Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in China and the world as a whole, and lipid metabolism disorder is the key factor for this disease. A comprehensive understanding of the prevalence of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents can contribute to the early prevention of dyslipidemia in adulthood.

To systematically evaluate the status quo of the prevalence of dyslipidemia in Chinese children and adolescents.

Cross-sectional studies on the morbidity rate of dyslipidemia among Chinese children and adolescents and published from January 2015 to July 2023 were retrieved from databases of CBM, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library. Processes of literature screening, data extraction and risk bias analysis were performed by two researchers. A meta-analysis was performed by taking advantage of Stata 17.0.

34 cross-sectional studies were collected and a total of 134 438 children and adolescents were involved. Results of the meta-analysis indicated that the overall morbidity rate of dyslipidemia in Chinese children and adolescents was 19% (95%CI=16%-21%), and the morbidity rates of high cholesterol (TC), high triacylglycerol (TG), high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were 6% (95%CI=5%-7%), 9% (95%CI=6%-12%), 4% (95%CI=3%-5%) and 10% (95%CI=7%-13%) respectively. Regarding time distribution, the detection rate of dyslipidemia was fluctuant and showed a decreasing trend; the detection rate of high TC and high LDL-C showed an increasing trend in general, but it fell slightly in 2023; the detection rate of high TG and low HDL-C fluctuated greatly: the detection rate of high TG gradually decreased from 2018 to 2022 and rebounded slightly in 2023. The results of subgroup analysis showed that, concerning age, the overall morbidity rate of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents and that of high TC showed an ascending tendency with the increasing of age (10% and 2% for those aged from 3 to 6, 17% and 10% for those aged from 7 to 11, and 27% and 14% for those aged from 12 to18), the morbidity rate of lowered HDL-C was higher among 12-to-18-year olds (20%) than among 7-to-11-year olds (9%), and the morbidity rate of high TC among 3-to-6-year olds (9%) was higher than that among 7-to-11-year olds and 12-to-18-year-olds (4% and 3%) (P<0.05). Concerning region, the morbidity rates of low HDL-C were higher in the West (15%) than in the East (7%), and the morbidity rates of high TC and high LDL-C were higher in the East (7% and 6%) than in the West (3% and 2%) (P<0.05). Concerning BMI, the morbidity rates of dyslipidemia, high TG and high LDL-C were higher in obese children and adolescents (48%, 18%, 25%, and 7%) than in overweight (27%, 6%, 9%, and 4%) and normal children and adolescents (15%, 4%, 3%, and 3%) (P<0.05) .

The morbidity rate of dyslipidemia in Chinese children and adolescents is relatively high and varied across the age, region and BMI of children and adolescents. Due to the limitation of the number and quality of included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to be conducted to further validate these findings.