ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Childhood obesity is an important public health problem with increasing prevalence. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is strongly associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. Adressing obesity and insulin resistance by drug treatment represents a rational strategy for the prevention of T2DM.

Aim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the one year metformin treatment’s long-term effectiveness in children and adolescent.

Method: Patients who were diagnosed with obesity (VKİ>+2 SDS) and found to have insulin resistance (total insulin at OGTT >300 mIU/ml and homa-IR >3.4), aged between 10 and 18 years, treated with metformin in addition to lifestyle change for a year and with regular follow-up for a minimum of 2 years after metformin treatment in our clinic were included in the study.

Results: A total of 12 cases including eight girls with a mean age of 13.2±2.1 years and mean follow-up duration of 3.9±1 years were included in the study. While the BMI of the cases at presentation was 31.2±5.6 kg/m² and BMI-SDS was 2.7±0.7, the BMI-SDS value after one year of metformin treatment was found to have regressed to 1.9±1 (P=0.04), and the BMI-SDS value 2 years after the interruption of metformin treatment had increased to 2.1±1.04 but was not as high as the period before metformin treatment (P=0.033).

Conclusion: One-year metformin treatment improved the BMI-SDS values of the obese children and this improvement decreased but continued in the second year after the discontinuation of the treatment.