Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected and Non-HIV infected Nigerian children in Jos

Background: Both Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV) and anti-retroviral (ARV) are associated with metabolic disorder. This study compared the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among HIV and non-HIV infected children. Methods: This was a comparative cross-sectional study of 142 HIV infected and 142 HIV non-infected children. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected. Blood pressure, height, weight abdominal circumference were assessed using standard procedure. Fasting blood samples were collected for blood glucose and blood lipid profile. Result: The mean age at diagnosis of HIV infection was 4.9 years and 140 children were on ARVs. Cumulatively, 23.9% of the non-HIV infected children compared to 16.2% of HIV children (P = 0.11) had one component of MetS. Abdominal obesity was prevalent in 3.5% of non-HIV compared to 0% of HIV infected children; high blood pressure (HBP) was present in 8.5% of non-HIV compared to 0.7% of HIV-infected children (P < 0.001). HIV-infected children had higher prevalence of hyper-triglyceridemia compared to non-HIV (9.3% compared 3.5% respectively; P = 0.05). Cumulatively the clustering of two components of MetS was prevalent in 2.8% each of HIV-infected and non-HIV-infected children. Atherogenic lipids (low high density lipo-protein and high triglyceride) was diagnosed in 2.8% versus 0.7% of HIV infected and non-infected respectively (P = 0.18). MetS was diagnosed in 0.7% of non-HIV infected children and none of the HIV infected children. Conclusion: While both HIV and non-HIV-infected children had a high prevalence of one component of the MetS, MetS is however uncommon in our study population.