Incidence of obesity, overweight and hypertension in children and adolescents in Ahvaz southwest of IRAN: Five-years study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of obesity, overweight and hypertension in children and adolescents aged 10-15 in Ahvaz. METHODS: This is a epidemiologic study performed on 176 people aged 10-15 in Ahvaz. In 2009, 300 people underwent weight, height and blood pressure measurements. Five years later, the same people were reassessed for obesity, overweight and hypertension, of whom a total of 176 people agreed to repeat the procedure. RESULTS: The study included 100 (57%) males and 76 (43%) females. Mean BMI was 22.1 ±â€¯4.3 kg / m2 in year 2014, without any significant difference between the two sexes (P = 0.518). In the same year, the prevalence of obesity and overweight was 26 (14.8%) and 13 (7.4%), respectively. After 5years, BMI increased significantly (P < 0.001). Of the 150 norma participants with normal BMI in 2009, 15 (10%) and 6 (4%) became overweight and obese in 2014 respectively. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures increased significantly over 5 years P = 0.042 and P < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows an increase in mean BMI and mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures after 5 years among people aged 10-15 in Ahvaz.

Vitamin D level in non-diabetic adult people with metabolic syndrome.

AIMS: The aim of this study is comparison the level of Vitamin D deficiency in non-diabetic adult people with metabolic syndrome in Ahvaz. MATERIAL & METHODS: This descriptive study investigation carried out on a population of individuals with metabolic syndrome. ATPIII criteria were used for metabolic syndrome. Serum concentration of 25 (OH Vit D) of below 5 ng/ml was considered as severe deficiency, 5-10 ng/ml as average deficiency, 10-20 ng/ml as slight deficiency, and above 20 ng/ml as normal. RESULTS: The results showed mean level of vitamin D was not significant in individuals with and without HTN and in different genders (P > 0.5). No significant difference was found between case and control groups in terms of the distribution level of vitamin D (P > 0.5). In both groups, the difference between blood pressure (systole and diastole) was not significant in cases of severe and average deficiencies. But it was significant different in the group with slight deficiency (P = 0.03). In the case group, 58% of the participants had FBS>100. CONCLUSION: The group with metabolic syndrome had a higher intensity of vitamin D deficiency compared to the control group.

Frequency of type I and II diabetes in newly diagnosed diabetic patients: Measuring C-Peptide level.

AIMS: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease that manifested as hyperglycemia due to the defect in secretion or function of insulin. This study aimed was to survey about frequency type I and II diabetes in newly diagnosed diabetic patients base on c-peptide and anti-glutamate acid decarboxylase (GAD) tests. MATERIALS & METHODS: This study was conducted as a prospective study on 70 diabetic patients aged 15-45 years old who referred to diabetes clinics in Ahvaz city during 2012-2014 and their diabetes was diagnosed for the first time, but their type of diabetes was not clinically definitive. Patients with anti-GAD positive and fasting C-peptide level of less than 0.65 were diagnosed as type I diabetes. Patients with anti-GAD negative fasting C-peptide level of greater than or equal to 0.65 were considered as type II diabetes. RESULTS: Eighty two patients (49 males and 33 females) with a mean age of 21.64 ±â€¯4.36 years (range 15-34) and a mean BMI of 22.05 ±â€¯4.41 kg/m2 (range 14-18) were studied. Twenty three patients (28.5%) had type I diabetes and 59 patients (71.95%) had type II diabetes. In patients with type I diabetes, the mean BMI was 24.86 ±â€¯2.36 kg/m2 and the number of patients with family history (56.22%) was higher. In type II diabetic patients, the number of women (62.71%) was higher than that of men. CONCLUSION: Anti-GAD test can be used as a predictive test for early diagnosis of disease and screening of people with a diagnosis of diabetes based on the type of diabetes.

Evaluation of psychological resistance to insulin treatment in type II diabetic patients.

AIMS: Various studies have demonstrated that the majority of the factors affecting the reluctance of individuals to insulin injections are rooted in psychological factors. Present study aimed to determine relationships between main causes of refusal to insulin injection in diabetic patients and factors such as age, gender, and educational degree of patients. MATERIAL & METHODS: This was a descriptive study which was conducted on diabetic patients (n = 505) who need insulin therapy. The data were collected with a questionnaire in following steps. First, the most important causes of patients' reluctance, in the patients' opinion, to insulin therapy were determined using the data of the previous studies. In the second step, the patients were asked to express their opinion on each of these factors and the recorded responses were analyzed. RESULTS: The results of the study showed that fear of ampoules, fear of pain caused by insulin and the embarrassment of patients from injections in public significantly depended on the gender of the patients, so that these factors were much lower in men than women. In addition, these factors in the patients with higher degrees of education led to lower level of refusal to insulin injections. Another factor influencing the reluctance to insulin injections was the forming of a sense of addiction due to daily insulin injections, which was significantly lower among the patients with higher education, but did not have a significant relationship with sex of the patients. In this regard, another factor was fear of hypoglycemia and insulin side effects, which did not have a significant relationship with gender and educational degree. In addition, there was no significant relationship between the patient's age and any of the factors effective in patients' reluctance to insulin injections. CONCLUSION: Psychological factors seem to be effective in the emergence of the sense of reluctance to insulin injections. Therefore, not only patients but also the entire society need to receive training and appropriate services to improve their attitude to this issue with a psychological approach and help to solve this problem.

Prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension in adolescence in Ahvaz, Iran.

BACKGROUND: High blood pressure is a risk factor for some disease like stroke, coronary heart disease, and renal failure. High blood pressure in children is an increasing health problem. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension age between 10 to 17 years old. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This descriptive analytic study was conducted using multiphase sampling method in Ahvaz (Southwest of Iran). A questionnaire include: height, weight, and body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures filled for each participant. Blood pressure was measured twice for each person. For the diagnosis of hypertension, the fourth report of the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents of the National Health Institute of United States was used. RESULTS: Total participants of the study were 1707children and adolescents including 922 boys (54%) and 785 girls (46%). The prevalence of high blood pressure was 1.7% (2.5% in boys and 0.8%). The prevalence of pre-hypertension was 9%(7.6% in boys, 10.6% in girls). The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures increased with increasing body mass index. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of high blood pressure was found to be lower than other studies in our country. The prevalence of the high blood pressure in boys was significantly higher than girls. This study, like other studies showed high correlation between being overweight and an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

A study of the prevalence of dyslipidemia among the adult population of Ahvaz, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Hypercholesterolemia is one of the main causes of the disease burden in developed and developing countries. The present study is planned to access the prevalence of dyslipidemia and its risk factors among the general population of Ahvaz over 20 years of age. METHOD: In this descriptive-analytic study, using multi-stage cluster method, out of the 25 existing health centers in the city of Ahvaz (four health centers in the Eastern Ahvaz and two centers in the west were chosen based on the population they covered). The blood samples of the participants were taken after 12h of fasting for measure FBS, TG, Chol, HDLand LDL level their heights, and weights were measured using the standard methods. Interviewing the participants, the research questionnaires were filled by the trained health workers. RESULTS: Out of 2505 participants, 1155 samples (%46.1) were male with mean age of 42.9±14.5years and 1350 samples (%53.9) were women with the mean age of 39.9±12.6 years. The prevalence of dyslipidemia among the individuals over 20 years of age in Ahvaz was %80.9 (%75.9 in male and %85.1 in female). Age and BMI were positively correlated with increase in the risk of dyslipidemia. Women had a higher risk of dyslipidemia CONCLUSION: This study showed that more than %80 over 20 years old Ahvazian population had dyslipidemia(female more than male). Age and BMI are positively correlated with increasing dyslipidemia in my population.

Metabolic syndrome and its correlated factors in an urban population in South West of Iran.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its correlated factors in an urban population in Ahvaz. METHODS: This descriptive analytical study performed with random cluster sampling method in 6 health centers in Ahvaz. In each selected center, 55 households were randomly selected. A questionnaire included: age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, education level, family history of diabetes (DM), Hypertension (HTN) and obesity, smoking and parity and previous history of gestational diabetes Mellitus in women were filled for each person.Blood pressure, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), abdominal and waist circumference were measured in each participant. Fasting blood glucose (FBS), serum total cholesterol, triglyceride and high density lipoprotein (HDL) level were measured in fasting blood sample. RESULTS: The mean age of all participants was 42.27 ± 14 years (44.2 ± 14.26 years in men and 40.5 ± 13.5 in women). From total 912 participant, 434(47.2%) were men and 478(52.8%) women. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome based on ATPIII criteria (update2005) was 22.8% (15.9% in men and 29.1% in women) that showed significant difference (P = 0.0001). Prevalence of each component of MS in studied population was: 29.4% for abdominal obesity, 40.7% for high TG level, 40.2% for low HDL, 15.4% for hypertension and 37.8% for abnormal FBS. Among these factor, age of patients, BMI, sex had significant differences between persons with or without Ms (P = 0.0001). Ethnicity (Arab or Persian), cigarette smoking and family history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity, marital statues, education level, parity and previous history of GDM in women showed no significant differences between persons with MS and without MS. CONCLUSION: Metabolic syndrome has high prevalence in our population and its prevalence increases with increasing age and BMI. Women are at higher risk for metabolic syndrome than men.