Introduction: Altered lipid metabolism along with other cardiovascular risk factors promotes atherosclerosis at early age, leading to cardiovascular disease development. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of abnormal lipid profle in school adolescents from the city of Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, and describe the distribution of values in an apparently healthy subgroup.
Population and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study in a sample of students from 12 to 18 years of age. We obtained personal data, anthropometric measurements and a blood sample with 12 hours fasting for lipid determinations. Lipid profle percentiles were determined in a subgroup of apparently healthy adolescents.
Results: We studied 523 adolescents. We found cholesterolemia > or = 200 mg/dL in 7.8%, total cholesterol between 170 and 199 mg/dL in 18.7%; triglyceridemia >110 mg/dl in 20.1% and HDL cholesterol < 40 mg/dl in 17.0%. In the stratifcation by sex and age, males aged 15-18 years showed a higher prevalence of HDL cholesterol decreased (27.3%; p= 0.02). We found a more atherogenic lipid profle in overweight or obese adolescents than in those with normal weight or underweight. In the subgroup of 354 apparently healthy adolescents, the 75th percentile values were: total cholesterol 171 mg/dL, triglycerides 96 mg/dL, LDL cholesterol 102 mg dL, HDL cholesterol 117 mg/dL, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol 3.48 and triglyceride/HDL cholesterol of 2.01. The 5th percentile for HDL cholesterol was 35 mg/dL.
Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of lipid abnormalities. Lipid profle values were similar to those described in other populations of adolescents aged 12-18 yr, except triglyceride.