risk alleles will presumably be diabetic six and a half years earlier than those with less than four risk alleles. Our results suggest that there is a considerable genetic predisposition for the early onset of T2DM; therefore, in addition to conventional risk factors, GRS can be used as a tool for estimating the risk of the earlier onset of T2DM and stratifying populations at risk in order to define preventive interventions.

ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS, DIETARY HABITS, SERUM LIPID AND GLUCOSE LEVELS IN RELATION TO HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AMONG ADOLESCENT BOYS AND GIRLS IN CROATIA

The aim was to determine differences in anthropometric measurements, dietary habits, serum lipid and glucose levels in relation to high blood pressure (BP) among adolescent boys and girls in Croatia. The specific aim was to determine the effect of dietary habits and lifestyle on high BP in adolescents according to sex. The study included 260 (68.2%) adolescent girls and 121 (31.8%) boys with anthropometric data obtained (without missing values) from 246 girls and 111 boys. Participants answered questions from the questionnaire and anthropometric BP and blood test values were obtained. Non-parametric tests were used in analyses of reference intervals of systolic and diastolic BP in adolescent boys and girls according to age. High BP was defined as ≥90^th percentile for adolescent girls and boys, with a value of ≥135/87.5 mm Hg. Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze differences in anthropometric and laboratory values between the groups of girls and boys with high (≤90^th percentile) and normal BP. Increase in systolic and diastolic BP was noted in the adolescents. In girls, BP values showed a decreasing systolic and increasing diastolic BP trend with age. Girls with high BP had a significantly higher body mass index (BMI) (p=0.020), waist circumference (WC) (p=0.002), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) (p=0.016), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (p=0.043), hip circumference (HC) (p=0.015), triglyceride (TG) levels (p=0.021), higher prevalence of unhealthy diet at school breakfast (p=0.008) and lower prevalence of eating fish (p=0.02). Boys with high BP had a significantly higher BMI (p=0.045), WC (p=0.004), WHtR (p=0.017), WHR (p=0.022) and higher prevalence of eating meat products (p=0.015). Effective health interventions are needed to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and preventing age-related illness.