Background: Determining whether or not a child is insulin resistant is becoming a matter of fundamental interest even in childhood, as the incidence of metabolic complications of insulin resistance is rising. Thus reference values are needed.
Aim: To set percentiles for HOMA-IR and WBISI in Caucasian normal weight prepubertal children.
Population: 238 normal weight prepubertal Caucasian children (126 males/112 females).
Methods: After physical examination including anthropometric measurements all children underwent an oral glucose tolerance test from which HOMA-IR and WBISI were calculated.
Results: HOMA-IR values above the 95th percentile (2.03) and WBISI values below the 5th percentile (5.67) represent the cut-off values for the determination of insulin resistance.
Conclusion: These reference values are useful to easily detect insulin resistance within the prepubertal Caucasian population representing a helpful tool for clinicians to target such children in order to improve insulin sensitivity.