Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Adolescent obesity is a public health problem because of its prevalence and severity. It is a phenotypically heterogeneous disease and evolving in several phases (constitution, maintenance, aggravation) whose determinants are multiple. The great diversity of comorbidities and complications that can be experienced as a result of obesity makes all seriousness.

Patients and methods: Retrospective study including 18 obese adolescents hospitalized and followed at the Department of Endocrinology-Diabetology and Nutrition of the CHU Mohamed VI OUJDA, over a period of 2 years (from September 2020 to September 2022). Patients received an interview, a clinical examination and a biological assessment to rule out secondary obesity. Data were collected from medical records. The analysis was performed by SPSS Version 21 software, and the threshold: P<0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The median age was 15.33±3.30 years. The average BMI was 35.05±6.61 kg/m². 6% of patients had overweight, 33% of patients had moderate obesity and 27% had severe obesity and 33% had morbid obesity. % of adolescents were in the dynamic phase of obesity. Complications were dominated by metabolic syndrome (29.41%), the average waist circumference was 110.29±19.24 cm, 33.3% had hypoHDLemia, 22.2% had hypertriglyceridemia, 26.6% had prediabetes and 47.05% had hyperuricemia. Osteoarticular and pulmonary complications affected 17.6% and 17.6% of adolescents, respectively. Digestive complications such as fatty liver disease and GERD were noted in 5.8% and 11.1% of cases, respectively. None of the patients had Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) however 35.29% suffered from nocturnal snoring. The immediate consequences are often psychosocial.

Conclusion: These results justify the imperative of early and adequate management of obesity better than prevention, which must begin very early. Given the emergence of obesity among adolescents, preventive strategies are necessary, particularly targeting high-risk youth.