E. Bodzsar

Recent trends in childhood obesity and overweight in the transition countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

Abstract Objective: Significant political changes—accompanied by economic changes and social restratification—occurred in Eastern and Central European countries in the 1990s. The main purposes of this study were to assess how prevalence of overweight and obese children changed in Hungary during this transitional period; and to compare the prevalence data of childhood overweight in Central and Eastern European countries, where a similar political and socioeconomic environment existed before the transition and similar changes occurred during the transitional period. Subjects and methods: Representative samples from the first (1983–1986) and second (2003–2006) Hungarian growth studies were used to assess the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Hungary. The most frequently used indicators of social welfare were used to estimate economic and health status as well as nutritional supply in the transition countries, while data on prevalence of childhood overweight in the studied countries were collected by a search of epidemiological surveys from the region. Results and conclusion: Frequency of overweight and obese children in Hungary increased between the 1980s and the beginning of the 2000s. Prevalence of childhood overweight was very similar in those Central and Eastern European countries where economic, nutritional or health indicators of general welfare were at a similar level.

The 2nd Hungarian National Growth Study (2003-2006).

Background: Secular changes in the pattern of growth and maturation have been analysed by many regional surveys in Hungary during the last century. The first representative Hungarian National Growth Study was carried out between 1980–1983. Aim: The main objectives of the 2nd Hungarian National Growth Study (2003–2006) were to construct reference data of the most important indicators of body development and nutritional status in Hungarian children (aged 3–18 years, n = 25 278); to analyse the influence of nutrition, habitual physical activity and socio-economic background factors on body development; to study secular changes in the pattern of development in Hungary in the last 20 years; and to analyse the relationship between body development and psychic health. Subjects and methods: Anthropometric dimensions and proportions, sexual maturity status, body composition, nutritional status and body shape were used for body developmental estimation. Some indicators of psychic health were also investigated. Results: Reference centiles and data of all absolute body dimensions, some relative body dimensions and the pattern of eating and habitual physical activity have been constructed. Conclusion: Secular changes in the growth and maturation pattern are still taking place in the Hungarian population; sexual maturation in boys has shifted to a younger age.

Factor analysis and somatotyping, are these two physique classification methods comparable?

The aim of this study was to investigate the correspondence of physique structures estimated by the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotyping method and a factor analysis based on the same set of 10 variables used by Heath-Carter. The investigation was carried out on a group of 200 healthy young adults of 20 years of age who were students of physical education. The mean somatotype was 2.7-4.6-3.0 for the males and 3.3-3.4-3.1 for the females. The 73% of the total variance in males and 75% in females were represented by three factors. They were identified as muscular, fatness and skeletal factors in the males, and in the females as muscular-trunk fatness, skeletal and limb fatness factors. A PCA gives different results depending on the measurements used for the calculation. The same set of variables as for the somatotyping method were used intentionally to extract the PCA factors and to evaluate the possible correspondence between these factors and the Heath-Carter components. On the basis of the correlation between the factors and the somatotype components, one can conclude that there is: (1) a high correspondence between endomorphy and fatness factors in both sexes; (2) that mesomorphy correlated positively with the muscular factor in males and negatively with the skeletal factor in both sexes; and (3) that ectomorphy was highly positively correlated with the skeletal factor and negatively with the other two factors in both sexes. Factors and somatotype components do not correspond exactly which leads to the following conclusions: (1) The three somatotype components cannot be identified as orthogonal factors in a factorial analysis based on the same measurements as for the somatotype, e.g. the ectomorphy component is not an independent factor in males or in females; (2) The muscle measurements and bone width used to estimate mesomorphy in somatotyping scored in two independent factors; and (3) The factor structure of the 10 measurements was sex dependent.

