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Biochemical predictors of metabolically unhealthy obesity in children and adolescents

  • Ah Young Cho , Jung Gi Roh , Young Suk Shim , Hae Sang Lee EMAIL logo and Jin Soon Hwang
Published/Copyright: November 22, 2021
Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism
From the journal Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism Volume 35 Issue 1

Abstract

Background

Children and adolescents with obesity can now be classified according to metabolic profile, as those with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) and those with metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO). We aimed to determine the prevalence of MUO and identify its biochemical predictors in pediatric patients with obesity.

Methods

We evaluated the medical records of 187 boys and girls with obesity. The children were divided into MHO and MUO groups, and anthropometric and biochemical parameters were assessed. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was used to identify impaired glucose regulation and hyperinsulinism, and binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictors of MUO in children with obesity.

Results

Of the 187 children, MUO was found in 71.7% (n=134) and MHO in 28.3% (n=53); those in the MHO group were younger than those in the MUO group. Blood pressure, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and uric acid levels were significantly higher in the MUO group than in the MHO group. Further, the MUO group exhibited a significantly higher level of insulin resistance (p<0.05) than the MHO group. Serum levels of uric acid and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) were confirmed as biochemical predictors of the MUO phenotype in children with obesity.

Conclusions

The ratio of MUO in children with obesity was relatively high; further, serum levels of uric acid and HOMA-IR can be used as biochemical predictors of MUO.

Keywords: clinical predictors; insulin resistance; metabolically healthy obesity; metabolically unhealthy obesity; uric acid
Corresponding author: Hae Sang Lee, Department of Pediatrics, Ajou University School of Medicine, San 5, Wonchon-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 443-721, Korea, Tel: +82 31 219 4454, Fax: +82 31 219 5169, E-mail:
Ah Young Cho and Jung Gi Roh contributed equally to this work.

  1. Funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: Study concept and design (AYC, HSL); data collection (JGR, HSL); analysis and interpretation of data (AYC, YSS, HSL, JSW); drafting of the manuscript (AYC, HSL); critical revision of the manuscript (HSL, JSH); supervision (HSL).

  3. Competing interests: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

  4. Informed consent: The need for informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the study design.

  5. Ethics approval: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Ajou University Hospital (AJIRB-MED-MDB-19-538). The need for informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the study design; all measurements were performed as part of routine practice. The study adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

  6. Data availability statement: All relevant data are included in the paper and its Supporting In-formation files. Otherwise, the raw data analyzed during the current study are not publicly available as the owners have given their written consent only to use the data for the current study after IRB approval. The datasets used and/or analyzed in the present study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Received: 2021-08-18
Accepted: 2021-11-02
Published Online: 2021-11-22
Published in Print: 2022-01-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

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  2. Review Article
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  4. Original Articles
  5. Newly defined peroxisomal disease with novel ACBD5 mutation
  6. Pediatric adrenocortical tumors cohort characteristics and long-term follow-up at a single Argentinian tertiary center
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  14. Psychiatric behavioral effect and characteristics of type 2 diabetes mellitus on Japanese patients with Prader-Willi syndrome: a preliminary retrospective study
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  16. Adiposity rebound in very-low-birth-weight infants
  17. The association between a metabolically healthy overweight/obesity phenotype and markers of inflammation among Chinese children and adolescents aged 10–18 years
  18. Case Reports
  19. Management of perinatal HPP during critical illness/ECMO
  20. Wolfram-like syndrome – another face of a rare disease in children
  21. Two Japanese siblings with arginase-1 deficiency identified using a novel frameshift mutation of ARG1 (p.Lys41Thrfs∗2)
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https://doi.org/10.1515/jpem-2021-0542
Keywords for this article
clinical predictors; insulin resistance; metabolically healthy obesity; metabolically unhealthy obesity; uric acid

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Review Article
  3. Medullary thyroid carcinoma in children: current state of the art and future perspectives
  4. Original Articles
  5. Newly defined peroxisomal disease with novel ACBD5 mutation
  6. Pediatric adrenocortical tumors cohort characteristics and long-term follow-up at a single Argentinian tertiary center
  7. Sleep disorder and behavior problems in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus
  8. Increased hepcidin levels and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in obese prepubertal children: a further piece to the complex puzzle of metabolic derangements
  9. Screening for testicular adrenal rest tumors among children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia at King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia
  10. The association between vitamin D levels and metabolic syndrome components among metropolitan adolescent population
  11. Utility of wrist circumference in recognition of metabolic syndrome in overweight and obese South Indian children and adolescents
  12. Ketoacidosis in new-onset type 1 diabetes: did the severity increase during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  13. Predictors of decreased bone mineral density in childhood systemic lupus erythematosus: possible role of osteoprotegerin gene polymorphisms
  14. Psychiatric behavioral effect and characteristics of type 2 diabetes mellitus on Japanese patients with Prader-Willi syndrome: a preliminary retrospective study
  15. Biochemical predictors of metabolically unhealthy obesity in children and adolescents
  16. Adiposity rebound in very-low-birth-weight infants
  17. The association between a metabolically healthy overweight/obesity phenotype and markers of inflammation among Chinese children and adolescents aged 10–18 years
  18. Case Reports
  19. Management of perinatal HPP during critical illness/ECMO
  20. Wolfram-like syndrome – another face of a rare disease in children
  21. Two Japanese siblings with arginase-1 deficiency identified using a novel frameshift mutation of ARG1 (p.Lys41Thrfs∗2)
  22. An atypical presentation of a pathogenic STK11 gene variant in siblings not fulfilling the clinical diagnostic criteria for Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome
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