Miria Suzana Burgos

Prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular risk among children and adolescents in the municipality of Santa Cruz do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Studies have demonstrated that metabolic complications from child obesity, although silent, increase the risk of development of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. The present paper sought to describe the prevalence of overweight/obesity and analyze the possible relationship between obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors among children and adolescents. DESIGN AND SETTING Cross-sectional study, conducted in a university. METHODS The study included 564 children and adolescents, aged 8 to 17 years. Body mass index and waist circumference were used to evaluate obesity. Other cardiovascular risk factors were evaluated, like systolic and diastolic blood pressure, glycemia, triglycerides and total cholesterol. Descriptive analysis was used for sample characterization, the chi-square test for categorical variables and Pearsons linear correlation for evaluating the relationship between obesity indicators and other cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS High prevalence of overweight/obesity was found among the schoolchildren (25.3% among the boys and 25.6% among the girls), along with abdominal obesity (19.0%). The overweight/obese schoolchildren presented higher percentages for the pressure and biochemical indicators, compared with underweight and normal-weight schoolchildren. Body mass index and waist circumference showed a weak correlation with the variables of age and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P < 0.001), but there was no correlation between these obesity indices and biochemical variables. CONCLUSION The high prevalence of overweight/obesity and its relationship with other cardiovascular risk factors demonstrate that it is necessary to develop intervention and prevention strategies from childhood onwards, in order to avoid development of chronic-degenerative diseases in adulthood.

Low-grade inflammation markers in children and adolescents: Influence of anthropometric characteristics and CRP and IL6 polymorphisms.

Overweight and obesity are associated with chronic and subclinical inflammation due to an imbalance of inflammatory mediators. However, the association with gene polymorphism has been rarely studied in children. The aim of this study was to determine if serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are related to the IL6 rs1800795, IL6 rs2069845 and CRP rs1205 polymorphisms (SNPs) according to body mass index (BMI) in a sample of children and adolescents. A cross-sectional study in 470 students between 7 and 17yearsof age of anthropometric characteristics, high sensitivity-CRP (Hs-CRP) and IL-6 levels and three SNPs genotyped. The prevalence ratio of hs-CRP>3mg/L in obese individuals was 4.15 (CI 2.43-7.06; p=0.01), and it was 1.91 (CI 1.03-3.55; p=0.03) in overweight individuals and 1.74 (CI 1.05-2.88 p=0.03) in females. Individuals with waist circumference (WC) and body fat percentage (BF%) alterations showed elevated levels of hs-CRP (p=4.3×10-5 and p=5.3×10-6). The combination of any two anthropometric measurement increases CRP levels, especially combinations with obesity body mass index (BMI): BMI+WC and BMI+BF%. Among the overweight/obesity group, T allele carriers of CRP rs1205 showed lower levels of hs-CRP (0.5, IQR=0.3-1.8mg/L) than CC homozygotes (1.5, IQR=0.4-3.4mg/L, p=0.018). Additionally, considering subjects with two or three anthropometric alterations for CRP rs1205: rs1205 T allele carriers had lower levels of hs-CRP (0.7, IQR=0.3-2.7mg/L) than CC homozygotes (1.2, IQR=0.5-3.5mg/L, p=0.02). In conclusion, carriers of the rs1205/T allele with higher BMIs had lower levels of hs-CRP. Schoolchildren who were overweight/obese had higher levels of CRP and IL-6, whereas individuals with WC and BF% alterations had higher levels of CRP.

