Obesity parameters as predictors of early development of cardiometabolic risk factors

• Main Authors: Miria Suzana Burgos, Cézane Priscila Reuter, Lia Gonçalves Possuelo, Andréia Rosane de Moura Valim, Jane Dagmar Pollo Renner, Luciana Tornquist, Debora Tornquist, Anelise Reis Gaya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva 2015-08-01
• Series: Ciência & Saúde Coletiva
• Subjects: Obesidade; Fatores de risco; Criança; Adolescente
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-81232015000802381&lng=en&tlng=en

AbstractThe scope of this study was to verify the association between different overweight and obesity parameters and the metabolic risk profile among school-age students. The randomized cross-sectional study included 1254 children and adolescents, aged 7 to 17, from a city in southern Brazil. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and percentage of fat (PF), measured at the triceps and based on subscapular skinfold thickness, were used as the parameters to evaluate overweight/obesity status. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density protein cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides were also measured. The metabolic risk profile was calculated based on the sum of the z score of the metabolic variables adjusted by age. A three-model Poisson analysis was used to verify the association between BMI, WC and PF with metabolic risk profile. BMI showed the highest probability for developing metabolic risk compared with WC (overweight - PR: 1.63 and obesity – PR: 3.87) and PF (overweight – PR: 1.62 and obesity – PR: 2.92). In conclusion, BMI seems to be a better parameter of overweight/obesity than WC and PF in the assessment of metabolic risk among youths.