OBJECTIVE: The rising epidemic worldwide in overweight and obese children requires urgent attention. Leptin has been found to be associated with body weight control and possibly affects insulin sensitivity. Since insulin resistance is associated with obesity in adults and possibly in adolescents, we set out to investigate the association of plasma leptin level with various anthropometric indices, body fat mass ( FM), lipids, and insulin resistance (IR) index in nondiabetic adolescents. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study from three high schools in Taipei City in Taiwan. SUBJECTS: A total of 402 nondiabetic subjects ( 162 boys and 240 girls; age range, 10 - 19 y; mean age, 15.8 +/- 1.9 y, and mean body mass index ( BMI), 24.8 +/- 4.6 kg/m(2)) were recruited. MEASUREMENTS: The fasting plasma leptin, plasma glucose, insulin, lipids, and anthropometric indices including height, weight, waist ( WC) and hip circumferences , and waist- to-hip ratio (WHR) were examined. Total body FM and percentage body fat ( FM%) were obtained from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The homeostasis model was applied to estimate the degree of IR. RESULTS: The plasma leptin levels were significantly higher in girls (17.45 +/- 10.13 ng/ml) than boys (8.81 +/- 6.71 ng/ml, P