The following is a summary of Predicting Insulin Resistance in a Pediatric Population With Obesity, published in the December 2023 issue of Pediatrics by Arajo, et al.

Insulin resistance (IR) affects overweight and obese kids and teens, and its important to catch it early to avoid long-term problems. For a study, researchers sought to find factors that can be used to predict IR and create a multivariate model that could do this correctly. They did a cross-sectional study of demographic, clinical, and biochemical data from a group of patients who went to a specialized Pediatric Nutrition Unit in Portugal over 20 years. To identify IR, they made multivariate regression models.

People who took part were randomly split into two groups: a model group that worked on building predictive models and a confirmation group that checked the studys results against the model. Results: 1423 people between the ages of 3 and 17 took part in their study. They were randomly split into two groups: the model group (n = 879) and the evaluation group (n = 544). The predictive models, which used demographic and clinical factors that were not used in other models, were good at telling the difference [area under the curve (AUC): 0.8340.868; sensitivity: 77.0%83.7%; specificity: 77.0%78.7%] and had high negative predictive values (88.9%91.6%).

Adding fasting glucose or triglycerides/HDL cholesterol index to the models based on clinical factors did not make them better at diagnosing, but adding fasting insulin seemed to make the model better at telling the difference (AUC: 0.996). During the evaluation, the model that considered demographic and clinical factors along with insulin had a high accuracy rate for detecting IR (AUC: 0.978) and consistently high negative predictive values (90%96.3%) for all models. Conclusion: Models based on demographic and clinical factors can help find kids and teens who are moderately or highly likely to have IR and would benefit from a fasting insulin test.

Source: journals.lww.com/jpgn/abstract/2023/12000/predicting_insulin_resistance_in_a_pediatric.19.aspx

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Predictive Factors for Insulin Resistance in Pediatric Obesity: A Comprehensive Analysis - Physician's Weekly