Unsupervised identification of cardiometabolic profiles among adolescents: findings from the PARIS birth cohort study

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is known as a risk factor in cardiometabolic morbidity but there is no consensus on its definition for teenagers. We aimed to identify cardiometabolic health profiles and which parameters best discriminate them. K-means partitioning identified cardiometabolic profiles by sex using data on health measurements of 530 adolescents from the PARIS birth cohort. A discriminant analysis was performed. Cardiometabolic risk score and handgrip strength were also measured. Depending on definitions, MetS prevalence ranged from 0.2% to 1.3%. Two profiles were identified for the entire group and by sex: “healthy” and “at cardiometabolic risk.” Weight and waist-to-height ratio or waist circumference explained more than 87% of the variance in the profile differentiation. The “at cardiometabolic risk” profiles included adolescents with overweight, a waist-to-height ratio over 0.5, and prehypertension. They had higher cardiometabolic risk scores and parents who were more likely to be overweight and have cardiometabolic diseases themselves. They also had higher birthweights, earlier adiposity-rebound and puberty ages, and lower relative handgrip strength.