Prevalence of insulin resistance and its association with metabolic syndrome criteria among Bolivian children and adolescents with obesity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Obesity is a one of the most common nutritional disorder worldwide, clearly associated with the metabolic syndrome, condition with implications for the development of many chronic diseases.</p> <p>In the poorest countries of Latin America, malnourishment is still the most prevalent nutritional problem, but obesity is emerging in alarming rates over the last 10 years without a predictable association with metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>The objective of our study was to determine the association between insulin-resistance and components of the metabolic syndrome in a group of Bolivian obese children and adolescents. The second objective was determining the relation of acanthosis nigricans and insulin-resistance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied 61 obese children and adolescents aged between 5 and 18 years old. All children underwent an oral glucose tolerance test and fasting blood sample was also obtained to measure insulin, HDL, LDL and triglycerides serum level. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was defined according to National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III) criteria adapted for children.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Metabolic syndrome was found in 36% of the children, with a higher rate among males (40%) than females (32.2%) (p = 0.599). The prevalence of each of the components was 8.2% in impaired glucose tolerance, 42.6% for high triglyceride level, 55.7% for low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and 24.5% for high blood pressure. Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR > 3.5) was found in 39.4% of the children, with a higher rate in males (50%) than females (29%). A strong correlation was found between insulin resistance and high blood pressure (p = 0.0148) and high triglycerides (p = 0.002). No statistical significance was found between the presence of acanthosis nigricans and insulin resistance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Metabolic syndrome has a prevalence of 36% in children and adolescent population in the study. Insulin resistance was very common among children with obesity with a significant association with high blood pressure and high triglycerides presence.</p

Sleep disorder in childhood impairs declarative but not nondeclarative forms of learning

A large amount of studies have investigated the association between sleep and memory systems. However, remarkably little is known of the effect of sleep disorders on declarative and non-declarative memory for children. In the present study we examined the effects of sleep disorders on different aspects of memory functions by testing children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), which is characterized by disrupted sleep patterns. We used “The War of the Ghosts” test to measure declarative memory and the Alternating Serial Reaction Time (ASRT) task. This enabled us to measure two aspects of non-declarative memory, general skill learning and sequence-specific learning separately. Ten children with SDB and ten healthy controls participated in this study. Our data showed dissociation between declarative and non-declarative memory in children with SDB. They showed impaired declarative memory, while the sequence-specific and general skill learning was similar to that of healthy controls, in spite of sleep disruption. Our findings suggest that sleep-disordered breathing affects declarative and non-declarative memory differently in children. Moreover, these findings imply that the disrupted sleep pattern influences the more attention-demanding and cortical structure-guided explicit processes, while the less attention-demanding implicit processes mediated by subcortical structures are preserved

Correction to: ESCAP CovCAP survey of heads of academic departments to assess the perceived initial (April/May 2020) impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent psychiatry services (European Child &amp; Adolescent Psychiatry, (2021), 10.1007/s00787-020-01699-x)

In the original articles, the last four members’ of COVID-19 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consortium affiliation were incorrectly published. The correct affiliation are given below. Nihal Yurteri: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey Florian Daniel Zepf: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany Anna Zielinska-Wieniawska: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Alessandro Zuddas: Department of Biomedical Science and “G. Brotzu” Hospital Trust, Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy The original article has been corrected. © 2021, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature