The utility of body mass index as an indicator for lipid abnormalities in non-fasting children.

BACKGROUND

Many studies have reported the association between body mass index (BMI) and fasting lipid profiles in children. However, little information exists about the screening of dyslipidemia in the non-fasted state. This study assessed whether BMI can predict non-fasting lipid abnormalities in children.

METHODS

Using gender-separated analysis, 3895 boys and 3866 girls (aged 11-12 years) were investigated. Total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured, and non-HDL-C (=TC-[HDL-C]) was calculated. A BMI z-score was employed as the weight status. Gender-specific 95th percentiles of TC, TG and non-HDL-C were defined as "elevated", with the 5th percentiles of HDL-C defined as "reduced".

RESULTS

TG and non-HDL-C were positively, and HDL-C was negatively correlated with the BMI z-score in both genders. Both obese (2<BMI z-score) and overweight (1<BMI z-score≤2) were associated with the risks of elevated TG, non-HDL-C and reduced HDL-C. In both genders, a receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated that the utility of predicting the above lipid abnormalities was moderate; the areas under the curve ranged from 0.60 to 0.70. The optimal cut-off for the BMI z-score for predicting elevated TG, non-HDL-C and reduced HDL-C were 0.52, 0.55 and 0.51 in boys and 0.34, 0.38 and 0.35 in girls, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The BMI could be an indicator of abnormalities of non-fasting TG, non-HDL-C and HDL-C in both genders.