Changes in Impaired Fasting Glucose among Tehranian adolescents through a decade of follow up: Tehran Lipid and Glucoes Study

The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) is increasing worldwide, affecting people in all age groups, including adolescents. The objective of this study was to explore changes in IFG prevalence during a decade long follow-up in adolescent participants of a population-based cohort study from Iran.

We included 2998 participants, aged 11-19 in study period 1 (1999-2005; 1415 boys, 1583 girls) and 946 participants in study period 2 (2011-2014; 477 boys, 469 girls). Multivariate binary logistic regression models were performed to examine the role of susceptible risk factors in the relationship between study periods with IFG.

A two-fold increase was observed in the prevalence of IFG, from 7% in study period 1 to 16.6% in study period 2. Regarding non-modifiable risk factors, older age and female gender were associated with lower risk for IFG. Among modifiable risk factors in the fully adjusted model, being overweight and obese were significantly associated with IFG, whereas central obesity was not found to be an independent risk factor. Yet, adjusting for general and central obesity could not attenuate the increase in IFG over time.

the prevalence of IFG among Iranian adolescents increased significantly and study period remained a significant factor after all adjustments. We propose the role of other potential risk factors be further investigated.