Trends in metabolic syndrome severity and lifestyle factors among adolescents

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Childhood metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a risk factor for adverse outcomes later in life. Our goal was to identify temporal trends among US adolescents in the severity of MetS, its individual components, and factors related to diet and physical activity. METHODS: We analyzed 5117 participants aged 12 to 19 from NHANES. We used regression analysis of individual waves of data, 1999 to 2012. MetS severity was calculated using a gender- and race/ethnicity-specific MetS severity z score. RESULTS: There was a linear trend of decreasing MetS severity in US adolescents from 1999 to 2012 (P =.030). This occurred despite a trend of increasing BMI z score (P =.005); instead, the decrease in MetS severity appeared to be due to trends in increasing highdensity lipoprotein (HDL; P