Original articleWaist circumference in children and adolescents correlate with metabolic syndrome and fat deposits in young adults
Section snippets
Background & aims
In recent decades the prevalence of obesity is increasing in many countries around the world. This fact is of concern because excess body fat, especially abdominal fat, is directly related to changes in lipid profile. It is also associated with increased blood pressure and hyperinsulinemia, which are considered risk factors for developing chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 2 and cardiovascular diseases. However, the question now is how many of these changes are already present in
Materials and methods
We conducted a cohort study, longitudinal, observational, descriptive and analytical, with cross-cutting interventions. The cohort involved children and adolescents (7–18 years old) residing in Veranópolis, South of Brazil in 1999, both from urban and rural areas, with at least one parent alive. Veranópolis is a city with a population predominantly of white Caucasians, originally from Italy, Europe, internationally known for its high longevity. The sample was obtained from a representative and
Results
159 children and adolescents were enrolled in this study. In 1999, during the first survey, the average age was 13.2 ± 2.2 years and 51.6% were females. This and other characteristics of the population are in Table 1.
WC in 1999 showed a very strong correlation with BMI in the same year (r = 0.917, p < 0.001), as well as when it was compared with BMI in 2006 and 2008 (r = 0.685, p < 0.001 and r = 0.545, p < 0.001 respectively). WC in 1999 showed a strong correlation with WC in 2006 and 2008 (r
Main results
a) The WC measurement as a child or adolescent correlates strongly with BMI measured simultaneously, and established a strong correlation with measurements of WC as young adults, as well as the evolution of BMI; b) WC correlates strongly with deposits of fat in abdominal CT, and WC as a child and adolescent best expresses the subcutaneous fat (SAT), whereas WC when young adults, both expressed strong correlation with visceral fat (VAT) and with SAT. The correlation of WC with the fat deposits
Conclusions
The findings of this analysis of the cohort of adolescents in Veranópolis indicate that waist circumference in children and adolescents is extremely useful in screening patients for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk. WC is an anthropometric parameter of simple measurement, requiring less equipment costs, and this study was better than BMI, which had already been reported by other authors.3, 4, 31, 32, 43, 44, 45
As the WC in this population was associated with more subcutaneous fat than
Conflict of interest
The authors hereby declare that the article is original, is not under consideration for publication anywhere else and has not been previously published. Moreover, the authors declare no potential or actual personal, political or financial interest in the material, information or techniques described in the paper.
Statement of authorship
All authors state that all authors have made substantial contributions and final approval of the conceptions, drafting, and final version of the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
Manoel Pitrez was the coordinator of the trial. Luiz Vargas, João Santana, Eduardo Pitrez and Augusto Medeiros where responsible for the data collection. Emilio Morigushi was the coordinator of the Veranópolis project, where several studies have been done to understand the longevity of this population. Neide Bruscato was responsible to keep the subjects of our cohort always in contact. José Spolidoro was responsible for the data interpretation and writing of the manuscript, which was his PhD
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