nutraceuticals in hyperlipidemic children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: dyslipidemia is a major risk for cardiovascular diseases. the aim of this study is to review the effects of nutraceuticals to modify lipid disorders in children. materials and methods: the literature research was conducted in embase, medline, pubmed, scopus, isi web of science, and cochrane library from 2002 until january 2015. the following keywords were used: dyslipidemia, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, dietary intervention, nutraceutical, functional food, herbal treatment, non-chemical treatment, children, adolescents, clinical trial. results: 13 eligible articles were entered in this study. consumption of nutraceuticals had significant negative effect sizes (weighted mean differences) for triglycerides (-0.97, 95% ci: -1.49, -0.46), total cholesterol (-0.96, 95%ci: -1.67, -0.26), and low density lipoprotein -cholesterol (-0.54, 95%ci: -0.95, -0.13), it had positive effect size for changes of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (0.43, 95%ci: 0.04, 0.82) . conclusion: findings of this metaanalysis suggest that consumption of nutraceuticals might have beneficial effects on improving dyslipidemia in the pediatric age group.