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Serum adiponectin, its gene polymorphism and metabolic syndrome in adolescents

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, page 645 (2016)Cite this article

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Li et al.1 investigated the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and serum adiponectin, and its gene polymorphisms in 919 healthy students, aged 11–16 years. The fully adjusted odds ratio (OR; 95% confidence interval (CI)) of the lowest quartile of the serum adiponectin level for MetS was 5.59 (1.90–16.41), and the ORs (95% CIs) of genotype SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism)+45 GG against genotypes TT and against genotypes TT+TG for MetS were 3.06 (1.10–8.54) and 3.24 (1.20–8.77), respectively. The authors concluded that serum adiponectin and specific gene polymorphisms were predictive biomarkers for MetS. However, I am not fully convinced by their arguments.

First, Jaakkola et al.2 examined the association between serum total adiponectin and MetS in adolescents, and the relative risk (95% CI) of adiponectin ⩽median for MetS was 4.3 (1.8–10.2), using a Poisson regression analysis. The application of a Poisson regression analysis to a cross-sectional study provides more conservative estimates of the relative risk with wide CIs,3 and its statistical significance becomes less likely.4 Taken together, a significant association between lower adiponectin and MetS was confirmed.

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References

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  1. Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

    T Kawada

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  1. T Kawada
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Correspondence to T Kawada.

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Kawada, T. Serum adiponectin, its gene polymorphism and metabolic syndrome in adolescents. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 645 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.10

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