High prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in Chinese children and adolescents with prehypertension/hypertension

AIM: To assess the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose among Chinese children and adolescents with prehypertension/hypertension (PHP/HP), overweight/obesity (OW/OB) or both in the general population. METHODS: In total, 3409 children and adolescents among the age group of 10-18 years were enrolled. These subjects were then divided into four groups: OW/OB, PHP/HP, OW/OB + PHP/HP and a control group. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and lipid levels were measured in children with a body mass index > or =85th percentile and/or blood pressure > or =90th percentile and in 100 subjects randomly selected from the control group. The oral glucose tolerance test was performed in all the subjects with fasting glucose > or =5.6 mmol/L. RESULTS: Eighty-one impaired fasting glucose subjects and one girl with type 2 diabetes were identified. The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in PHP/HP (7.03%) was not significantly different from that in the OW/OB + PHP/HP group (8.59%), but was higher than that in the OW/OB group (3.31%). CONCLUSION: Although the American Diabetes Association does not recommend the FPG test for children and adolescents with PHP/HP, in this study, we found that children and adolescents with PHP/HP have a higher prevalence of impaired fasting glucose than those with OW/OB. Further validation of these findings is warranted and a type 2 diabetes screening protocol for Chinese children and adolescents needs to be established.