Prevalence of plasma lipid abnormalities in Saudi children.

Background: Lipid levels in children vary in different populations. Due to a close association between high lipid levels and development of atherosclerosis, considerable interest has been directed to investigating lipid levels in children.

Materials And Methods: We conducted this study on 2914 children with ages ranging from 1 year to <15 years, randomly selected during a national household screening program. Fasting blood samples were used for estimation of triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

Results: The overall range for cholesterol was 2.0-5.7 mmol/L and for triglyceride the overall range was 0.1-1.7 mmol/L. The children were separated into 14 groups depending on age, and the cholesterol and triglyceride levels were calculated in each age group. Using published guidelines for estimating "borderline" and "high risk" for coronary artery disease from cholesterol and triglyceride levels, the prevalence of borderline and high-risk groups was calculated. 7.72% of the children fell in the borderline risk group and 1.55% in the high-risk group using cholesterol values, while using triglyceride values, 1.4% and 0.55% fell in the borderline and high-risk groups, respectively. The prevalence of abnormality varied in the different age groups.

Conclusion: The paper discusses the need for a lipid awareness program in Saudi children in an attempt to decrease the complications associated with dyslipidemias during adulthood.