Predictive capacity of anthropometric indicators for dyslipidemia screening in children and adolescents
Journal Title: Jornal de Pediatria - Year 2015, Vol 91, Issue 5
Abstract
Objective To analyze the predictive capacity of anthropometric indicators and their cut-off values for dyslipidemia screening in children and adolescents. Methods This was a cross-sectional study involving 1139 children and adolescents, of both sexes, aged 6–18 years. Body weight, height, waist circumference, subscapular, and triceps skinfold thickness were measured. The body mass index and waist-to-height ratio were calculated. Children and adolescents exhibiting at least one of the following lipid alterations were defined as having dyslipidemia: elevated total cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein, elevated low-density lipoprotein, and high triglyceride concentration. A receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed and the area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity was calculated for the parameters analyzed. Results The prevalence of dyslipidemia was 62.1%. The waist-to-height ratio, waist circumference, subscapular, body mass index, and triceps skinfold thickness, in this order, presented the largest number of significant accuracies, ranging from 0.59 to 0.78. The associations of the anthropometric indicators with dyslipidemia were stronger among adolescents than among children. Significant differences between accuracies of the anthropometric indicators were only observed by the end of adolescence; the accuracy of waist-to-height ratio was higher than that of subscapular (p=0.048) for females, and the accuracy of waist circumference was higher than that of subscapular (p=0.029) and body mass index (p=0.012) for males. In general, the cut-off values of the anthropometric predictors of dyslipidemia increased with age, except for waist-to-height ratio. Sensitivity and specificity varied substantially between anthropometric indicators, ranging from 75.6 to 53.5 and from 75.0 to 50.0, respectively. Conclusions The anthropometric indicators studied had little utility as screening tools for dyslipidemia, especially in children.
Authors and Affiliations
Teresa de Quadros
Echocardiography in PICU: when the heart sees what is invisible to the eye
Objective Echocardiography has become an indispensable bedside diagnostic tool in the realm of pediatric intensive care units (PICU). It has proven to be an influential factor in the formula of clinical decision-making....
Routine pacifier use in infants: pros and cons
Webster's dictionary of American English1 defines the “pacifier” as an object that makes one “quiet or peaceful,” surely a welcome behavioral outcome that mothers routinely report from its use with their infants. The cur...
Khamapirad radiologic criteria as a predictor of pneumonia's bacterial etiology
Dear Editor, As the authors propose in their study, the chest X-ray has a significant role in the differentiation and identification of the bacterial etiology of pneumonia.1 The main findings of chest X-ray suggesting a...
A comparison between preterm and full-term infants’ preference for faces
Objective Visual preference for faces at birth is the product of a multimodal sensory experience experienced by the fetus even during the gestational period. The ability to recognize faces allows an ecologically advantag...
Dietary transition difficulties in preterm infants: critical literature review
Objective To analyze the scientific literature on dietary changes in preterm children during the first years of life. Data source The PubMed database was used for article selection. The texts were analyzed according to...