Metabolic Syndrome and Its Individual Components among Jordanian Children and Adolescents

Previous studies revealed that cardiovascular diseases (CVD) begin in childhood [1, 2], and endothelial damage may occur early in the life of children with lipid abnormalities [3, 4]. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study [5] showed a positive correlation between the number of risk factors at age12–18 years and carotid artery wall thickness at age 33–39 years. Furthermore, Morrison et al. [6] showed that the metabolic syndrome (MeS) in childhood predicts MeS and type 2 diabetes mellitus in adulthood.While earlier studies in childhood had focused on the clustering of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases [7, 8], recent studies had reported the prevalence of MeS during childhood [9–11]. Several definitions have been proposed for MeS in children and some of these definitions followed the ATP III guidelines [9–14]. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) consensus worldwide definition of the MeS is divided according to age-groups because of developmental challenges presented by age-related differences in children and adolescents: 6 –<10 years, 10 –<16 years, and ≥16 years [15, 16].The prevalence of the MeS varied by the definition used, the weight status of the children, sex, and ethnicity. Cook et al. [9] reported a prevalence of 4.2% among children and adolescents of 12–19 years of age using the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) data. A prevalence of 3.6% in youth 8–17 years of age was reported by researchers from the Bogalusa Heart Study [17]. Much higher prevalence rates were reported in children who were overweight or obese [9, 13], where the prevalence reached 50% in severely obese youngsters [13].Data pertaining to MeS in children are scarce and most studies were conducted in developed countries with very little is known about this syndrome in children in the middle east and Arab countries including Jordan. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of MeS and its individual components in Jordanian chil