Clustering of cardio-metabolic risk factors and pre-diabetes among U.S. adolescents

Few studies have assessed the association between clustering of cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMRFs) and pre-diabetes in children or adolescents. We aimed to examine the association between clustering of CMRFs and pre-diabetes among U.S. adolescents. Data were available for 5,633 U.S. adolescents aged 12–19 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1999–2014. Pre-diabetes was defined as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (fasting plasma glucose 100–125 mg/dL), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (2-h plasma glucose 140–199 mg/dL) or elevated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (HbA1c 5.7–6.4%). The individual CMRFs considered in the present study were as follows: waist-to-height ratio, blood pressure, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. CMRFs were defined based on the modified National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria or the modified International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between clustering of CMRFs and pre-diabetes with adjustment for potential covariates. Among 5633 adolescents, 11.4% had IFG, 4.7% had IGT, 4.5% had elevated HbA1c and 16.1% had pre-diabetes. Compared with adolescents with no CMRFs, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for pre-diabetes across the clustering of CMRFs (i.e., 1, 2, 3, and 4) were 1.32 (1.03–1.68), 2.07 (1.55–2.76), 2.52 (1.69–3.76), and 5.41 (3.14–9.32), respectively, based on the modified NCEP criteria. The corresponding ORs with 95% CIs were 1.16 (0.89–1.51), 1.78 (1.35–2.36), 3.07 (1.89–4.98) and 12.20 (3.93–37.89), respectively, based on the modified IDF criteria. The present study suggests that the clustering of CMRFs is associated with increased pre-diabetes among U.S. adolescents. It might be necessary for effective strategies and measures targeting adolescents with clustering of CMRFs, including those with less than 3 risk factors.