Fitness influences link between fatness, cardiometabolic risk in kids

In preadolescent children, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) moderates the relationship between obesity/overweight and cardiometabolic risk, a recent study has found.

Researchers cross-sectionally assessed 392 children (aged 8–10 years; 50 percent female), in whom cardiometabolic risk was assessed using the following factors: lipids, glucose, glycated haemoglobin, peripheral and central blood pressure, and arterial wave reflection. CRF was determined using a shuttle run test.

According to the 2007 WHO criteria, 31 percent of the participants were classified as overweight-obese. Almost half (48 percent) had high CRF.

After adjustment for confounders, CRF was found to be slightly correlated with blood pressure, a cardiometabolic risk factor (effect size, 0.028). Fatness, on the other hand, exerted a small main effect on vascular health (effect size, 0.018) and carbohydrate metabolism (effect size, 0.021).

Notably, researchers observed a significant interaction effect with respect to the cardiometabolic disease risk summary score. Specifically, high CRF led to a reduced risk summary score in overweight-obese children (mean difference [MD], –1.10, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –1.89 to –0.32; effect size, 0.020). This effect was absent in those who were of normal weight (MD, –0.15, 95 percent CI, –0.66 to 0.36; effect size, 0.001).

Conversely, overweight-obesity significantly worsened the cardiometabolic disease risk summary score in children who had low CRF (MD, –1.10, 95 percent CI, 0.53–1.64; effect size, 0.039). No such effect was reported for those with high CRF (MD, –0.13, 95 percent CI, –0.86 to 0.59; effect size, 0.000).