J Korean Soc Pediatr Endocrinol.  2005 Jun;10(1):84-89.

Gender Difference of Insulin Resistance in Obese Children and Adolescents

• Kim DH
• Yoon JH
• Kim HS
• Kim DK
• Cheong MY

Abstract

PURPOSE
It is known that insulin resistance is important because it may precede the development of Diabetes Mellitus. We evaluated the gender difference of insulin resistance in obese children & adolescents.
METHODS
92 obese children and 187 adolescents (age:5-16 y, >95th percentile of the body mass index [BMI] for age and sex) were included in this study. The abdominal fat, abdominal circumference, and intraabdominal fat depth (IAFD), plasma fasting insulin, leptin, adiponectin, lipid profiles and high sensitive-C reactive protein (hs-CRP) were measured, and a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test with insulin measurement were performed.
RESULTS
The plasma total cholesterol, leptin, fasting insulin & HOMA-IR levels of obese females were higher than those of obese males. The sex, waist circumference, IAFD & adiponectin levels were strongly correlated with HOMA-IR by multiple linear regression analysis (P<0.05).
CONCLUSION
Adolescent females may have specific fat distribution and were expressed to have higher leptin and relatively lower adiponectin concentration compared to adolescent males, developing higher insulin resistance, even though having lesser abdominal fat and waist size. Further investigation is required to verify the gender difference of insulin resistance in obese children and adolescents.

Keyword

Insulin resistance; Obesity; Children; Adolescents; Adiponectin; HOMA-IR

MeSH Terms

Abdominal Fat
Adiponectin
Adolescent*
Body Mass Index
Child*
Cholesterol
Diabetes Mellitus
Fasting
Female
Glucose Tolerance Test
Humans
Insulin Resistance*
Insulin*
Leptin
Linear Models
Male
Obesity
Plasma
Waist Circumference
Adiponectin
Cholesterol
Insulin
Leptin