Body fatness and endogenous sex hormones in the menopausal transition

BACKGROUND Age at the final menstrual period is of clinical and public health interest because the age at which natural menopause occurs may be a marker of ageing and health, and in general the menopausal transition increases the risk of many diseases, e.g. redistribution in the pattern of adiposity during the menopausal transition may increase risk of metabolic disease. The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between the menopausal status and body fatness. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A random sample of 1932 Hungarian women was studied. Body composition was estimated by body impedance analysis. In a subsample free estradiol and progesterone levels in saliva were quantified. RESULTS Body fat mass increased until the late 50s and then had a decrease through senescence. Premenopausal women who were much older than the median age at menopause had a higher amount of fat than their postmenopausal age-peers, while postmenopausal women, whose menopause occurred much earlier than the median age at menopause, had less fat than their premenopausal age-peers. The body fat mass in premenopausal women with low levels of sex hormones was always below the age-median value of the menopausal status subgroups, while the body fat mass of postmenopausal women with high levels of sex hormone levels was above the age-median values. CONCLUSIONS The analysis of body fatness in the menopausal transition revealed that (1) the rate of reproductive ageing and the body fat pattern were significantly related, and (2) body fat mass of women with unexpected levels of sex hormones was related more to their hormonal levels than to their menopausal status or their age. Thus future epidemiological screenings of women exposed to higher levels of menopause-related health risks should be expanded beyond the estimation of menopausal status based only on menstrual history to include sex hormone level assessment, as well as body composition analysis.

Sexual maturation pattern in the mirror of socioeconomic background.

The inequalities among the socioeconomic strata in the Hungarian society increased during the last decades. Since the socioeconomic conditions play a decisive part in shaping the growth and maturation of children, our purpose was to study the body structure and the growth and maturation pattern of children living in deprived regions in Hungary. Our former analysis revealed that the prevalence of non-normal nutritional status was significantly higher in children and adolescents living in the seriously deprived regions of Hungary than the national reference values. The main purpose of the present study was to compare the sexual maturation pattern of pubertal children living in the deprived regions by comparing the timing of pubertal maturation events to the national reference values. Sexual maturity status of 711 girls and 790 boys (aged 10 - 16 years) living in the deprived small regions of Hungary was compared to the national reference values (Hungarian National Growth Study II). Sexual maturity status was estimated by the stages of pubic hair, axillary hair, breast and external genitalia development, as well as by the menarcheal and spermarcheal status, respectively. The median ages of being in the pubertal stages of the sexual characteristics, menarcheal and spermarcheal age were estimated by probit analysis. By comparing it to the national reference values, the timing of pubertal development in boys and girls living in the seriously deprived regions showed a 1 - 3-month shift toward older ages. However, the length of sexual maturation: the interval between the median ages of the first and last pubertal stages of sexual characteristics was similar in the subjects living in the regions of Hungary as the Hungarian reference values.

Body Structure and Physical Self-Concept in Early Adolescence:

In adolescence, the complexity of human ontogenesis embraces biological growth and maturation as well as mental, affective, and cognitive progress, and adaptation to the requirements of society. To accept our morphological constellation as part of our gender may prove a problem even to a child of average rate of maturation. The main purposes of the present study were to compare selected body shape factors of early adolescents belonging to different physical self-concept subgroups, and to identify those somatic factors that have the strongest influence on the physical self-concept. A randomly selected subsample of the 2nd Hungarian National Growth Study formed the sample of the analysis. Besides the anthropometric investigations, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale was administered to altogether 2,140 adolescents (aged 11-14). The multinominal logistic regression was used to reveal the relationship between absolute body dimensions, relative body dimensions, nutritional status, body mass components, body shape, and physical self-concept. The better the physical self-concept, the less the fatness was found in both sexes. In early adolescents, having negative physical self-concept endomorphy was significantly larger than in their age-peers with good self-concept. The presumed fact that obesity is not popular in adolescence has been confirmed by this study. However, the underweight nutritional status was attractive in the girls. These results informed us about the considerable influence of the pubertal-not-normal nutritional status on the discrepancy between the ideal and actual self-concepts.

