Sedentary behavior, adiposity and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents. The AFINOS study.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between objective measures of sedentary behavior and cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) in adolescents. A secondary aim was to evaluate the degree of association between overall and abdominal adiposity and CRFs.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study involved 210 adolescents aged 13-17 years. Measurements were made of the sum of the skinfold thicknesses at six locations (sum6), waist circumference (WC), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and apolipoproteins A-1 and B-100. A CRF score was calculated from the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and TG, HDL-C and glucose levels. Sedentary behavior was assessed over 7 days using an accelerometer. Participants were divided into tertiles according to sedentary behavior and into low and high levels of overall (sum6) and abdominal (WC) adiposity.


RESULTS
Adolescents with a high level of sedentary behavior had less favorable SBP, TG and glucose levels and CRF scores. Adolescents with a high level of overall adiposity demonstrated significant differences in five of the 11 variables analyzed (i.e. DBP, LDL-C, TC, apolipoprotein B-100 and CRF score), while adolescents with a high level of abdominal adiposity had differences in eight (i.e. SBP, MAP, HDL-C, LDL-C, TG, TC, apolipoprotein B-100 and CRF score). Adolescents with high levels of both overall and abdominal adiposity and sedentary behavior had the least favorable CRF scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Sedentary behavior was associated with CRFs in adolescents, especially in obese adolescents. Abdominal adiposity seemed to play a more significant role in the development of CRFs than overall adiposity.
Martínez-Gómez
David
D
Grupo Inmunonutrición, Departamento de Metabolismo y Nutrición, Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos y Nutrición, Instituto del Frío, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
Eisenmann
Joey C
JC
Gómez-Martínez
Sonia
S
Veses
Ana
A
Marcos
Ascensión
A
Veiga
Oscar L
OL
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D057185:Sedentary Behavior