Association of plasma glucose, insulin, and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight and obese children

Objectives: To investigate the association between fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 2-hour post challenge plasma glucose (2hPG), fasting plasma insulin (FINS), 2-hour post challenge plasma insulin (2hINS), and cardiovascular risk factors in obese and overweight children. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 452 obese and overweight children (male: 312, female: 140, aged 6-16 years). This study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China between June 2008 and November 2012. Anthropometries and blood analysis were carried out. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple stepwise linear regression analysis were used to investigate the association among FPG, 2hPG, FINS, 2hINS and cardiovascular risk factors. Results: Body mass index, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and triglyceride were highly correlated with FINS. Fasting plasma insulin influenced greater variance in most cardiovascular risk factors than 2hPG and 2hINS. Conclusions: Fasting plasma insulin was closely associated with most cardiovascular risk factors compared with FPG, 2hPG and 2hINS.