Table 2.
Anthropometric and biochemical characteristics of adolescents aged 13 years recruited from three southern states of Peninsular Malaysia
| Characteristics | Male | Female | Total Mean (SD) |
p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | |||
| Height (cm), n = 930 | 155.4 (±8.5) | 153.0 (±5.9) | 153.8 (±6.9) | < 0.001 |
| Weight (kg), n = 930 | 49.8 (±14.6) | 48.6 (±13.1) | 49.0 (±13.6) | 0.20 |
| BMI (kg/m2), n = 930 | 20.5 (±5.3) | 20.6 (±5.0) | 20.6 (±5.1) | 0.65 |
| BMI z-score, n = 930 | 0.37 (±1.57) | 0.26 (±1.48) | 0.29 (±1.51) | 0.30 |
| WC (cm), n = 929 | 66.7 (±13.5) | 65.0 (±10.8) | 65.5 (±11.7) | 0.05 |
| WC z-score, n = 929 | 0.10 (±1.15) | −0.05 (±0.92) | 0.00 (±1.00) | 0.03 |
| Fasting Blood Glucose (mmol/L), n = 507 | 4.93 (±0.39) | 4.83 (±0.42) | 4.86 (±0.42) | 0.02 |
| Total cholesterol (mmol/L), n = 507 | 4.36 (±0.72) | 4.71 (±0.79) | 4.60 (±0.79) | < 0.001 |
| HDL cholesterol (mmol/L), n = 507 | 1.48 (±0.32) | 1.58 (±0.32) | 1.55 (±0.33) | 0.003 |
| LDL cholesterol (mmol/L), n = 507 | 2.47 (±0.63) | 2.73 (±0.70) | 2.65 (±0.69) | < 0.001 |
| Triglycerides (mmol/L), n = 507 | 0.88 (±0.54) | 0.89 (±0.38) | 0.89 (±0.44) | 0.78 |
| Serum insulin (uIU/mL), n = 507 | 14.14 (±9.07) | 13.96 (±8.08) | 14.02 (±8.38) | 0.83 |
| HOMA-IR (unit), n = 507 | 3.14 (±2.20) | 3.03 (±1.83) | 3.06 (±1.95) | 0.55 |
| n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | p-value | |
| Overweight/obesity, n = 930 | 103 (34.6) | 198 (31.4) | 301 (32.4) | 0.11 |
| Abdominal obesity, n = 929 | 35 (11.8) | 73 (11.6) | 108 (11.6) | 0.92 |
| Dyslipidaemia, n = 507 | 22 (14.3) | 99 (28.0) | 121 (23.9) | 0.001a |
| Plausible dietary reporter, n = 585 | 54 (31.4) | 117 (28.5) | 171 (29.2) | 0.11 |
aFisher’s exact test. Overweight and obesity were defined using BMI z-scores of more than one and two standard deviations above the WHO growth standard median, respectively. WC z-score was computed and abdominal obesity was defined according to the Malaysian WC centile curves of equal or more than the 90th centiles [28]. Dyslipidaemia during childhood and adolescence was determined when the level of total cholesterol was greater than or equal to 5.2 mmol/L or their LDL-C level was greater than or equal to 3.4 mmol/L [30]. Plausible dietary reporter was adolescents with the ratio of energy intake to basal metabolic rate between 1.09 to 2.21 estimated using the Goldberg equation [22]. BMI Body Mass Index, WC Waist Circumference, HDL-C High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, LDL-C Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, HOMA-IR Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance