Сharacteristics of nutrition and content of certain microelements in blood in adolescents with signs of metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Purpose — to study the nature of nutrition and blood zinc and magnesium levels in adolescents with signs of metabolic syndrome (MS).

Materials and methods. The 200 patients with obesity (aged 14–18: 100 boys and 100 girls) were examined at the clinic of the Institute of Children and Adolescent Health Care of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. All patients underwent a comprehensive clinical and laboratory examination. The study of eating behavior (EB) was conducted by questionnaire using the Dutch questionnaire (DEBQ, The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire). The control group consisted of 30 healthy children of the same age category. The criteria for the diagnosis of MS in children, proposed by the International Diabetes Federation [IDF, 2007], were used, which allowed to divide patients into two groups: 1 — with signs of MS (50.0%) and 2 — without signs of MS (50.0%), each of which included 100 patients.

Results and discussion. According to the anamnesis, adolescents had an unbalanced and irrational diet, as evidenced by complaints of pain and dyspepsia. Analysis of DEBQ data showed that in most adolescents there was a restrictive type of EB — (73.9±3.2%), also quite common variants were external (in 43.8±3.1%) and emotional type of EB (32.3±3.1%). The results showed significant zinc and magnesium deficiency in obese adolescents, in contrast to the surveyed control group (ϕ<0.05), in particular, the most pronounced (ϕ<0.05) deficiency of these trace elements was observed in the surveyed group with restrictive type of EB.

Conclusions. Thus, an unbalanced diet naturally leads to disorders of both the digestive system and the formation of comorbid pathology, including obesity and MS. Analysis of the results of the DEBQ survey showed that patients with signs of MS were twice as likely to have EB disorders (71.8±3.7%) than patients without them (39.4±4.1%, ϕ<0.05). Among the violations of EB, the most common was the restrictive type (73.9%). Adolescents have a significant deficiency of zinc and magnesium in the blood (ϕ<0.05), in particular the most pronounced (ϕ<0.05) in the group of subjects with a restrictive type of EB.

The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of all participating institutions. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies.

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.