Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and of its specific components among adolescents from Niterói City, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of metabolic abnormalities (MA) and metabolic syndrome (MS) assessed by different criteria among Brazilian adolescents. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Weighted prevalence of MA and MS were estimated using criteria adapted from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP/ATP III), and the World Health Organization (WHO) in a probabilistic sample of 577 students aged 12-19. RESULTS The most prevalent MA was low concentration of HDL-C as per IDF (32.5%) and NCEP/ATP III (41.6%) criteria and hypertension as per the WHO's criterion (12.4%). Prevalence of MS using the NCEP/ATP III criterion (6.04%) was five times higher than the WHO's (1.1%) and the IDF's (1.6%) criteria. As expected, MS was significantly higher among overweight than among non-overweight adolescents. CONCLUSION Low prevalence of MS but high prevalence of some MA were found. These findings suggest that the diagnosis of MA is more relevant in clinical practice especially in overweight adolescents.