Ageing of Bone Structure and the Risk of Osteoporosis in the Menopausal Transition

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to study the relationship between menopausal status and bone structure during the menopausal transition.Methods: A random sample of 1932 Hungarian women was enrolled in the study. Bone mass was estimated by the Drinkwater-Ross method. Bone structure parameters were assessed by a quantitative ultrasound (QUS) device. High and very high risk of osteoporosis was identified by using the thresholds of QUS parameters.Results: By considering the changes in QUS parameters and bone mass by age and reproductive age an intensive, menopause-related change from the late 40s and then another significant change from the beginning of the 70s were observed in bone. The bone mass decreased while the porosity of the bone component of the female body decreased by age and by menopausal status. On average 15- 7% of women are at very high risk of developing osteoporosis in the premenopausal status and after the menopausal transition the decreased level of female sex hormone production doubles this risk of osteoporosis from the beginning of the postreproductive period, triples this risk for women in the seventies.Conclusion: The results emphasize the importance of menopausal status assessment in screening for age-related increase risk of osteoporosis.

The relationship between reproductive and biochemical ageing at the time of the menopausal transition

ABSTRACT The biochemical ageing status of women in the menopausal transition was studied using quantitative analysis of age‐ and autophagy‐related gene activities (CDC42 and MAP1LC3 genes were selected as target genes). Free estradiol and progesterone levels in saliva were estimated. General linear models were used to determine the relationship between lifestyle, health status, socioeconomic factors and CDC42 and MAP1LC3 gene expression levels. Gene expression analysis revealed (1) an increasing expression of CDC42 gene after 45 years in women, (2) expression level of CDC42 gene associated with menopausal status, (3) while endocrine status was found to associate with the expression of both of the studied age‐related genes, (4) the “never used hormonal contraceptives” and “obese nutritional status” were the strongest factors for increased level of age‐related gene expressions, and (5) changes in gene expression levels by ageing should be studied by considering not only chronological, but also biological ages. Gene expression profile of ageing has mostly been studied in model systems or human blood samples, but rarely in human saliva samples. The concordance of results between the present and former gene expression analyses, and the simplicity of saliva sample collection emphasizes the importance of saliva tissue samples in gene expression analyses especially in epidemiological surveys. HighlightsMenopausal status related with the level of CDC42 gene expressionThis indicates a non‐monotonic increase of CDC42 gene expression by age.Sex hormonal status related with the expression levels CDC42 and MAP1LC3 genesExternal risk factors related with CDC42 and MAP1LC3 gene expression levels

A gyermek- és serdülőkori kövérség meghatározásának testzsírosság mutatóira épülő, új hazai határértékei

The increasing prevalence of obese children and adolescents emphasizes the importance of national and international standards for screening childhood obesity. The main aim of the study was to construct the Hungarian cut-off values of waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage and visceral fat area to diagnose obesity and abdominal obesity in children aged between 7 and 18 years. The distribution of obese children diagnosed by the international standards as well as by the new national standards was compared in the analysis. A group of healthy children (n: 869 boys and 881 girls, aged between 7 and 18 years) formed the sample of the present analysis. Body composition and body fat distribution of subjects was estimated body impedance analysis (Inbody 720 device, Biospace, USA) and by anthropometric methods. Nutritional status was estimated by body mass index. The international cut-off values of body fatness indicators determined for adults as well as the centile distribution of body fatness indicators by age were used to construct the critical cut-off values of obesity and abdominal obesity in the studied age-group of subadults. By considering the results of the present analysis the age- dependent 95th centiles of body fat percentage and visceral fat area were recommended for screening childhood obesity and abdominal obesity in the studied age-group in both genders.

A comparison of skeletal maturity assessed by radiological and ultrasonic methods

The estimation of skeletal maturity is a useful tool in pediatric practice to determine the degree of delay or advancement in growth disorders and the effectiveness of treatment in conditions that influence linear growth. Skeletal maturity of children is commonly assessed using either Greulich–Pyle (GP) or Tanner–Whitehouse methods (TW2 and TW3). However, a less invasive ultrasonic method, that does not use ionizing radiation, has been suggested for use in epidemiological studies of skeletal maturity. The main purpose of the present study was to determine the accuracy of an ultrasonic method based on the GP maturity indicators compared to the standard GP radiographic method.