Validity of the pediatric simple metabolic syndrome score

Abstract

Aims: To compare the validity of the conventional continuous metabolic syndrome score (ccMS) and pediatric simple metabolic syndrome score (PsiMS) for the prediction of MS in Korean adolescents.

Methods: A total of 2983 adolescents aged 10-18 years who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2017) were enrolled. The ccMS was calculated by aggregating the sex and age-specific z-scores of body mass index, systolic blood pressure (SBP), glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. The PsiMS was calculated using the following formula: 〔2x(waist/height (cm)〕+〔glucose (mg/dL)/100〕+〔triglycerides (mg/dL)/150〕+〔SBP (mmHg)/130〕-〔HDL-C (mg/dL)/40〕.

Results: Mean PsiMS was significantly higher in subjects with MS compared with those without MS (3.24 vs. 1.93 in boys, 3.11 vs. 1.80 in girls; P < 0.001). Both ccMS and PsiMS were significantly higher in subjects with more MS components compared to adolescents with fewer components (P-for-trend<0.001). Among the adolescents without MS but in the PsiMS quintile 5, 33.5% presented two or more MS components. The receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated an equally good performance of ccMS (AUC = 0.975) and PsiMS (AUC = 0.958) for identifying adolescent MS risk. PsiMS showed a good stratification of MS risk in the generalized linear model.

Conclusion: PsiMS is an accurate and efficient scoring system to assess and monitor the risk of adolescent MS in the research and clinical practice.

Keywords: Korea; Metabolic syndrome; NHANES; Pediatric obesity.