ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: In Qatar, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children and adults is increasing in parallel with the markedly increasing trends in obesity rates. We studied the prevalence of different components of MetS, measure plasma atherogenic indexes (AIP), and linear growth in young obese nondiabetic children (< 5 years) in comparison to older obese children (6-12 years).

Methods: We analyzed the anthropometric and biochemical profile of 135 random sample obese children who attended to the OPD of Hamad Medical Centre (HGH), Doha, Qatar between 1-2018 to 12-2019.

Results: 63.8% of Obese children studied at 5 years were obese at the end of their first year of life. Significant rapid gain in weight and linear growth (catch-up) was observed during the first 6 months of life. Moreover, some metabolic risk factors and high AIP occurred more frequently in older obese children compared to young obese children.

Conclusions: This study documented the early occurrence of different components of the MetS in young obese children and the progressive increase of their prevalence in older prepubertal children. Most obese children who presented at or below 5 years of age had significant obesity and rapid linear growth during the first two years. These findings pointed out the necessity to impose early detection and prevention on a national scale.