Relationship between anthropometric indicators and dyslipidemias in overweight-obese children in a primary care center in Peru

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a public health problem that has become epidemic worldwide, the consumption of foods with a high level of processing in addition to high levels of sugar, trans fats and sodium as well as drinks with a lot of sugar, added to this Little or no physical activity is the main cause of excess weight in boys and girls, which is associated with a significant prevalence of metabolic disorders such as dyslipidemia, and if it persists into adulthood, it increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases such as arterial hypertension, cerebrovascular disorders and metabolic pathologies such as diabetes mellitus. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between anthropometric indicators and dyslipidemia in overweight and obese children. A quantitative research with a non-experimental, cross-sectional analytical design was carried out. The sample consisted of 313 children between 6 and 13 years old from the San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima, treated in the outpatient clinic of the Aurelio Diaz Ufano Hospital from June 2022 to May 2023. The type of sampling was non-probabilistic for convenience. Anthropometric measurements were made (weight, height and waist circumference) and the blood lipid profile was determined. The IBM SPSS Statistics 25 program was used for data analysis and the Kendall correlation coefficient was used to find an association between variables. The results were that 52.4% were men, a prevalence of 20.8% of overweight and 39.9% of obesity was found, in addition to abdominal obesity in 24.3%. Among the dyslipidemias, hypertriglyceridemia was found in 33.5%, hypercholesterolemia in 7.3%, elevated LDL cholesterol in 5.1% and decreased HDL cholesterol in 4.2%. A statistically significant relationship (p<0.05) was found between all anthropometric indicators and alterations in LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. It is concluded that the alteration of anthropometric indicators in childhood obesity such as body mass index, waist circumference and waist/height ratio is related to different forms of dyslipidemia