Differences in body posture, strength and flexibility in schoolchildren with overweight and obesity: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND Body posture and its components have been widely discussed, given the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in children and adolescents. Among children and adolescents with overweight and obesity issues, these changes can be pronounced. OBJECTIVES This study sought to investigate whether a global exercise routine could result in positive changes in the angles and distances measured in postural assessments and in the number of abdominal and flexibility exercise repetitions performed by children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. METHODS A quasi-experimental design including an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG) was used. The primary outcome variables included ratings of body posture (using SAPO software) and measures of abdominal muscle strength (number of sit-ups) and flexibility. The EG received an interdisciplinary intervention the included 48 sessions of global postural exercises performed three times a week. RESULTS Of the 46 schoolchildren evaluated (EG, n = 23 and CG, n = 23), significant changes were observed in the EG from pre-to post-test in the thoracic angle (p = 0.001) and abdominal muscle strength (p = 0.016) for boys and in the thoracic angle (p = 0.010), abdominal muscle strength (p = 0.003) and flexibility (p = 0.010) for girls. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the exercise program led to changes in the angle and distance measurements obtained in postural evaluations and contributed to increases in the number of repetitions of abdominal and flexibility exercises, indicating improvements in the EG groups body posture and health indicators.

FTO polymorphism, cardiorespiratory fitness, and obesity in Brazilian youth.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between the rs9939609 fat mass and obesity‐associated (FTO) polymorphism and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with overweight/obesity outcomes in youth.

Genotypic carriers of the obesity-associated FTO polymorphism exhibit different cardiometabolic profiles after an intervention.

Background: Children and adolescents with at-risk genotypes (AA/AT) of the rs9939609 polymorphism in FTO, a fat mass and obesity-associated gene, may exhibit different cardiometabolic profile responses than subjects with the TT genotype after an interdisciplinary intervention. Methods: The sample consisted of 36 school children from southern Brazil. We used DNA quantitation and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for polymorphism genotyping. We measured anthropometric parameters (body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, body fat percentage and skinfold sum), biochemical parameters (glucose, lipid profile, ultra-sensitive C-reactive protein, uric acid, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, insulin and adiponectin) and blood pressure. The 4-month intervention consisted of physical education classes, nutritional counseling, and postural and oral health counseling. Results: We observed no significant differences among the groups (AA, AT and TT) after the intervention. However, we observed improvements in three parameters (waist circumference, hip circumference and C-reactive protein) in the AT/AA genotype group and in two parameters (hip circumference and uric acid) in the TT genotype group. Conclusions: After an intervention program, carriers of at-risk genotypes for obesity (AA/AT) do not exhibit differences in biochemical parameters, blood pressure and anthropometric parameters compared with carriers of the TT genotype.

Insatisfação corporal de escolares e sua relação com o estado nutricional real

This paper aims to identify the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among schoolchildren and relate it to their real nutritional status. The evaluation included 1578 schoolchildren in the municipality of Santa Cruz do Sul-RS, through the measures of weight and height, for the calculation of the body mass index (BMI) and questionnaire to evaluate the satisfaction with the body weight. The results show that body dissatisfaction was significantly higher among the girls, among the adolescents and among the higher economic classes. Most schoolchildren showed a body perception consistent with the actual nutritional status, however, some worrying results were found that point out a distortion between body perception and actual nutritional status, as the percentage of eutrophic girls who would like to decrease weight, and overweight school children who said they were satisfied with their weight or who would like to increase it.

PROGRAMAS DE INTERVENÇÃO COM ESCOLARES OBESOS NO BRASIL: UMA REVISÃO NA BASE DE DADOS DO SCIENTIFIC ELECTRONIC LIBRARY ONLINE

Overweight school children constitute an important target group for interventions in lifestyle. This study aimed to review existing research on intervention programs performed with overweight and obese children and / or adolescents in Brazil, on the Scientific Electronic Library Online database, using the descriptors “Estudo de intervenção”, “Obesidade”, “Criança”, “Adolescentes” and “Escolares”, using the union of two descriptors. We included studies published between January 2010 and May 2014 and only experimental or quasi-experimental studies. Results indicated 514 articles. After the analyses, eight articles were included in the study. In most of these studies, interdisciplinary intervention was performed. The prioritized physical activity was aerobic, and the sessions lasted for 60 minutes in six studies. The amount of three sessions a week is consensus in the studies and the program lasted 12 weeks in five of them. As for the main purpose and the main results, it is noticeable the great variation, however, seven of the eight articles cited improvement in body composition. In conclusion all of the works reported some positive gain for health, demonstrating the importance of these strategies for the promotion of the health of obese children and adolescents.