ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Cardiology
Dyslipidemia Profiles and their Sex-Dimorphic Impact on Cardiometabolic Risk in Arab Adolescents
Provisionally accepted
- 1King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 2A'Sharqiyah University, Ibra, Oman
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Purpose: Recently, the prevalence of dyslipidemia has been on the rise among Saudi children and adolescents. Although dyslipidemia is a well-established cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor, the strength of its associations relative to other cardiometabolic risk factors, particularly in the pediatric population, remains unclear. This study aims to identify the associations of both single and combined lipid abnormalities, obesity status and CVD risk factors among Saudi adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 4930 adolescents (1773 boys [mean age 14.6 ± 1.6] and 3157 girls [mean age 14.4 ± 1.6]). Dyslipidemia was defined based on the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines for adolescents. Results: Overall, 46.5% had at least one abnormal lipid profile level, while 18.6% and 2.6% exhibited changes in two or all lipid profile variables, respectively. The most common lipid abnormalities were borderline to high triglycerides and low HDL-C levels. Regardless of gender, higher BMI was associated with more significant changes in lipid profile parameters. The boys with hyperglycemia was found to be significantly associated with more altered combined dyslipidemia than girls. Conclusions: Dyslipidemia patterns related to obesity are commonly observed in Arab adolescents. Therefore, it is imperative to implement public health interventions that prioritize school-based physical education initiatives and lipid management strategies for this population.
Keywords: Dyslipidemia, cvd, Obesity, adolescents, Saudi Arabia
Received: 14 Aug 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Al-Daghri, Alfawaz, Khattak and Khan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nasser M Al-Daghri, aldaghri2011@gmail.com
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