School Type, Lifestyle Factors and the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Nigerian Adolescents
Purpose: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among youth is on the increase worldwide. The present study examined the association of MetS with school type in 11-to 18 year-old Nigerian adolescents. Methods: A total of 197 adolescents (public school = 91; private school = 106) were evaluated for MetS, fitness and fatness. A clustered metabolic risk score (MRS) was calculated from the standardized residuals of waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), plasma glucose (GLU) and triglycerides (TG). Regression models controlling for age and gender assessed the relationship of school type, fitness and fatness with MRS. Results: Prevalence of MetS was 5.6% (public= 5.1%, private= 0.5%). After controlling for all variables in the model, school type (R2=17.3%) and fatness (R2=2.7%) were significantly associated with MRS, respectively with the school type recording a stronger unique contribution ( β = 0.494, p<0.0005) than fatness ( β = 0.149, p=0.023). The likelihood of an adolescent in public school developing MetS risk is 3.0 (95% CI=1.21-7.62, p=0.018) times that of his/her peer in private school. The odd of an adolescent developing MetS risk is 1.4 (95% CI=1.20-1.72, p<0.0005) times with a unit increase in age. Conclusion: School type was a strong predictor of MetS risk. Adolescents in public school were at higher risk of metabolic syndrome compared to their peers in private school. These results suggest that stakeholders in education and health promotion should pay particular attention to school type when planning preventive strategies for reducing cardiometabolic disease risk in adolescents.
