Objective: Our goal was to provide an update on the worldwide prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children and adolescents.
Evidence acquisition: The Medline and Embase databases were searched for articles published between August 2007 and January 2009, in which the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was analyzed in populations aged between 2 and 19 years, using several recognized definitions. Diagnostic criteria were extracted for the MetS and prevalence rates by sex, age group, body mass index status and ethnicity.
Evidence synthesis: A total of 36 studies were included. The prevalence estimates from general population and community-based sampling ranged form 1.2% to 22.6% with rates of up to 60% observed in the overweight and obese.
Conclusions: This update shows that the metabolic syndrome remains a major worldwide health concern in children and adolescents, particularly amongst the obese. Suggestions for future research include establishing which individual components of the MetS cluster confer the most risk on future morbidity.