Normal weight obesity in adolescents tied to cardiometabolic risk

Adolescents with normal weight obesity (NMO) may present with several cardiometabolic risk factors, putting them at greater risk of developing vascular events or diabetes, suggests a recent study.

A total of 506 normal weight adolescents aged 10‒19 years were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The researchers selected the participants in schools in Brazil. They obtained the participants’ weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and neck circumference and calculated their body mass index (BMI) and waist/height ratio (WHR).

Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to perform body composition analysis. The clinical assessment included lipid and glycid profile, platelets, leukocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, uric acid and blood pressure, as well as the presence of metabolic syndrome and its components.

The authors defined NWO as the presence of normal weight, based on BMI for age, and excess body fat (≥25 percent in males and ≥30 percent in females). Finally, they analysed the associations between normal weight adolescents with and without the NOW phenotype using logistic regression models.

NWO showed a positive association with abdominal obesity, as seen through WC (odds ratio [OR], 1.36, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.27‒1.47), WHR (OR, 25.89, 95 percent CI, 10.43‒64.26), and android fat (OR, 1.49, 95 percent CI, 1.36‒1.63); with insulin resistance (OR, 4.09, 95 percent CI, 1.72‒9.70), hyperinsulinaemia (OR, 3.83, 95 percent CI, 1.50‒9.76), and the highest values of triglycerides-glycaemia index (OR, 4.28, 95 percent CI, 1.21‒15.08); and uric acid (OR, 1.81, 95 percent CI, 1.29‒2.55).

Additionally, NWO correlated with changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR, 3.39, 95 percent CI, 1.47‒7.81), total cholesterol (OR, 2.77, 95 percent CI, 1.22‒6.29), and in at least one (OR, 1.87, 95 percent CI, 1.04‒3.37) or two (OR, 6.61, 95 percent CI, 1.45‒30.19) components of metabolic syndrome.