Comparison between different criteria for metabolic syndrome in schoolchildren from southern Brazil

The metabolic syndrome (MetS), although more frequent in adults, is already evident in the infant-juvenile population. On the other hand, there are different criteria for the diagnosis, without a consensus of which is the best to be used in this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the agreement between different criteria for diagnosis of MetS in adolescents from southern Brazil. A cross-sectional study consisting of a sample of 1200 subjects, 679 females, aged between 12 and 17 years. MetS was assessed by three different criteria: Cook (2003), Ferranti (2004), and International Diabetes Federation – IDF (2007). The agreement between the criteria was evaluated by the Kappa index. Low prevalence of MetS was found among schoolchildren (1.9% for Cook, 5.0% for Ferranti, and 2.1% for IDF). Regular (Ferranti – IDF: Kappa 0.382; p