Prevalence and Predictors of Insulin Resistance in Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents: A Hospital-based Study

Background/Aim: To estimate the prevalence and predictors of insulin resistance (IR) among over-weight and obese children and adolescents. Material and Methods: Data of this cross-sectional study included 62 overweight and obese children and adolescents (8-19 years of age), who visited the pediatric endocrinol-ogy clinic of King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Participants' sociodemographic and health characteristics, dietary habits, physical activity, anthropometric measurements, and values of homeo-stasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were evaluated. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with [95% confidence intervals].Results: Among our sample, 59.7% of the participants (n=37) were insulin resistant. Among the evaluated predictors, physical activity and waist circumference (WC) pre-dicted the risk for IR (B=-0.218 [-0.410 to -0.26] and B=0.127 [0.001, 0.016], respectively). Examining the associations between HOMA-IR values and anthropometric measurements while stratifying by maternal educational status revealed that the associations between WC and waist-hip ratio with IR were mediated by maternal educational status, and those associations were only observed in children of less educated mothers (B=0.014 [0.004, 0.024] and B=2.156 [0.635, 3.676], respectively).Conclusion:High prevalence of IR was ob-served among our sample. Future studies are needed to investigate the nationwide prevalence and predictors of IR among overweight and obese children and adolescents. Special attention should be paid to children of low-educated mothers for early detection and management.