Samar Abd El-Mohsen Ali1*, Carmen Ibrahim Farid2 , Reham Saeed Abd El-Hameed1
1Nutrition Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Egypt. 2Dermatology Department, Venereology and Andrology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt
*Correspondence Email Address:[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Background: Obesity is a major public health problem that affects most of the body systems including the skin. Obesity alters skin physiology leading to wide spectrum of dermatologic manifestations. Objective: The aim was to assess the frequency of obesity associated dermatologic conditions among children and their relation to different laboratory parameters. Subjects: A case control study was conducted on three groups of children aged 7-15 years with a variety of skin manifestations, each group contained 225 children and classified as normal weight children (control), overweight and obese children (cases). Data was collected for personal characteristics, and dietary pattern. Full dermatological examination was carried out along with BMI determination. Serum leptin and insulin resistance were assessed for all participants. Results: Leptin hormone and insulin resistance were significantly higher in the cases than controls. Most common skin conditions among children were skin tags (20.8%), stretch marks (19.7%) and acanthosis nigricans (16.5%). Psoriatic children had the highest leptin hormone, while acanthosis nigricans children had the highest insulin resistance. Conclusions: Obesity is associated with higher frequency of some skin conditions as skin tags, stretch marks, acanthosis nigricans and psoriasis. It is also associated with higher serum leptin especially among psoriasis and skin tags patients, and with higher insulin resistance especially among acanthosis nigricans and skin tags patients.
Keywords: Dietary Pattern, Leptin, Obesity, Skin
Citation: Samar Abd El-Mohsen Ali, Carmen Ibrahim Farid, Reham Saeed Abd El-Hameed. Skin Disorders Associated with Overweight and Obesity among Children in Alexandria, Egypt.
Canadian Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2020; 8 (1): 4-20.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.14206/canad.j.clin.nutr.2020.01.02