POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access Screening for metabolic syndrome risk factors in mestizo, tarahumara and mennonite scholars from Chihuahua Mexico I Leal-Berumen1*, V Santana-Rodriguez1, P Hernández-Rodríguez1, V Moreno-Brito1, A Licón-Trillo1, E González-Rodríguez1, I Alcalá-Sánchez1, M Conchas-Ramírez1, C Santiago-Antonio2 From Metabolism, diet and disease Washington, DC, USA. 29-31 May 2012 Background Obesity and diabetes mellitus prevalence has increased during the past decade among adults and adolescents in Mexico. According to la Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición 2006, 30% of adult population is obese and 39% has overweight, whereas in adolescents is close to 31%. Diabetes prevalence is estimated to be 14.4% in adult Mexican population [1]. Metabolic syndrome (MS) in adults is defined as a cluster of risk factors including abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, glucose intolerance and hypertension, the presence of three or more components increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2 and obesity [2,3]. Early identification of children at risk of developing MS must be estimated. Objective To screen for MS risk factors among mestizo, tarahu- mara and mennonite teenagers from Chihuahua, Mexico Materials and methods A convenient study was performed in high schools from Chihuahua small towns (Guachochi, Cuauhtemoc and Carichí) including 544 teenage students from 12-19 years old, 42% males, 58% females. Blood pressure, anthropo- metric measures, fasting glucose, triglycerides and choles- terol HDL were obtained with signed parental informed consent. We used an adapted MS definition [4]. Results In total population 2.6% had abnormal abdominal obe- sity, 2.2% had increased fasting glucose, 24.6% had abnormal triglycerides, and 29.4% low HDL cholesterol levels. Within populations, triglyceride abnormal levels where observed in 35% tarahumaras, in 26% mestizos and in 12.9% mennonites, being greater in females. HDL cholesterol abnormal levels where observed in 55.4% tar- ahumaras, in 23.3% mestizos and in 12.3% mennonites. Abnormal blood pressure was mainly detected in men- nonites. According to BMI female percentile classifica- tion, tarahumaras showed greater overweight (20.2%), mestizas greater obesity (11.4%) and 15.4% male tarahu- maras were overweight. Conclusions This is the first study in Chihuahua that looks for MS risk factors among scholars from different ethnicity. In general, tarahumaras seem to be at higher risk to develop MS, females from this population, had greater overweight, as well as abnormal triglycerides and HDL cholesterol levels. Mennonites were healthier than mestizo and tarahumara teenagers. Our results imply that cultural habits and genetic play an important role in developing MS risk fac- tors that we need to consider when prevention strategies are designed. Acknowledgements Multidisciplinary Metabolic Syndrome Study Group, UACH for financial support and students that had joined this project. Author details 1Multidisciplinary Metabolic Syndrome Study Group, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, 3100, Mexico. 2Colegio de Nutriólogos, Chihuahua, 3112, Mexico. Published: 1 June 2012 1Multidisciplinary Metabolic Syndrome Study Group, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, 3100, Mexico Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Leal-Berumen et al. BMC Proceedings 2012, 6(Suppl 3):P31 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1753-6561/6/S3/P31 © 2012 Leal-Berumen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 References 1. Olaiz-Fernández G, Rivera-Dommarco J, Shamah-Levy T, Rojas R, Villalpando- Hernández S, Hernández-Avila M, et al: Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición 2006. Cuernavaca, México, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública. 2. Alberti KG, Zimmet P, Shaw J: Metabolic syndrome – a new world-wide definition. A consensus statement from the International Diabetes Federation. Diabet Med 2006, 23:469-480. 3. Sattar N, Gaw A, Scherbakova O, et al: Metabolic syndrome with and without C-reactive protein as a predictor of coronary heart disease and diabetes in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study. Circulation 2003, 108:414-419. 4. Cárdenas-Villarreal VM, López-Alvarenga JC, Bastarrachea RA, Rizo-Baeza MM, Cortés-Castell E: Prevalencia del síndrome metabólico y sus components en adolescentes de la Ciudad de Monterrey, Nuevo León. Arc Cardio Mex 2010, 80(1):19-26. doi:10.1186/1753-6561-6-S3-P31 Cite this article as: Leal-Berumen et al.: Screening for metabolic syndrome risk factors in mestizo, tarahumara and mennonite scholars from Chihuahua Mexico. BMC Proceedings 2012 6(Suppl 3):P31. Submit your next manuscript to BioMed Central and take full advantage of: • Convenient online submission • Thorough peer review • No space constraints or color figure charges • Immediate publication on acceptance • Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar • Research which is freely available for redistribution Submit your manuscript at www.biomedcentral.com/submit Leal-Berumen et al. BMC Proceedings 2012, 6(Suppl 3):P31 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1753-6561/6/S3/P31 Page 2 of 2 Background Objective Materials and methods Results Conclusions Acknowledgements Author details References