PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AND METABOLIC SYNDROME IN YOUNG PEOPLE: CURRENT STATE OF THE PROBLEM

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the current state of the problem related to prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in young people. Research methods. The theoretical analysis of special literature sources involved the use of a number of the following methods: reconstruction, apperception, aspect analysis, hermeneutic analysis and critical analysis. Results. Previously, it was believed that the problem of obesity is relevant for countries with a high living standards, but now the number of young people suffering from excess body weight and obesity is increasing in low- and middle-income countries, especially in urban settings. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among young people causes concern among specialists. According to the results of numerous studies, every fourth person in the population has signs of metabolic syndrome, the prevalence of which increases over the time. In recent years, the world’s leading health organizations - WHO, National Cholesterol Education Program, International Diabetes Federation – studied the problem of metabolic syndrome emergence, developed approaches to its diagnosis and treatment, as a result of which the concept of metabolic syndrome as a cluster of risk factors for type 2 diabetes type and cardiovascular diseases, underwent a number of evolutionary transformations. In the historical aspect, the most significant identifications of the metabolic syndrome are presented in the recommendations of the WHO (1998), the US National Educational Program on Cholesterol (ATP III, 2001), and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF, 2005). The recommendations of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the European Society of Cardiology, published in 2007, prioritized the classification of the metabolic syndrome developed by the IDF, according to which the combination of central (abdominal) obesity as the main marker is proposed with two other components of choice: hypertriglyceridemia, a decrease in the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, arterial hypertension, an increase in the fasting glucose level. The modern understanding of the mechanisms of metabolic syndrome development looks like this: an unhealthy lifestyle and an irrational diet lead to an increase in the mass of visceral fat, a decrease in the sensitivity of peripheral tissues to insulin and hyperinsulinemia, which in turn cause the development of arterial hypertension, disorders of lipid, carbohydrate and purine metabolism. In recent years, the attention of a wide range of researchers has been devoted to studying the obesity role in the development of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of four cardio-metabolic risk factors: obesity, dyslipidaemia, arterial hypertension, impaired glucose tolerance, or type 2 diabetes. It is noted that individual components of the metabolic syndrome may be present or absent in each individual case, but any of them is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Conclusions. A systematic analysis of the processed modern sources of domestic and foreign origin made it possible to establish a significant prevalence of excess body weight, obesity and metabolic syndrome among young people: every fourth person in the population has such signs. In Ukraine, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome varies from 20 to 35%, and it also occurs 2.5 times more often in women, and the number of patients only increases with age.