BackgroundThe emerging epidemic of overweight/obesity in adolescents in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam underlines the importance of studying the metabolic syndrome in Vietnamese adolescents who are becoming progressively more inactive. No study in Vietnam has examined the association of metabolic syndrome with moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) levels among adolescents. We aimed to examine this association in a sample of urban adolescents from Ho Chi Minh City.MethodsA cross-sectional assessment was conducted in 2007 on a representative sample of 693 high-school students from urban districts in Ho Chi Minh City. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria and physical activity was measured with Actigraph accelerometers. The association between physical activity and metabolic syndrome was assessed by using multiple logistic regression models.ResultsOverall 4.6% of the adolescents and 11.8% of the overweight/obese adolescents had metabolic syndrome. Elevated BP was the most common individual component of the metabolic syndrome (21.5%), followed by hypertriglyceridemia (11.1%). After adjusting for other study factors, the odds of metabolic syndrome among youth in the lowest physical activity group (<43 minutes of physical activity/day) were five times higher than those in the highest physical activity group (>103 minutes/day) (AOR = 5.3, 95% CI: 1.5, 19.1). Metabolic syndrome was also positively associated with socioeconomic status (AOR = 9.4, 95% CI: 2.1, 42.4).ConclusionsA more physically active lifestyle appears to be associated with a lower odds of metabolic syndrome in Vietnamese adolescents. Socio-economic status should be taken into account when planning interventions to prevent adolescent metabolic syndrome.

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Background In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, recent studies found a rapid increase in overweight and obesity in adolescents. There is a need for effective health promotion interventions to support healthy diets and encourage a physically active lifestyle. This study will help fill an evidence gap on effective interventions to prevent excess weight gain in adolescents and generate new insights about peer-led education to promote healthy lifestyles. Objective We aim to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a combined peer-led and peer support intervention among junior high school students in Ho Chi Minh City. Additionally, the efficacy of the intervention on adolescents’ dietary practices and time spent on physical activity will also be measured in this pilot study. Methods The Peer Education and Peer Support (PEPS) project is a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial with 2 intervention and 2 control schools. The intervention consists of 4 weekly education sessions of why and how to choose healthy food and drinks and how to be more physically active. Additionally, the intervention includes a school-based and online support system to help maintain student engagement during the intervention. We will use in-depth interviews with students, peer leaders, teachers, and parents; focus group discussions with peer educators; and direct observation of the school environment and peer leaders’ interactions with the students. Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention will be assessed. We will also quantitatively assess limited efficacy by measuring changes in student’ physical activity levels and dietary behaviors. Results We delivered the peer education intervention at the start of each school year over 3 months for all new grade 6 adolescents in the selected schools, followed by peer support and home engagement activities over 6 months until the end of the school year. There was a baseline assessment and 2 post-intervention assessments: the first immediately after the intervention to assess the short-term impact and the second at the end of the school year to assess the sustained impact on changes in adiposity, diet, and physical activity. Conclusions The findings of this study will be used to develop a larger-scale cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a multicomponent, school- and home-based health promotion intervention. The trial will use innovative peer education methods to reduce overweight and obesity and improve dietary choices and physical activity levels in Vietnamese adolescents. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12619000421134; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=376690&isReview=true International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/15930

BACKGROUND In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, recent studies found a rapid increase in overweight and obesity in adolescents. There is a need for effective health promotion interventions to support healthy diets and encourage a physically active lifestyle. This study will help fill an evidence gap about effective interventions to prevent excess weight gain in adolescents and generate new insights about peer-led education to promote healthy lifestyles. OBJECTIVE We aim to assess feasibility and acceptability of a combined peer-led and peer-support intervention among junior high school students in HCMC. Additionally, efficacy of the intervention on adolescents’ dietary practices and time spent on physical activity will also be measured in this pilot study. METHODS Peer-Education and Peer-Support (PEPS) project is a pilot randomized controlled trial with two intervention and two control schools. The intervention consists of four weekly education sessions of why and how to choose healthily food and drinks, and how to be more physically active. Additionally, the intervention includes a school and online support system to help maintain engagement of the students in the intervention. We will use in-depth interviews with with the students, peer leaders, teachers and parents, focus group discussions with peer educators, and direct observation of school environment and peer leaders’ interactions with the students. Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention will be assessed. We will also quantitatively assess limited efficacy by measuring changes in physical activity and dietary behaviors of the students. RESULTS Date of first participant enrolment was early September 2018 and recruitment completed by March 2019. Totally 317 Grade 6 students were recruited. We delivered the peer education intervention at the start of each school year over 3 months for all new Grade 6 adolescents in the allocated schools, followed by peer support and home engagement activities over 6 months till the end of the school year. There was a baseline assessment and two post-intervention assessments: the first immediately after the intervention to assess the short-term impact; and the second at the end of the school year to assess the sustained impact on the change in adiposity indicators and diet and physical activity. Recruitment of participants in this pilot study include recruitment of peer-educators (undergraduate students of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine) (PNTUM), peer-leaders (Grade 8 students) and target Grade 6 students. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study will be used to develop a larger-scale cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a multi-component, school and home-based health promotion intervention using innovative peer education methods on reduction of overweight and obesity, and improvement of diet and physical activity in Vietnamese adolescents. CLINICALTRIAL Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), identifier: ACTRN12619000421134. Retrospectively registered on 14 March 2019.