Abstract 61: Frequency of Pediatric Lipid Screening Using a Large National Electronic Health Record System

Background: Universal lipid screening is recommended for U.S. youth aged 9-11 and 17-21 years. Our objective was to describe the prevalence of pediatric lipid screening and elevated lipid measurements among those screened, by patient characteristics. Methods: IQVIA’s Ambulatory Electronic Medical Records (version 5, release: October 2021) database, containing medical records from 100,000 physicians in the U.S., was used for this analysis. The study population included 3,131,956 patients aged 9-21 years with ≥1 valid measure of height and weight during our observation period (01/01/2018-11/30/2021). Lipid screening was defined as ≥1 valid measurement any time during the observation period. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated and categorized using pediatric percentiles (ages 9-20 years) and adult interpretations (age ≥21 years) ( Table ). After excluding biologically implausible values, lipid measurements were considered elevated if ≥1 of the following was identified: low density lipoprotein ≥130 mg/dL, very low-density lipoprotein ≥31 mg/dL, non-high-density lipoprotein ≥145 mg/dL, triglycerides ≥130 mg/dL, or total cholesterol ≥200 mg/dL. Results: A total of 354,764 (11.3%) youth had documented lipid screening. The frequency of lipid screening increased by age group (9-11 years: 9.1%; 12-16 years: 11.0%,17-21 years: 12.9%) and BMI category (underweight and healthy weight: 9.5%; overweight: 11.0%; obesity: 16.7%; severe obesity: 19.6%). Frequency of screening varied across race/ethnicity (White: 10.8%; Black 14.5%; Asian: 18.0%). Among those screened, 30.2% had ≥1 elevated measure with highest prevalence among those with obesity (44.8%) or severe obesity (48.1%). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that among youth aged 9-11y and 17-21y, lipid screening is suboptimal, and prevalence of elevated lipid levels is high among those screened. Increased pediatric lipid screening could lead to improvements in treatment, management, and prevention of adverse, long-term cardiovascular outcomes.