Prevalence of Dyslipidaemia, Comparing Both Serum and Salivary Lipids Among Primary School Children Aged 5 to 12years

Dyslipidaemia is a harbinger cardiovascular disease (CVD) and with the rising prevalence especially in the developing world, where 80% are said to be at risk for dyslipidaemia is alarming. Major factor implicated included adoption of unhealthy lifestyle, consumption of junk food and refined products leading to obesity, and related factor. However pathological factors from diseases such as nephrotic syndromes and familial cases also are implicative. Dyslipidaemia in adult can be traced to childhood and this attract early intervention before complications set in. lipid test is not a routine test, there identification of the at risk for complication may be missed, especially if there no implicative clinical features. The lipid test is often carried out using the serum, however, the use of saliva is secreted by the salivary gland, and as a screening medium, it offers more advantages over serum for the determination of lipid levels due to non-invasive nature of collection, reduced infectious risk, and ease with analysis. Its user-friendly nature would be acceptable by especially children and with this approach lipid test may be offered routinely and can be sustained for screening and follow up basis. This influences this study on the prevalence of dyslipidaemia and sociodemographic characteristics of serum and salivary lipids among apparently healthy primary school children aged 5-12years in Sokoto, Nigeria. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of dyslipidaemia comparing both serum and salivary lipids among apparently healthy primary school children aged 5-12years in Sokoto, Nigeria. Settings and Design: Descriptive and cross-sectional. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 apparently healthy primary school children aged 5-12 years. Who had no medical complaints or any major medical condition were recruited. The parameters assessed included serum and salivary; total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and low-density lipoproteins (LDL). This was a descriptive study, from 3 public schools and 2 private schools in Sokoto using a multistage sampling technique. A structured study proforma was used for data collection. Lipid test was done using the conventional enzymatic spectrophotometric method of analyzing lipid. p value ≤0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Statistical Methods: descriptive analysis, test for associations and comparing means (ANOVA) Results: The mean age of the subjects was 8.4 (±2.29) years with a male to female ratio of 1:1.4. The prevalence of dyslipidemia among study group was 3%, 12%, 45%, and 9% for TC, TG, HDL and LDL respectively, with an overall prevalence of 57.0%, for serum fraction. The salivary fraction prevalence obtained was 20.5%, 17.5%, 76.0%, and 25.0%, for TC, TG, HDL, and LDL respectively, with an overall prevalence of 87.5% with variable statistical significance. Statistical significant findings were obtained for TC and TG, for serum lipid fractions. For salivary lipid fraction statistical significance was associated with social class and age respectively. Conclusion: Prevalence of dyslipidaemia is high using both serum and saliva Recommendation: screening for dyslipidaemia should be emphasized in primary schools to identify these at risk for dyslipidaemia at an early age.