Selected anthropometric variables and aerobic fitness as predictors of cardiovascular disease risk in children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio and aerobic fitness as predictors of cardiovascular risk factor clustering in children. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 290 school boys and girls from 6 to 10 years old, randomly selected. Blood was collected after a 12-hour fasting period. Blood pressure, waist circumference (WC), height and weight were evaluated according to international standards. Aerobic fitness (AF) was assessed by the 20-metre shuttle-run test. Clustering was considered when three of these factors were present: high systolic or diastolic blood pressure, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high triglycerides, high plasma glucose, high insulin concentrations and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. A ROC curve identified the cut-off points of body mass index (BMI), WC, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and AF as predictors of risk factor clustering. BMI, WC and WHR resulted in significant areas under the ROC curves, which was not observed for AF. The anthropometric variables were good predictors of cardiovascular risk factor clustering in both sexes, whereas aerobic fitness should not be used to identify cardiovascular risk factor clustering in these children.

Validity of noninvasive composite scores to assess cardiovascular risk in 10‐year‐old children

“…Previous investigations have identified CRF as a strong predictor of CVD risk factor clustering in children and adolescents with AUC values from 0.67 to 0.84 . Similarly, anthropometric measures also seem to be valuable predictors of CVD risk factor clustering with AUC values from 0.62 to 0.80 . Compared to these previous studies investigating the validity of single variables as predictors for CVD clustering in children and adolescents, the present study indicates that using a “noninvasive mini‐cluster” of fitness and fatness is superior to using each of these variables alone.…”

“…Epidemiological studies have evaluated simple anthropometric measurements (ie, body mass index (BMI), skinfold, waist circumference) and field‐based indirect cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) tests as indexes for clustering of CVD risk factors in children and adolescents . These findings are equivocal, and single risk factors’ ability to classify high risk children and adolescents varies .…”

Waist‐to‐height ratio, body mass index and waist circumference for screening paediatric cardio‐metabolic risk factors: a meta‐analysis

“…All included papers are cross-sectional studies, being published between 2007 and 2015. Sixteen studies were conducted in the American continent (19,21,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38), 10 in Europe (39-48), six in Asia (49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54) and two in Africa (55,56).…”

“…As for the flow and timing of subjects, the risk of bias was high in 11 studies (32.4%) because not all subjects were included in the analysis (25,29,31,32,35,39,44,48,51,53,55) and the risk was unclear in 10 studies (29.4%) (21,26,30,33,38,40,43,47,50,52).…”

How Healthy Is Homeschool? An Analysis of Body Composition and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

“…Poor body composition has been linked to cardiometabolic disease such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, inflammatory markers, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among children . In addition to increased disease risk, childhood obesity has also been shown to affect a child's social and psychological health as well as his or her academic performance .…”