Evaluation of non-HDL cholesterolemia in schoolchildren and teenagers

Objective: to evaluate the serum levels of non-HDL-cholesterol (non-HDL-c) and lipid profile in young people between six and 19 years old. Method: this was a cross-sectional and descriptive, and descriptive study. The variables were: total cholesterol and fractions, non-HDL-c, triglycerides, and BMI. Those with disease or using drugs that alter the lipid profile, and patients with triglycerides > 400 mg/dL were excluded from the study. SPSS-17 was used for the analysis of variables. Results: 108 young people participated; 63 females. The average of non-HDL-c was 114.7 mg/dL and LDL-c 94.9 mg/dL. There was no significant difference between the values of non-HDL-c and LDL-c between genders and age groups. LDL-c and non-HDL-c showed strong correlation, R = 0.864 and total cholesterol R= 0.890 and R= 0.907, respectively. LDL-c negatively correlated with VLDL-c. Non-HDL-c positively correlated with VLDL-c and triglycerides. The IMC results showed that 3.7% were below normal, 49.1% eutrophic, 23.1% overweight, 24.1% obese. Obese patients showed significantly higher levels of non-HDL-c, VLDL-c, and TG and lower levels of HDL-c compared to eutrophics. The values of non-HDL-c corresponding to 75 and 95 percentiles were 129 and 157 mg/dL, respectively. Conclusion: non-HDL-c showed better correlation than LDL-c with different lipid variables and was the best parameter for lipid assessment in obese patients. Thus, non-HDL-c showed to be a reliable and promising method of investigating dyslipidemias in schoolchildren and teenagers.