Pediatric metabolic syndrome: Long-term risks for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Over the past three decades, research into the metabolic syndrome, a clustering of cardio-metabolic risk factors, has increasingly gained pace as researchers and clinicians try and determine its clinical value among adults. The interest in metabolic syndrome has filtered through to the pediatric setting and, with it, has brought many of the same difficulties that have been described for adults. A number of papers from long-term observational studies have shown that children with metabolic syndrome or a higher metabolic syndrome load are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and indicators for cardiovascular disease in adulthood. In this chapter, we overview these data and delve deeper into the potential clinical utility of assigning risk in childhood based on the metabolic syndrome. Finally, we outline areas for possible future enquiry.