title: Tracking and risk of abdominal obesity in the adolescence period in children aged 7-15. The Cracow Longitudinal Growth Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the tracking of abdominal fat distribution from the age of 7 to 15 years and to estimate the risk of abdominal obesity at 15 based on the occurrence of abdominal obesity at the ages 7-14 years in boys and girls.
  
  
  METHODS
  The analysis was performed on 8-year longitudinal measurements of 315 boys and 198 girls from Cracow, Poland. The stability of waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) got assessed by inter-age correlations. The degree of abdominal fatness continuation level was evaluated applying contingency tables with the χ² test based on quartiles of WC and WHtR distribution. The risk of abdominal obesity at 15 was estimated using odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Inter-age correlations between the 7(th) and 15(th) years were 0.73 and 0.67 in boys and 0.48 and 0.48 in girls for WC and WHtR, respectively. More than 51% girls and 62% boys with abdominal fat distribution at 7 remained in the same category in adolescence period, while only 2% of them moved to the thin category at 15. The risk of abdominal obesity (WHtR) was highest in boys and girls with abdominal obesity at 7 (OR = 5.46 and OR = 6.19, respectively) and, additionally, in girls at 12 (OR = 5.59).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risk of abdominal obesity was indicated already at 7 in boys and girls. Continuation of the abdominal fat distribution confirmed in about 60% acknowledges that the type of fat distribution seems to be determined as early as in the 7-year-olds.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University School of Physical Education, 31-571 Cracow, Poland.
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Chrzanowska
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Suder
authors: Paweł
authors: P
authors: Kruszelnicki
mesh_terms: D050153:Abdominal Fat / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D002947:Cities / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012306:Risk; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055105:Waist Circumference; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio