LEP and metabolic syndrome: For all regression models, assumptions were satisfied: residuals were approximately normally distributed (histogram and P-P plots; SD = 0.965 for MetS criteria, SD = 0.976 for leptin, SD = 0.976 for adiponectin), and scatterplots indicated linearity and homoscedasticity; collinearity diagnostics confirmed no concern, with tolerance = 0.587–0.931 and VIF = 1.074–1.703 for MetS criteria, Tolerance = 0.935–1.000 and VIF = 1.000–1.069 for leptin, and Tolerance = 0.971 and VIF = 1.030 for adiponectin.