IMPE Abstracts

Introduction: As we are just conquering and coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its’ aftermath, paediatric obesity has emerged as the new pandemic of concern. In general, Asian population are known to be less insulin sensitive. Obesity associated with insulin resistance leads to metabolic complications such as prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, NAFLD and vascular changes.

Objectives: To estimate the burden of paediatric obesity and to identify the incidence of metabolic complications associated with obesity.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among 150 overweight and obese children attending a paediatric endocrinology OPD between January 2021 and October 2022 in a tertiary care hospital in India. Oral glucose tolerance test was performed to assess the fasting and post glucose blood sugar and insulin values along with baselines investigations as a part of obesity workup.

Results: Among 150 children, 68% were males and 32% were females. We found a strong family history of one or more metabolic diseases in 78% of the cases. The incidence of hyperinsulinemia was 80.67%, where all of them presented clinically with acanthosis nigricans and some of them with skin tags. The incidence of pre-diabetes and diabetes was 20.6% and 2.67% respectively. Hypertension was observed in 52% of the cases and dyslipidemia was identified in 71.34% of the cases. The thyroid and adrenal axes was checked and found to be within normal limits. With a generally wide prevalence in India, we found that 37.3% of the cases were vitamin D deficient and 38.6% of the cases were vitamin D insufficient.

Conclusion: Most of the cardiovascular and metabolic complications that occur in adults have their origin during childhood owing to the insulin resistance associated with obesity. The key is to not miss the golden window of opportunity when children with obesity present to our OPD by promptly evaluating them to identify those at risk for metabolic complications and offering timely intervention.